Mikes Astro Page

Dark Skies

2011-02-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

Sark - Where the bloody hell is it? It's a Channel Island, about 350Kms from Paris and 300Kms from London. The island of Sark has become a 'Silver Tier Dark Sky Park'. This means that the visual limiting magnitude is between 6.0 to 6.7, there are other criteria, this is the simplest. The rating is endorsed by the International Darksky Association (IDA) and it was achieved by a resident of Sark that measured and assessed the every light fitting on the tiny island 5.5 sq ams. The island had a head start because there are no cars, so no street lights. The Government of Sark was ready to accept that with the rating comes conditions that will retain the island as Dark Sky Park. The island of Sark is not the only such park, the website of the IDA lists others, some with higher ratings.

I think back to my first ventures in Astronomy, and I can recall dark skies from suburban Sydney. In the night sky I distinctly recall seeing both the Large and Small Clouds of Magellan and the bright band of the Milky Way. I'd say the clouds of Magellan were still visible to the unaided eye as recently as the 1970's. These days the Southern Cross (Crux) appears to be fading and certainly the Coal Sack is almost impossible to discern from Sydney.

The year of 2010 was interesting for Astronomy around Sydney. The Beames Observatory at Linden, in the Blue Mountains gained a Heritage Listing. This included 40 hectares of bushland to assist in preserving dark skies. It is also now three years since the National Trust registered as a Heritage Item both the Night and Day sky over New South Wales. What's happened since - not much

Robot Astronomers

2011-01-24T16:52:00.000-08:00

The 'Robot Astronomers' are to rise up. That's the opinion of 'New Scientist'. Here's a link to the article - you will need to register http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927954.900-rise-of-the-robot-astronomers.html?page=1 , it's free to register. Obviously I can't re-use their copy. For many years the amateur community has provided a service to astronomy by patrolling the skies looking for variable stars, supernovae, and all sorts of odd events. This article refers to a programme at the Palomar Observatory , see the image.

The upshot is that robot telescopes image the sky and computers then process the data. And then there is some form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can recognise the areas of the sky and ensure that the correct regions are processed when the images are compared for changes between observations. What they expect to see is changes in position or brightness. They can build a list of candidate objects from searching through databases of catalogues.

Of course what doesn't get mentioned is that - almost without a doubt somebody has to go out and visually identify a positive. It's still the case that experienced amateur astronomers can simply go outside at night, look up, and see if any stars have changed. It may take a number of years and dedication to acquire and tune these skills, and I'm sure these amateurs can push the robots to their limits.

Of course being a robot could come in useful, presumably I could reduce the set-up time for the telescope. Get the setup correct, ensure that batteries are correctly charged, remember where I put each eyepiece (in the dark), stay up late maybe, better still pack it all away in the early hours of the morning, or before it starts raining or starts collection dew.

Starting to look clear for to-night. Moon rise is 23:15, so there should some dark sky before it rises too high. Although the neighbours stay out late with their yard lights on during the recent hot evenings. The expected weather over Australia Day and the next few days is hot and wet, the satellite photo is clear. We'll just need to wait and see.

My Favourite Website

2011-01-19T13:10:00.000-08:00

Here is my favourite web page. It shows the cloud cover over South Eastern Australia in visible light. There is a short delay to the pictures being available and the images can be animated. I can see if there is an opportunity to do some observing. A lot of clear sky means the telescope can be used, patchy cloud maybe the camera, or in the near future a CCD/Lens combo.

You can see that this morning was a clear morning over Sydney, although now at 8am it's clouded up again - another week of rain and cloud predicted. Maybe another one of those years no clear sky until March and then cloudy again in April.

I've recently been looking through the Catalogue compiled by James Dunlop, some fantastic objects to be seen. He worked assiduously out at the then Parramatta Observatory - he must have had some clear nights.

Also, over the last few days, I watched an old recorded session of the BAA NSW, where Sir Patrick Moore spoke on his love of observing the Moon. It's a fantastic talk even if the 1985 quality is a bit low, and Sir Patrick bobs in and out of view from the dark side. It's labelled as 1985, although I thought he came out for Halley's Comet. I remember that year as on the 14th March 1986 - I opened the back door at about 4am - and there was Halley's Comet - just hanging in the sky - so I took a photograph. That year though - I recall - was also a cloudy year.

Books

2011-01-15T20:11:00.000-08:00

So, one of my New Resolutions is to Blog more frequently. During the last year I wrote a few blog topics and didn't post. I'm part way through one on Fly-Fishing for Trout in New Zealand. This one however is on 'Books'. I reckon I must have about 1,000 books, thats 32 per shelf across 6 shelves per case across 3 cases, then I reckon about the same number of books stacked on the floor on tops of the shelved books, under beds, in boxes. I'm waiting for the day on of those news magazine programs turns up to do a story on the piles of books. You can try counting them in the photograph.

The books tend to simply accumulate, most get read, many get partially read, some get read more than once, some get used frequently, and others gather dust. Some recent work on the bathroom saw a lot of dust. So now I'm reorganising the books - Do I sell some, give them away (to charity), or keep them to gather more dust? To add to the books there's magazines, periodicals and journals. A number of years ago I sorted through many books and took some to a second hand dealer, and watched as he tallied up the value, 50 cents here, a dollar there, some I think managed several dollars. And again over the years, the collection builds again.

Having a few hobbies and interests is probably part of the issue, the collection spans topics such as; the Second World War, Astronomy, Fitness/Health/Cycling, Bushwalking, Technical Books from University days on Optics, Mathematics, History and Philosophy of Science, Fly Fishing, Model Trains, History of Australia. I'm sitting here wondering how to catalogue them all - pen and paper and start a list, maybe photograph the shelves at least that way I can be comfortable doing the transcribing. Maybe get a bar code reader and get the ISBN number. A cheap hand held USB scanner is less than $100, a hand held bluetooth scanner though is closer to $1000.00.

Do I really need all these books, one book, 'Discovering Astronomy' by 'Robert Chapman' ( no relation), published 1978, I have it dated inside as 1979. I liked it, although the Amazon reviews are not so kind, on the other hand I understood it, unfortunately I've had to mark it for disposal, it was a good starter for Astronomy in its day and still some interesting stuff in there.

Maybe I can split the books into charitable donations and saleable. I think at least 1 in 3 books will have to go, and all except a few periodicals and journals. Fortunately some organisations now publish as 'pdf'.

A lot of these books have my moniker and a date inside, some people like this others hate it. I like to think a book can come back to me if loaned and that the user can be reminded of who loaned the book. If you ever come across one you should drop me a line.

And then, there is all the IT books.

My Economic Theory No.1

2011-01-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

So, another 6 months and I'd better make a blog post. So, looking for work again. Maybe I should focus on that – it can often be an interesting time. I need to balance all my projects against looking for work, or maybe this time – starting a business. Whilst I'm not really into self-help therapies I do from time-to-time delve into the self-motivational stuff. A book I've just started to read is titled “Never Get a Real Job” by 'Scott Gerber'- the title appealed to me, I sometimes think I've never had a real job, and the when I've had them – I'm bored to tears. So far half way through – not really anything new to me – I think Scott has pitched the book at young start-outs. So far he's made the point – it's not easy, and don't expect success to come quickly, and if you're lucky – you wont starve or live on the street.

His motivation I think is that for most people the concept of real jobs is a figment of imagination. When I was starting in the work force, back in the mid 1980's it was becoming accepted that most people will have multiple career paths, probably changing their career upto 3 times. I think Scott is trying to make the point that people will need to regularly re-invent their career. This is as trategy I can accept, unfortunately I think many people can't see this, especially people who are still stuck in real jobs, and cannot see a way forward other than their garden path.

The changing economies of the modern western world are obviously in a bit of turmoil, so can they carry their populations forward, or was the old paradigm the correct paradigm.

Solar Eclipse 2010 - July 11th

2010-07-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Up early to watch the total solar eclipse - on a live web stream, the only one I could find. It's in Japanese and obviously from a Japanese expedition - Wakayama University. They made it to totality but then the feed appeared to fail. The location was somewhere in the South Pacific. Another Solar Eclipse I've managed to miss the opportunity of seeing in location. I did quick survey of locations I should have gone to and found a small island called Mangaia in the Cook Islands, I bet I could have caught a few bone fish as well - next time maybe. If I win lotto maybe it'll be Frazer Island. Anyway, here are the first pictures I've found on the web, from Mangaia http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Constantinos-Emmanouilidis-Prominences_1278875772.jpg

Still nothing in the Australian news. The extra time in the FIFA World Cup is one headline and a body on a beach is another headline. The Rosetta flyby does get a mention.

Long Time Between Posts

2010-07-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

Some bloggers have no trouble generating material. I expect the best approach is to bang out whatever. I have a few started and not finished I might still dig them out and post them. I was inspired today, I don't know why. A bit of cold and wet start - not working means there's no pressure to get out there. I do have lots to blog about, lots of projects in pipeline:

- Getting my video astro video camera going. I need to finish building a box of electronics so I can keep everything in one place instead of devices spilling all over the outdoor furniture and cables going in all directions. There'll be some progress on this real soon. The latest blocker was almost blinding myself when a hand dremel threw a tiny piece of plastic into my eye. A visit to the opthalmic surgeon revealed two in-grown eyelashes that he promptly removed. After a few days, last night I eventually located a tiny particle of plastic, probably smaller than 0.5mm drifting about in my eye and managed to remove it - very carefully. So (probably) no more cutting into plastic boxes until I get a pair prescription safety glasses in a few days.

- I'm getting into TikiWiki had a bit of false start about a year ago. But now I'm working on a site for 7mm profile modelling and I think I'll try turning the Sydney City Skywatchers website into a TikiWiki site.

-I'm a building a NSW 'R' Coach in 7mm, this has stalled but should restart soon. I want to log the process in the Wiki.

Oh - and I need to find a job.

Earth Hour - I just don't get it

2009-01-17T03:54:00.000-08:00

I'm loathe to say - it's that time of year again. I think the popularisation of Science is a great objective, there should be more done and more often. For a few years now there has been an event called 'Earth Hour'. If you don't know of it, what essentially happens is that people are asked to turn off lights for an hour. The event itself originated in Sydney, Australia. The event became national and then international and I think in concept it is a good idea. However the organisation that runs it wasn't the first. A bit of research would uncover I think Sydney Observatory attempting with some success to get Sydney City buildings to turn out their illumination and then in latter years some amateur functions managing the same.

In essence though 'Earth Hour' is simply a Green marketing event, a feel good exorcism of Green and energy wasting demons. Like the concept of World Peace the participants cry 'If only it could be every day - then the world would be a better place'. Soon a lot of energy will be wasted promoting this event and the event itself will cause much wastage of energy as people are encouraged to go out and organise events for 'Earth Hour'. I can only think that the act of turning off lights is a visible signal that something is happening or maybe it's just the imprint that a neurotic Grandmother or Grandfather has had or some poor kid - who now inflicts the neurosis on us. Then nothing more is heard for another year - and someone in the meantime is getting fat. All that is achieved is a glowing, energy wasting example of viral marketing.

The outcome of Earth Hour is that people feel OK over wasting energy. I think this year they've managed to run it outside daylight saving and twilight.

The Quest for Power

2009-01-10T16:02:00.000-08:00

Over the last twelve months my astronomy has been more of a course in electronics - something that in my university days I saw as nuisance and relevant only to the propeller heads in Elec. Eng. Add to that total and complete colour blindness and I'm sure you'll agree it was probably fairly pointless putting a bunch of resistors and capacitors in front of me. I was and am, much happier at a larger component level.

In the quest for significant amateur astronomy the old telescope was disposed of for a you beaut computer controlled model - a Celestron CPC8. All sorts of back-end gear was added - a filter wheel, temperature compensated focuser, field rotator (just to complicate it). Of course everything is powered and it all can be computer controlled. So everything needs power. All the electronic components use DC power and one objective was to be portable. After a few shake-down runs success looked achievable - soon however some gremlins started to show. The heavy duty marine GEL battery still capable of powering an electric outboard on a small boat - couldn't cope with the draw of most of the gear - OUCH1

So the solution is to use a Laboratory Power Supply, at least when within range of a residential power supply. Still this meant acquiring or building a distribution box for the 12V supply. This was completed with a lot of burnt fingers, cursing and trepidation. All this was fine for 12V requirements, and of course there is the few components that require odd voltages and need a step down DC-DC transformer - simple to say , however fraught with difficulties. The most significant issue is that the excess power needs to be shed and disposed of, and this is done by converting it to heat - well this is simply the outcome. The bigger the voltage drop the more heat. The problem this creates is that the electronics to handle the DC shift are compact, the cooling heat sink fins can be large. Correspondingly the housing box goes from small to large. Anyway the bottom line is a complete redesign but I should achieve a reduction in long cables thus removing another risk factor of something that trip up the scope in the middle of a run.

So I'm still out of action and almost back to step 1 but about to make a come back.

The Reality of Light Pollution revealed.

2009-01-09T04:14:00.000-08:00

Here’s a quick blog, some of the detail may be lost to the fog of my mind but the conclusion is important. I’ll try to work on developing this over the next few days – before work catches up with me.

The great advantage of a few days (okay a couple of weeks ) off work – it is finally possible to catch up with unfinished projects and start a few more that can stay unfinished until – Easter I guess! It is also a chance to gather a few thoughts together. My compatriots in SOLIS (Sydney Outdoor Lighting Society) have been busy collecting and collating bits if information on the scourge of ‘Light Pollution’ . Still however, the idea that loose and extraneous photons could be a form of pollution is probably a long way off understood. When SOLIS was first formed in 1988 (that long ago) we took the fight upto City Hall (Sydney City Council). Often the response to SOLIS was one of ‘incredulity’, from the people who understood the issue especially the street lighting distributors - they tried to blind us with ‘engineering logic’ which doesn’t stack up to real science. When The City of Sydney was in full swing for 2000 Olympics many building projects had lighting components. By this time lighting was required to shown as a separate Development Application – SOLIS would like to think that this was our achievement.

It is an interesting parallel to identify extraneous lighting as pollution. Often these parallels are drawn to the CFC issues and the hole in the Ozone layer of the 70s & 80s, as well as current parallels to wastage of energy such as inefficient light bulbs. Everyone thinks the problem is about light that goes up into the atmosphere maybe even on a voyage into Outer Space. The problem is really about light coming back into us, the light is returning from out there! And that’s the rub – light travels in straight lines, when the noise level that is the random signal swamps the real object signal – the object is lost to our sight. Think about it.

Philosophy, Religion, Science, Astronomy and Sharks

2008-12-27T00:02:00.000-08:00

This blog was to be on 'Light Pollution' - that curse of all astronomers both amateur and professional. I'm a founding member of SOLIS - The Sydney Outdoor Lighting Improvement Society, more on that another time.

But I wasted a lot of time - I originally wrote this on the 27/12/2008. I've now posted it despite it's old age!

Whilst I was scanning through a weekend paper 'The Weekend Australian Financial Review' I was drawn to a photograph of a remarkable astronomical object - 'Menzel 3'. This is a planetary nebulae revealed as only modern science can - a mystery no longer and so, I was led to the article, 'Realignment of Ideas'. It turns out that this article is a book review of an anthology of works from 23 philosophers. It was originally 30 philosophers and I guess that's another story - the book itself is titled '23 Questions from Great Philosophers', the author is 'Leszek Kolakowski'.

Nowhere in the article is there a reference to 'Menzel 3', so what is the logic behind using the picture? The article about the book attempts to link Philosophy and Religion, the anthology is of articles that attempt to answer the question 'Of Being'. The book itself apparently presents each article then poses a few questions for your musings. The title of the book is however 'Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?' The book lines up some of the heavy hitters from Socrates to Husserl (who?) and with a few astronomer/science noteries lurking in there. The author of the book Kolakowski does not refer to astronomy . So why does the author of the newspaper article use the picture - it is a wonderful picture and I will post it here, it has been the APOD, and probably not a well known object - and it does look like - well an ant.

And so, why did I mention sharks in the title here, not quite as random as the Ant Nebula in the book review. Today in Perth, Western Australia, a truly tragic event has overtaken a family. A family's father was lost to a very large White Pointer shark. The chances of dying to shark attack in Australia is diminishing small, to April 2008 there have been 11 fatal attacks in the last 50 years. I guess people often just don't believe sharks will attack. I don't need to believe in sharks to know this can happen, I know that sharks exist, and I know that sharks attack people. I once was snorkelling with friends at a local beach 'Cabbage Tree Bay', nearby at a distance I saw a group of small sharks. They were the 'Grey Nurse' variety so I wasn't alarmed, they were in deep water and I was in shallow water. A few minutes later directly below me, less than a metre, the shilloute of a shark appeared, swimming across my path - certainly alarming!

The reviewer of this book is promoting the idea that Religion can explain that there is something rather than nothing, and he uses the philosophers, not all of whom actually manage to reach that particular conclusion. Some in fact come adrift and head into nihlism. I expect that The Ant nebula is used as a tag to show as 'something' and give a 'scientific' slant to the article.

And the conclusion - there's nothing philosophical about sharks in their oen environment - I expect to see them there and I expect to see them behave in a shark-like manner. Today 7/01/2009 I saw another shark article in the Sydney Morning Hearld, something about a shark swimming near a surf life saver - fancy that! Maybe that surf life-saver was swimming close to the shark. So, I expect to see astronomical objects and I expect a simple and straight-forward explanation, sometimes revealing but never a matter of blind faith. And I would never have faith in a shark - I got out of the water and walked back!

Getting Started

2008-12-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

Who knows where this sort of activity may end - is it some sort of slippery slope? All experiments can have a random outcome - sometimes serendipitous, although mostly uninteresting and boring - not necessarily failure just boring. So here's hoping for some interesting serendipitous random outcomes!

Just looking through my observing log the last night I ran up the scope was the 2nd September 2008. Since then most evenings have not been worth it - mostly cloudy, or I attended a commitment such as a Committee Meeting for something - most likely astronomical related. Fortunately Christmas suspends most of these commitments and I get an opportunity to utilise a clear night.

The first topic off the rank is - the weather. I'm sure most people talk about the weather, for an astronomer it's about the clouds. Earlier this year at the Sydney City Skywatchers we listened to a great talk by Julie Evans of The Bureau of Meterolgy. She gave us lots of ideas of how to plan for the weather and told us about The Cloud Appreciation Society.

So far to-night looks like it might be clear - for a change - still about 5 hours to go to twilight. The Sydney MTSAT-1R VIS is showing some scattered cloud coming from the West. The South-East Australia shot shows about a 500Km gap. My guess is it will be line-ball, maybe clear in the early to late morning. It's been a hot humid day so the seeing will be shocking.