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  1. Show #15: Astronomy, art and the moon
    2. 24 Mar 2006 at 9:49am
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    Looking at astronomy in art, cruisin' the open clusters of Puppis, what do astronomers keep in their kits, some music and conversation.


  2. Ready, set......
    3. 14 Dec 2005 at 7:06pm
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    Katie and Alice are working on the script, and testing the equipment, for the first podcast. Since this podcast will be a collaborative effort the ramping up is a little slower. Stay tuned for the announcement of the first show! Special thanks to Michael for creating the intro for Astronomy a Go Go!


  3. Show #25: Star parties and the July sky
    4. 20 Jul 2006 at 9:51am
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    Astronomy a Go Go! is on the road with the Girl Scouts and the students of the Tacoma Astronomical Society for a star party weekend!nbsp; Wishing all of you clear skies!br/


  4. Show #16: Telescopes
    5. 7 Apr 2006 at 10:01pm
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    Talking about the different types of telescopes available and the critical parts of a telescope, visit some unique features on the Moon, check in on the planets and get an update on astronomy related news!br/


  5. Show 12: Moon and Mercury
    6. 2 Mar 2006 at 2:45pm
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    Talking about the Moon, chasing Mercury, planning for an astrophotography episode, sharing good astronomy sites, listening to music and having fun! (Not to mention staying up wayyyy too late!)


  6. Show #36: Moons and Rings in our Solar System
    7. 7 Feb 2007 at 2:54am
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    font size="3" /fonth3font size="3"Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/newrings_cassini-thm.jpg"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/newrings_cassini-thm.jpg"//abr/br/Image courtesy of a href="http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsEb=289251"Dr. Mark Showalter/a /fontp /p h3font size="3"Moons and Rings Teleconference/font/h3 pfont size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/ShowalterPPT.ppt"Download the Powerpoint presentation!/a/font/p pfont size="3"The Night Sky Network (NSN)is a nationwide (USA)collection of astronomy clubs delivering NASA and JPL inspired science and mission related information to the general public. The Night Sky Network creates kits and outreach tools specifically for amateur astronomer and the general public. To find a NSN club near you visit their website: a href="http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm"nighsky.jpl.nasa.gov/a /font/p pfont size="3"Special thanks to the Night Sky Network, our NSN host Marni Berendsen, and a href="http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsEb=289251"Dr. Mark Showalter/a./font/p pfont size="3"Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants./font/p a href="http://www.woodlandhillshosting.com/index.html"img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/WHCT_Hosting_Grants.jpg"//abr/


  7. Show #31: Happy Halloween
    8. 1 Nov 2006 at 7:05am
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    font size="3"Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night! Week of Oct. 31, 2006 /fontfont size="3"a href="http://chandra.harvard.edu/cards/newcards/halloween06G.jpg"img border="0" src="http://chandra.harvard.edu/cards/newcards/halloween06G.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" width="250"//abr/br/ /fontpfont size="3"bThe Starlight Night/b/font/p font size="3"LOOK at the stars! look, look up at the skies! br/O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air! br/The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there! br/Down in dim woods the diamond delves! the elves'-eyes!br/The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies! br/Wind-beat whitebeam! airy abeles set on a flare! br/Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare!br/Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize. /font pfont size="3"Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) /font/p h3font size="3"Happy Halloween Astronomy Style!/font/h3 pfont size="3"Here are some great creepy astronomy sites: br/a href="http://chandra.harvard.edu/cards/fall.html"Chandra/a has some great autumn greeting and Halloween cardsbr/a href="http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/sounds-2005.html"NASA/a Spooky Sounds Videobr/a href="http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0411/dr6_spitzer_big.jpg"Spitzer/a captured this creepy, skull like image in Cygnus.br/Creepy, cool, a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060921.html"spooky silhouette/a of the shuttle and space station against the sun. /font/p h3font size="3"Planets/font/h3font size="3"bEvening Planets /bbr/ /fontul font size="3"liMercury - Mag 0.0 in Libra. Mark your calendars for inferior conjunction and visible transit on Nov. 8th! Low on the western horizon near Jupiter. /liliJupiter - Mag -1.6 in Libra. Visible low in the sky just after sunset. a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/jup_merc_oct.jpg"img border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/jup_merc_oct.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" width="250"//abr/br/a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/jup_merc_oct_S.jpg"img border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/jup_merc_oct_S.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" width="250"//abr/br/images courtesy of: Stellarium software /liliPluto - Mag +14.0 in Ophiuchus /liliUranus - Mag +5.8 in Aquarius Uranus is best seen in a dark moonless sky away from artificial lighting. It may be seen looking like a very faint star to the dark-adapted naked eye that shimmers in and out of visibility just over 1 degree east of Lambda Aquarii. Find the tipped over letter Y of Aquarius, go 4 thumbwidths southeast to find Lambda, and then look pinky nail east. /liliNeptune - Mag +7.9 in Capricorn 1.25 degree north of the +4.3 magnitude star Iota Capricorni /li/font/ul font size="3" a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/nep_urn.jpg"img border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/nep_urn.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" width="250"//abr/br/bToo close to the sun../bbr/ /fontul font size="3" liMars - Mag +1.6 is at the western end of Virgo and lost in the sun in the northern latitudes. You will have to look hard in the haze of the horizon and it will help to be closer to the equator. /li liVenus - Mag -3.8 in Virgo. /li /font/ul font size="3"bMorning Planets/bbr/ /fontul font size="3" liSaturn - Mag +0.6 on the western edge of Leo! /li /font/ul font size="3"bShall we be sassy?/b Dwarf Planets..er...Minor Planets...er...Icy Dwarfs....er...um...hmmmmbr/ /fontul font size="3" li1 Ceres +7.9 mag in Pisces Australis 18.5 degrees West of Fomalhaut /li liEris mag +19 in central Cetus /li /font/ul h3font size="3"Constellations/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/reticulum.gif"img border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/reticulum.gif" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" width="250"//abr/br/ /fontpfont size="3"bHorologium -the pendulum clock/b - Horologium was named by Abbe' Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Originally named Horologium Oscillitorium to honor Christian Huygens, the inventor of the pendulum clock in 1656-57 but like most longer astronomical names it was shortened to Horologium . Huygens is also famous for discovering Saturn's rings./font/p font size="3"bReticulum - the grid/b - A reticle consists of sets of parallel and perpendicular lines, either in the form of thread or wire or in the form of markings etched in glass. The result is a square grid which may be accurately used to locate and plot the relative positions of objects viewed through the grid. Zeta Reticuli is a double star visible to the naked eye and strangely enough the home of the aliens in the alleged Barney and Betty Hill abduction. a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/persesus.gif"img border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/persesus.gif" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" width="250"//abr/br/bAries - the ram/b - One of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy and one of the 13 zodiacal constellations In Greek mythology Athamas, the king of Orchomenos, was married first to the goddess Nephele with whom he had the twins Phrixus and Helle. He later divorced Nephele and married Ino, daughter of Cadmus. Phrixus and Helle were hated by their stepmother, Ino who hatched a plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all the town's crop seeds so they would not grow. The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to the oracle to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus. Athamus reluctantly agreed. Before he was killed, though, Phrixus and Helle were rescued by a flying golden ram sent by Nephele, their natural mother. Helle fell off the ram into the the strait between the Aegean and the Sea of Marmara (Hellespont which was named after her) and died, but Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis (kolkis), where King Aettees took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter Medea in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aettees hung in a tree in his kingdom. /fonth3font size="3"Viewing/font/h3font size="3"bOctober/b br/30 -First Quarter Moon 11:04 UTbr/31 -Halloween!br/bNovember/bbr/1 -Uranus 0.5 deg North of the Moon, occultation possible in New Zealand and SE Australiabr/5 -Full Moon and Taurid meteors peakbr/8 -Transit of Mercurybr/ /fontpfont size="3"bNaked eye/b - br/Saturn in the early morning 5 degrees West of Regulusbr/Ghostly smudge M46 and M47 in dark skies -in Puppis west of Canis Majorbr/Algol (Al-goul) naked eye variable star in Perseus. /font/p pfont size="3"bBinocular/b - br/M45 - the Pleiades. Take time to appreciate the ghostly nebulosity around the sisters./font/p pfont size="3"bTelescope/b - br/a href="http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?str=NGC+3242"NGC 3242/a - Ghost of Jupiter - planetary nebula near the tail of Hydrabr/a href="http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=116232445216558id=614176str=wit ch"NGC 1909 - IC 2118/a - a href="http://www.google.com/images?q=IC+2118"Witch head nebula/a - nebula just west of Rigelbr/a href="http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=116232545216558str=M16"M16/a - ghostly nebula in Saggitarius 6.0 mag large but close to the horizon and the moonbr/a href="http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=116232545216558str=M27"M27/a - Dumbbell nebula in Vulpecula - ghost of apple corebr/a href="http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=116232545216558str=M97"M97/a - Planetary nebula in Ursa Major - Owl Nebula 9.9 magbr/a href="http://www.messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl?ss=116232545216558str=NGC+2070"NGC 2070 /a- Tarantula Nebula - 8 mag in the Large Magellanic Cloudbr//font/p h3font size="3"Feature Attraction - Astronomy Trick or Treat!/font/h3font size="3"bTop 10 Astronomy misconceptions/b /fontpfont size="3"iquot;quot;Be very, very careful what you put into that head,br/because you will never, ever get it out./i /font/p pfont size="3"Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530) /font/p p /p ol font size="3" lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font The Big Dipper is a constellation (and the Pleiades is the same thing as the Little Dipper)br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font The Pleiades and the Big Dipper are asterisms. /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font You can (only) balance an egg on the equinox. br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font If you have steady hands you can balance an egg anytime! /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font The seasons are caused by our distance from the sun. br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font The seasons are the result of the a href="http://esminfo.prenhall.com/science/geoanimations/animations/01_EarthSun_E2.htm l"tilt of the Earth!/a /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font The Coriolis effect causes drains and toilets to rotate in different directions in different hemispheres. br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font Check out this website: a href="http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html"http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fra ser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html/a /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font August Mars will be as big as the full moon. This was a horrible email full of erroneous facts. br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font Track the relationship with Earth and Mars on a href="http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/mars_orbit.html"this website/a to see when we are close(er) to Mars. /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font The moon looks larger on the horizon because the air is thicker and acts like a magnifying glass. br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font Look at the illusions here: a href="http://www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/3d/moonillu.htm"http://www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/3d/ moonillu.htm/a /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font The quot;dark side of the moonquot; never receives any sun-light. br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font Try it! Since the moon rotates on its axis it will receive sunlight on all sides. /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font Polaris is the brightest star in the sky. br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font The sun is the brightest star followed my Sirius, Canopus, Rigel Kentaurus, a href="http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/brightest.html"etc/a /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/fontBad! First man in space was John Glenn. br/font color="#0000cc"bGood!/b/font Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space. /li lifont color="#ff0000"Bad!/font You can buy a star or a piece of the moon. /li /font/ol h3font size="3"Transit of Mercury Nov. 8 2006/font/h3font size="3"Get more information about the Transit of Mercury: a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Mercury"Wikipedia/a,br/a href="http://www.nao.rl.ac.uk/nao/transit/M_2006/"HM Nautical Almanac/a, br/a href="http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/transit06.html"quot;Mr. Eclipsequot;/a /fontpfont size="3"bViewing the transit safely!/bbr/Build a a href="http://www.jotabout.com/portuesi/astro/solar_filter.html"solar filter/a Sources for a href="http://www.baader-planetarium.com/sofifolie/details_e.htm#distributor"Baader film /a(http://www.baader-planetarium.com/sofifolie/details_e.htm#distributor) /font/p h3font size="3"New Comets/font/h3font size="3"Comet Swan (8.5 mag) currently in Hercules check out the a href="http://www.heavens-above.com/comet.asp?cid=C%2F2006+M4Session=kebgccdjfijfepgfk kcnmbgo"heavens-above.com/a site. From the city it looks like a faint nebulous globular cluster! I did NOT see a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061004.html"this/a! a href="http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2006M4/2006M4.html"Aerith.net/a, a href="http://www.heavens-above.com/comet.asp?cid=C%2F2006+M4lat=37.775lng=-122.418alt =0loc=San+FranciscoTZ=PST"Heavens-above.com/abr/Comet C2006 T1 (Levy) currently in a href="http://skyhound.com/sh/comets/2006_T1.gif"Leo./a /fonth3font size="3"a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html"Comets for the Month/a./font/h3font size="3"Check out the a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html"Sky Hound/a site. Email us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com or leave a note in our show notes at www.astronomy.libsyn.combr/Help us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hatbr/ "Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them" Peter Ustinov /fonth3font size="3"Music/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://music.podshow.com/music/producers/producerLibrary/artistdetails.php?Band Hash=773c36e73a0ef8a56f0a71004e06d135"Rebecca Loebe /a- All This Timebr/br/br/ /fontpfont size="3"Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants./font/p font size="3"a href="http://www.woodlandhillshosting.com/index.html"img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/WHCT_Hosting_Grants.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;"//abr//font


  8. Show #34: The (stellar) Colors of the Season
    9. 17 Dec 2006 at 7:04pm
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    font size="3" /fonth3font size="3"Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://newton.uor.edu/FacultyFolder/tyler_nordgren/Gallery/Gallery.html"img width="250" border="0" src="http://newton.uor.edu/FacultyFolder/tyler_nordgren/Gallery/orion_1104.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/Image courtesy of Dr. Tyler Nordgren and his students. /fontp /p pfont size="3"ibORION/b/i/font/p font size="3"Eight stars pinbr/his framebr/to the night. /fontpfont size="3"He lies just abovebr/the trainyard,br/almost readybr/to rouse. /font/p pfont size="3"Not quite yet. /font/p pfont size="3"Eight silent silver bellsbr/take all eveningbr/to standbr/just as our starbr/fades himbr/back to sky. /font/p pfont size="3"ba href="http://laurengunderson.blogspot.com/"Lauren Gunderson/a/b /font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/pia01322.html"img width="250" border="0" src="http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/162237main_pia01322-516.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/Orion, seen from Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI (infrared, ultraviolet and visible-light colors) /font/p p /p h3font size="3"Listener Feedback/font/h3 pfont size="3"span style="font-weight: bold;"From Ted/span - quot;I'd like to suggest a great book that I stumbled across at Barnes amp; Noble about 18 months ago. It is called quot;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Next-Step-Finding-Viewing-Messiers/dp/1928771122/sr=11-1/ qid=1166384880/ref=sr_11_1/102-1864957-7184941"The Next Step, Finding and Viewing Messier's Objects/a.quot; It was written by Ken Graun. The main part of the book is a section about the Messier Object. There are 2 pages per object. It has a little history and notes from Messier's original description. It gives the coordinates and a reference to it's location on star maps included in the book. What really sets this book apart is that it includes pictures taken by the author thru a 4 inch scope. It allows you to see exactly what you are looking for. The book also has a biography of Charles Messier, and a few general tips on astronomy. The book it not very large so it is easy to carry with you. I find the book extremely helpful to show people what they are looking for before they step up to the eyepiece. I hope you can find the book to review and recommend it on a future podcast. quot; /font/p pfont size="3"span style="font-weight: bold;"Don/span has another book suggestion: quot;A great book for gifts is quot;a href="http://www.amazon.com/There-Once-Was-Full-Stars/dp/1931559376/sr=1-1/qid=116638 4816/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-1864957-7184941?ie=UTF8s=books"There Once Was a Sky Full of Stars/aquot;, by Bob Crelin. Great for helping children (and adults) learn about the effects of light pollution.quot;/font/p h3font size="3"Special Thanks!/font/h3font size="3"Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope for helping our club buy a PST for use with our club outreach! br/Just a reminder, font color="red"uba href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope/a is offering a 5% discount for any AAGG listener! Just put quot;AAGGquot; in the discount code box at checkout to receive your discount./b/u/font /fontp /p h3font size="3"Holiday lights in the sky - Stellar Spectrum/font/h3 table _moz_resizing="true" tbody tr thClass/th tha href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin"Temperature/a/th th abbr="colour"Star colour/th thMass/th thRadius/th thLuminosity/th thHydrogen lines/th thExamples/th/tr tr style="background: rgb(155, 176, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" thO/th td30,000 - 60,000 K/td tdBluish (quot;bluequot;)/td td60/td td15/td td1,400,000/td tdWeak/td td10 Lacerta, Zeta Puppis, Lambda Orionis/td/tr tr style="background: rgb(202, 215, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" thB/th td10,000 - 30,000 K/td tdBluish-white (quot;blue-whitequot;)/td td18/td td7/td td20,000/td tdMedium/td tdRigel, Spica, the brighter Pleiades/td/tr tr style="background: rgb(245, 245, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" thA/th td7,500 - 10,000 K/td tdWhite with bluish tinge (quot;whitequot;)/td td3.2/td td2.5/td td80/td tdStrong/td tdVega, Sirius/td/tr tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 204) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" thF/th td6,000 - 7,500 K/td tdWhite (quot;yellow-whitequot;)/td td1.7/td td1.3/td td6/td tdMedium/td tdCanopus, Procyon/td/tr tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 170) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" thG/th td5,000 - 6,000 K/td tdLight yellow (quot;yellowquot;)/td td1.1/td td1.1/td td1.2/td tdWeak/td tdSun, Capella/td/tr tr style="background: rgb(255, 187, 153) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" thK/th td3,500 - 5,000 K/td tdLight orange (quot;orangequot;)/td td0.8/td td0.9/td td0.4/td tdVery weak/td tdArcturus, Aldebaran/td/tr tr style="background: rgb(255, 136, 102) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" thM/th td2,000 - 3,500 K/td tdReddish orange (quot;redquot;)/td td0.3/td td0.4/td td0.04/td tdVery weak/td tdBetelgeuse, Antares/td/tr/tbody /table pfont size="3"a href="http://www.shef.ac.uk/physics/people/pacrowther/obafgkmrns.html"bMnemonics for the Harvard Spectral Classification Scheme/b/abr/Official Bureaucrats At Federal Government Kill Many Researchers' National Supportbr/Only Boring Astronomers Find Gratification Knowing Mnemonics!br/Oh, Bring A Fully Grown Kangaroo My Recipe Needs Some!br/Oh Backward Astronomer, Forget Geocentricity; Kepler's Motions Reveal Nature's Simplicity. br/Oh Bother, Astronomers Frequently Give Killer Midtermsbr/ /font/p h3font size="3"Sun/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/"sunspots/a /fonth3font size="3"Planets/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/jup_mars_moon.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/jup_mars_moon.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/saturn.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/saturn.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/bEvening Planets /bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liVenus - Mag -3.8 in Sagittarius but currently lost in the Sun's glare. /liliNeptune - Mag +7.9 in Capricorn will also be better for dark evenings and is less than 1 degree north of the +4.3 magnitude star Iota Capricorni /liliUranus - Mag +5.9 in Aquarius Uranus is best seen in a dark moonless sky away from artificial lighting. It may be seen looking like a very faint star to the dark-adapted naked eye that shimmers in and out of visibility just under 1 degree east of Lambda Aquarii. Find the tipped over letter Y of Aquarius, go 4 thumbwidths southeast to find Lambda, and then a smidgen Southwest. /liliSaturn - Mag 0.4 on the western edge of Leo just west of Regulus. An easy catch! /li/font/ul font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/nep_uran_Nov.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/nep_uran_Nov.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/bMorning Planets/bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liJupiter - Mag -1.6 in Scorpius visiable very low on the ESE horizon an hour before sunrise. Finally had a clear horizon before the storm hit and it was very bright and yes, low and south. /liliMars - Mag 1.5 just barely above the Sun's glare between the Sun and Mercury /liliMercury - Mag -0.5 barely off the horizon moving quickly towards the sun. Use the bright orange/red Arcturus and quot;spikequot; almost horizontally South to Spica. Mercury sits 25 degrees ESE of Spica. /liliSaturn - Mag 0.4 on the western edge of Leo preceeding Regulus. Saturn is slowly inching its way towards Cancer /li/font/ul h3font size="3"Constellations/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/fornax.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/fornax.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/Time for a a href="http://www.astro.umass.edu/~arny/constel/constel_quiz.html"quiz/a! bFornax/b - the Furnace - Invented by Lacaille during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope in 1751 - 1752 (who else!)br/ /fonth3font size="3"Viewing/font/h3 pfont size="3"bNaked eye and binoculars/b - the Pleiadesbr/a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/m45uks_t.jpg"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/m45uks_t.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/Mentioned by Homer about 750 B.C.At least 6 member stars are visible to the naked eye, /font/p pfont size="3"-the Hyades At a distance of only about 150 light years, the Hyades form one of the nearest open cluster to Earth./font/p font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/hyades.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/hyades.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/ /fontpfont size="3"Greek mythology, nymphs; daughters of Atlas and Aethra. They cared for both Zeus and Dionysus as infants. In recognition of these services, they were placed among the stars of the constellation Taurus, where their rising and setting corresponded to the rainy seasons. /font/p pfont size="3"Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), the bright red star, is not a member of the cluster and situated much closer to us (about 60 light years, a factor 2.5 closer than the Hyades). /font/p pfont size="3"bTelescope/b - /font/p font size="3"Northern Hemisphere chart You can use a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/index.htm"Taki's chart/a #14, chart 72 in the Pocket Sky Atlas a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/7/n7380.jpg"NGC 7380/a bright irregular open cluster, 7.2 mag, with bright nebulosity around. Once edge looks scalloped.br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/7/n7510.jpg"NGC 7510/a- the quot;Little Piggyquot; cluster (Alice's name only) in Cephus 7.9 wedge or trapazoid shaped open cluster. Right across the boarder from...br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/7/n7654.jpg"M52/a - evil dustbunny cluster, 6.9 open cluster in Cassiopeiabr/and just a few degree towards Polaris from Caph (beta Cassiopeia) is a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/7/n7790.jpg"NGC 7790/a /fontp /p h3font size="3"Gifts for the Astronomer!/font/h3font size="3"bDo it yourself (DIY) gifts/bbr/There are so many creative things you can do for your astronomer, or for yourself, that won't cost and arm and a leg! Consider the following: br/ /fontulfont size="3"lia href="http://www.riteintherain.com/ItemForm.aspx?item=8511Category="quot;Rite in the Rainquot; paper/a - perfect for creating your own lists without having to pull them in and out of sheet protectors. /liliHats, scarves, mitten (especially with flaps so you have finger access) /liliRenovate an old hard sided Samsonite style suitcase for observing! Paint it and find some nice foam padding for the inside. /liliCold weather observing 'basket' - Be Creative!! a good thermos, hot cocoa, snacks, handwarmers, and maybe a favorite CD all 'wrapped' in a a href="http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=359"new accessory case/a /liliWarm weather observing 'basket' - Have Fun!! snacks, a nice wide brim hat, some new shades, a href="http://industrialsavings.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGYCategory_Code=ba ndanas"Miracool/a bandana, some oil free sunscreen and bug spray, all 'wrapped' in a a href="http://www.pelican-case.com/1120.html"Pelican case/a /liliOnline Star Atlases - print them out, put them in protective sleeves, laminate them or print them on waterproof paper and bind them into a book that will uopen flat/u! ullia href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/index.htm"Taki's Charts/a /liliAndrew Johnsons a href="http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1052"Mag 7 charts/a /li/ul /liliFraser Cain at Universe Today emailed to let me know that there will be a a href="http://www.astrowhatsup.com/download-the-book/"quot;What's up 2007quot; /aso keep an eye on his site! /liliMy favorite give-away a href="http://www.atmob.org/library/member/skymaps_jsmall.html"Messier Telrad Charts/a - by John Small courtesy of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston. /lilia href="http://www.utahskies.org/deepsky/messier/charts/messierTelradFrameSet.html"Mess ier Telrad Charts/a - From Utah Skies /lilia href="http://www.utahskies.org/deepsky/caldwell/charts/caldwellTelrad.htm"Caldwell Telrad Charts/a - From Utah Skies /li/font/ul font size="3"bFor the woodworkers out there.../b /fontpfont size="3"a href="http://www.astro-tom.com/projects/binocular_mount.htm"Binocular Mounts/a br/Observing Chair - a href="http://members.tripod.com/denverastro/seat.html"example/a or the Cats Perch a href="http://www.catseyecollimation.com/cperch1.html"Plans/a /font/p pfont size="3"bOn to the shopping.../bbr/uTelescope accessories/ubr/ /font/p ulfont size="3"lia href="http://www.sky-spot.com/telrad.html"Telrad/a /lilia href="http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?pid=8776"Accessory Cases/a /lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Variable Polarizing filter /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Lazermate deluxe collimator /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"On-off switch green laser pointer (I'm ordering one for myself!) /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"lens cleaning gear /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"2X barlow /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"protective scope covers /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"eyepiece containers/a /li/font/ul font size="3"font color="red"uba href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope/a is offering a 5% discount for any AAGG listener! Just put quot;AAGGquot; in the discount code box at checkout to receive your discount./b/u/font /fontpfont size="3"uOff the scope/ubr/ /font/p ulfont size="3"lia href="http://www.ezipsky.com/about/"eZipSky/a - free 10 day trial - know your cellphone charges first! /lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Observing chair /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Red flash lights /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Storage containers /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Planetarium software /a/lilia href="http://www.telescopes.net/main/gift_page.html"Lunar Phase Probr//aa href="http://www.nightskyobserver.com/LunarPhaseCD/"img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/lpp.gif" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/ /lilia href="http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetailproductId=183929-75128-8046l page=none"Folding tables/a /lilia href="http://industrialsavings.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGYCategory_Code=wa rmingpacks"Handwarmers/a (buy them a case or better yet the reusable ones) /liliHow about a good a href="http://industrialsavings.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGYCategory_Code=fi rst-aid-kits-auto_truck"first aid kit/a! /li/font/ul font size="3"uReferences/ubr/bAtlases/b /fontulfont size="3"lia href="http://www.skymaps.com/store/cat01.html#pocket_sky_atlas"Pocket Sky Atlas/a - an AAGG favorite! br/ /lilia href="http://www.skymaps.com/store/cat01.html#moon_field_map"Field map of the Moon/a - an AAGG favorite!br/ /lilia href="https://host8.apollohosting.com/spencewatson/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGYS tore_Code=SSCategory_Code=BK"Skyspot books/a - The Messier telrad books - fantastic for beginners searching for Messier objects! /li/font/ul font size="3"bPlanisphere/bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"lia href="http://www.skymaps.com/store/cat04.html"Chandler or Levy/a Plastic Planispheres for your latitude /li/font/ul font size="3"bBooks/bbr/...there are just toooo many but here is a start....br/ /fontulfont size="3"lia href="http://www.skymaps.com/store/cat02.html#nightwatch"quot;NightWatchquot;/a by Terence Dickinson- the first book I remember purchasing for observing /lilia href="http://www.skymaps.com/store/cat02.html#the_stars"quot;The Starsquot;/a by H.A. Rey /lilia href="http://www.skymaps.com/store/cat03.html#celestial_sampler"Celestial Sampler/a by Sue French /lilia href="http://www.skymaps.com/store/cat03.html#companions"quot;Deep Sky Companions: The Messier Objectsquot;/a by Stephen O'Meara /lilia href="http://www.shopatsky.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPRODProdID=1177"SkyWatch 07/a (magazine single issue)- Sky and Telescope 12 months of starcharts and lots of great observing tips for the new astronomer /lilia href="http://www.shopatsky.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATSCategory=41"Skygazer's Almanac'07/a reprint (leaflet)- Sky and Telescope $2.25 and up /lilia href="http://www.rasc.ca/handbook/"RASC Observers guide/a (book)-Royal Astronomical Society of Canada $24.95+ /li/font/ul font size="3"Reader suggested books! /fontulfont size="3"liquot;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Next-Step-Finding-Viewing-Messiers/dp/1928771122/sr=11-1/ qid=1166384880/ref=sr_11_1/102-1864957-7184941"The Next Step, Finding and Viewing Messier's Objects/a.quot; by Ken Graun /lilia href="http://www.amazon.com/There-Once-Was-Full-Stars/dp/1931559376/sr=1-1/qid=116638 4816/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-1864957-7184941?ie=UTF8s=books"There Once Was a Sky Full of Stars/a, by Bob Crelin /li/font/ul h3font size="3"Comets/font/h3 h3font size="3"a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html"Comets for the Month/a./font/h3font size="3"Check out the a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html"Sky Hound/a site. /fontprefont size="3"quot;One touch of nature makes the whole world kinquot;br/-- Shakespeare/font/pre pfont size="3"Email us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com or leave a note in our show notes at www.astronomy.libsyn.combr/Help us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hatbr//font/p pfont size="3"Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants./font/p a href="http://www.woodlandhillshosting.com/index.html"img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/WHCT_Hosting_Grants.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;"//abr/


  9. Show #38: Retrograde motion
    10. 14 Apr 2007 at 1:32pm
    Listen
    font size="3" /fonth3font size="3"Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/sirius.jpg"img width="200" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/sirius.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/ /fontpfont size="3"Image credit: NASA - The image of Sirius A and Sirius B taken by Hubble Space Telescope. The white dwarf can be seen to the lower left /font/p p /p pfont size="3"ibCANIS MAJOR/b/i/font/p font size="3"The great Overdog,br/That heavenly beastbr/With a star in one eye,br/Gives a leap in the east.br/br/He dances uprightbr/All the way to the west,br/And never once dropsbr/On his forefeet to rest. /fontpfont size="3"I'm a poor underdog,br/But to-night I will barkbr/With the great Overdogbr/That romps through the dark. /font/p p /p pfont size="3"ibRobert Frost, 1928 /b/i/font/p h3font size="3"Quick News/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/hd209458.png"img width="200" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/hd209458.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/ /fontpfont size="3"bWater identified in extrasolar planet atmosphere./b (a href="http://www.lowell.edu/press_room/releases/recent_releases/extrasolar_water.html "Lowell Observatory press release/a) Lowell Observatory astronomer Travis Barman has found strong evidence for water absorption in the atmosphere of transiting planet HD209458b The identification reported here takes advantage of the fact that HD209458b, as seen from Earth, passes directly in front of its star every three and half days. As a planet passes in front of a star, its atmosphere blocks a different amount of the starlight at different wavelengths. In particular, absorption by water in the atmosphere of a giant planet makes the planet appear larger across a specific part of the infrared spectrum compared to wavelengths in the visible spectrum. /font/p pfont size="3"HD 209458 b is an extrasolar planet that orbits the Sun-like star HD 209458 in the constellation Pegasus, some 150 light-years from Earth's solar system. HD 209458 is an 8th magnitude star, visible from Earth with binoculars. The radius of the planet's orbit is one eighth the radius of Mercury's orbit. This small radius results in a year that is 3.5 Earth days long and an estimated surface temperature of about 1000 degrees Celsius or around 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. Its mass is 220 times that of Earth's (0.69 Jupiter masses), which indicates that it is probably a gas giant./font/p pfont size="3"HD209458b is a world well-known among planet hunters. In 1999, it became the first planet to be directly observed around a normal star outside our solar system and, a few years later, was the first exoplanet confirmed to have oxygen and carbon in its atmosphere./font/p h3font size="3"Retrograde and Direct motion/font/h3font size="3"bRetrograde Rotations/b /fontpfont size="3"Most planets rotate (spin on their axis) in the direct sense: they spin in the same direction as they orbit the Sun. Which is to say their north rotational pole and north orbital pole point in similar directions, more or less in the direction of the Solar north pole. If you were outside our solar system looking down the sun and most of the planets would appear to rotate counter-clockwise or anti-clockwise as you prefer. The exceptions to this rule are Venus and Uranus./font/p pfont size="3"Venus is nearly always described as having its axis at 3 degrees and a rotation of -243 days, rather than 177 degrees and +243 days, in essence it is rotating normally but flipped completely upside down./font/p pfont size="3"Uranus on the other hand lays on its side with its N-S axis parallel to the orbital plane instead of perpendicular. Uranus has an axial tilt of 82 degrees and a negative rotation of -17 hours, or, equivalently, of having an axis tilted at 98 degrees and a positive rotation. Since current speculation is that Uranus started off with a typical direct orientation and was knocked on its side by a large impact early in its history, it is most commonly described as having the higher axial tilt and positive rotation./font/p font size="3"bRetrograde Orbits/b /fontpfont size="3"When we observe the sky, the Sun, Moon, and stars appear to move from east to west because of the rotation of the Earth (diurnal motion)is relatively quick, a day. This equates to the daily rising and setting of the Sun, Moon, constellations and planets. However if we study the position of the planets, relative to the background stars, over time they appear to travel, pause, reverse direction, pause, and then resume their direct, or eastward, motion around the Sun. It is this peculiar motion that baffled our astronomical ancestors and probably why the Greeks called our fellow solar system brethren 'planetes' or wanderers./font/p pfont size="3"When looking inward, to Venus or Mercury, the motion we see is the direct orbit of those planets around the Sun. Their orbits are faster than ours and closer to the Sun so when we see them moving away from the Sun, pause, return toward the Sun, vanish, and then appear on the other side we observing their direct orbits around the Sun. The pausing and change of direction here are artifacts of our position in the same plane as much like sitting on the ground watching a child on a merry-go-round. The child is moving in a circular orbit around the center of the merry-go-round not shifting back and forth as the same-plane-view might delude us into thinking. This interior position allows Mercury and Venus to appear as both morning and evening 'stars' in the sky much the same way the child appears to the left or right of the center of the merry-go-round. For a real life study just observe Mercury./font/p pfont size="3"On the other hand the superior planets, those with orbits outside of Earth's, have a longer orbital period. Our orbit period is faster which changes our line of sight. While we are behind in our orbits the planet we are catching up to appears to move eastward against the background stars but as we get closer to conjunction the planet appears to slowdown, stop, and turn moving westward. Once we pass conjunction and pull 'ahead' of the other planet it again appears to pause and reverse following us in a direct or eastward orbit./font/p pfont size="3"Again, trotting down to the playground would be a good way to experiment. This time you need to take your place on the outside of the merry-go-round and carefully observe someone in the distance rolling beyond you in an orbit around the merry-go-round and watch their progress against background objects. But lacking a near by play ground here are some illustrations that might help./font/p font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/Retrogadation.png"img width="200" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/Retrogadation.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/retrogrademars03_tezel.jpg"img width="200" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/retrogrademars03_tezel.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/Credit amp; Copyright: Tunc Tezel (Astronomy Picture of the Day - Dec 16, 2003) Mars is the bright object illustrating retrogradation and the fainter object in the background is Uranus in its direct motion. /fontpfont size="3"a href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allabout/nightsky/nightsky04-2003animation.html"Animat ion of Mars 2003/a credit: NASA /font/p pfont size="3"For example Saturn has been slowly moving westward away from Regulus (in Leo) for the past few months and on the 20th of this month will appear to pause, turn and return on its direct (eastward) motion across the sky where as Jupiter has just begun it's retrograde motion. /font/p p /p h3font size="3"Planets/font/h3font size="3"bEvening Planets /bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liVenus - Mag -3.9 in Taurus the bull is making several fantastic pairings for those of you who are looking for some great photo opps. Right now she is between the Pleiades and the Hyades. /liliSaturn - Mag 0.3 in Leo has just finished its retrograde motion and is now moving in its direct (eastward) motion. Big, bright and beautiful and an easy catch in binoculars or small telescope. /liliJupiter - Mag -2.2 in Ophiuchus the serpent bearer is getting ready to start its retrograde motion appearing to move a little bit westward against the background stars. /li/font/ul font size="3"bMorning Planets/bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liNeptune - Mag 7.9 in Capricorn the sea goat /liliMars - Mag 1.1 in Aquarius the water bearer approaching.... /liliUranus - Mag 5.9 also in Aquarius. Small telescope will be needed as you catch these three on the eastern horizon just before sunrise.br/a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/april_morning_stars.gif"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/april_morning_stars.gif" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/ /liliMercury - Mag -0.4 in Pisces the fish. Good morning viewing for those of you in the South much harder the further north you travel. /li/font/ul h3font size="3"Constellations/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/canis_major.jpg"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/canis_major.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/Image Credit: a href="http://www.phobos.pcm.hr/eng/index.htm"Phobos Group/a website /fontpfont size="3"bCanis Major, Canis Minor/b - The greater and lesser dogsbr/Introduced by: Canis Major was in Ptolemy's list of 48 constellations but has been apart of astronomical lore since before the Egyptian.br/Best known stars: Sirius (binary star A and B)is Greek for scorching.br/The ancient Egyptians based their calendar on the heliacal rising of Sirius and devised a method of telling the time at night based on the heliacal risings of 36 stars called decan stars (one for each 10 degree segment of the 360 degree circle of the zodiac/calendar). For the Egyptians this marked the annual rising of the Nile and the 'dog' days of summer. You can see an animated illustration of Sirius' heliacal rising at the Stanford Solar Center's website (a href="http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/Sirius.mov"animation/a) /font/p p /p font size="3"liRoman myth refers to Canis Major as Custos Europae, the dog guarding Europa but who fails to prevent her abduction by Jupiter in the form of a bull. /liliHe is also Laelaps, Actaeon's hound /liliMore commonly Canis Major and Minor are Orion's hunting dogs, pursuing Lepus the hare or Taurus the Bull p /p h3Viewing/h3a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/canis_triangles.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/canis_triangles.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/ pbBinoculars - using the Free Mag 7 star atlas: a href="http://www.cloudynights.com/documents/ChartC-9.pdf"Chart 9/a/b br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2287.jpg"M41/a open cluster in Canis Major discovered, and documented, long before the advent of the telescope in 325 B.C. Aristotle described M41 as a cloudy spot.br/100 stars into an area of about 25 light years across with several orange or red giants including the one towards the center of the cluster.br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2422.jpg"M47/a open cluster in Puppis and this one gets better as you move from binos to telescopes! With binos it is a hazy blotch with a few sprinkles of bright light but with a telescope you can pick up 30 blue-white stars from 6-12th mag. The western most corner of the area around M47 is home to a reddish orange variable star KQ Puppis which sticks out as distinctly red in this blue-white group.br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2437.jpg"M46/a open cluster in Puppis over 3X further away than M47; a good study in how distance 'appears' to our eyes. This cluster has a more uniform, denser cluster of faint stars. Sitting between Earth and M46 is a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2438.jpg"NGC 2438/a a planetary nebula that glows faintly at 10th mag. After you get settled in M46 use your averted vision to catch 2438 and then power-up to see how much detail you can see.br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2447.jpg"M93/a open cluster in Puppis. Smaller than 46 and 47, 93 will show as half a dozen stars mixed in a dim glow for binoculars but a telescope will pick up 30 faint stars that seem to chain up in various curves and arcs.br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2323.jpg"M50/a open cluster in Monoceros is fairly easy to find because it is all alone. M50 can be viewed as a faint hazy patch in dark skies and each 'bump' up in power and aperture reveals more starts. With an 8quot; scope and decent skies look for a triangle of stars that mark the center of the cluster /p p /p pbTelescope/b - br/Maps 103 and 102 a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/atlas_85/098-109_060802.pdf"Taki's chart/a br/NGC a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2383.jpg"2383/a and a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2384.jpg"2384/a the quot;Double Dogquot; clusters- 8.4 mag pair of OC in CMajor, due east of NGC 2287 (M41) just about 15 degrees. br/Slide NW about 5 degrees to a 4.2 mag OC discovered by Caroline Herschel, C58 or NGC a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/dss_n2300.asp"2360/abr/ /p pbChallenge/b - br/NGC a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2207.jpg"2207/a, 12.3 mag pair of face on spirals playing tug of warbr/NGCa href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2283.jpg" 2283/a 12.4 mag spiral galaxy just below alpha CMajbr/NGC a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2359.jpg"2359/a quot;The Duckquot; or quot;Thor's Helmetquot; emission nebula NNE part of CMaj/p pbCollege Salute/b - br/Start with NGC a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2362.jpg"2362/a and open cluster around Tau CMaj just NE of Delta CMaj (Wezen, where the dog's legs join or the tail joins the body as you prefer). The cluster contains 40 members and is one of the youngest known star clusters. Now moving to the NNE corner of the cluster we are looking for the Big Dawg of the Big Dog; UW Canis Majoris (not to be confused with the a href="http://gohuskies.cstv.com/"UW Huskies/a). A mag 4.9 super giant spectroscopic binary and one of the most luminous and massive stars in our galaxy. The two stars are separated by 27 million kilometers and revolve around each other in less than four and a half days! (Herschel 400 object) /p h3Sun/h3a href="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/"sunspots/a h3The Moon/h3Lunar Phase Probr/a href="http://www.nightskyobserver.com/LunarPhaseCD/"img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/lpp.gif" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/ pOur beautiful lunar photos are courtesy of Frank Barrett at a href="http://celestialwonders.com/"celestialwonders.com/abr/I highly recommend his site for lunar phase photos. You can zoom in to his images for more detail./p a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/8_day_moon_annotated.jpg"img width="300" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/8_day_moon.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/Click for annotated mapbr/Online a href="http://www.ngmapstore.com/shopping/product/zoom.jsp?iProductID=111"Lunar navigation/a map. p table tbody tr tdbObject/b/td tdbLatitude/b/td tdbLongitude/b/td tdbComments/b/td/tr tr td1. Plato/td td51.6/td td-9.4/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list)Greek philosopher c.428-c.347 B.C./td/tr tr td2. Valles Alpes/td td48.5/td td3.2/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list)/td/tr tr td3. Cassini A/B (to the right of the number)/td td40.5/td td4.8/td td(AL Lunar list) Giovanni Domenico; Italian-French astronomer (1625-1712); Jacques J.; French astronomer (1677-1756)/td/tr tr td4. The 3 Greeks (largest to smallest):Archimedes, Aristillus, Autolycus /td td29.7 /td td-4/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list)Archimedes:Greek physicist, mathematician (c. 287-212 B.C.), Aristillus:Greek astronomer (fl. c. 280 B.C.), Autolycus of Pitane; Greek astronomer (fl. c. 310 B.C.)./td/tr tr td5. Aristoteles w/Mitchell and Eudoxus/td td50.2/td td17.4/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list)Aristoteles:Greek astronomer, philosopher (383-322 B.C.), Mitchell: American astronomer (1818-1889), Eudoxus:Greek astronomer (c. 408-355 B.C.)/td/tr tr td6. Posidonius/td td31.8/td td29.9/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list)Of Apamea; Greek geographer (135(?)-51(?) B.C.)/td/tr tr td7. Serpentine Ridge (Dorsum Smirnov and Dorsum Lister)/td td20.3/td td23.8/td td(Lunar 100)Martin Lister; British stratigrapher, zoologist (1639-1712), Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov; Soviet Earth scientist (1895-1947 /td/tr tr td8. Lakes District/td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdSee Show #28 /td/tr tr td9. The Waterfall: Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel/td td-9.3/td td-1.9/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list)Ptolemaeus:Ptolemy, Greek astrononer, mathematician, geographer (c. A.D. 87-150, Alphonsus Alfonso X (El Sabio); Spanish astronomer (1221-1284), Al Zarkala (Arzachel); Spanish-Arabic astronomer (c. 1028-1087)/td/tr tr td10. Rupes Recta - The Straight Wall/td td-22.1/td td-7.8/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list)/td/tr tr td11. Miller, Nasireddin, Huggins/td td-39.3/td td0.8/td tdWilliam Allen Miller; British chemist (1817-1870), Nasir-Al-Din (Mohammed Ibn Hassan); Persian astronomer (1201-1274), Sir William Huggins; British astronomer (1824-1910)/td/tr tr td12. Tycho/td td-43.4/td td-11.1/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list) Tycho Brahe; Danish astronomer (1546-1601)/td/tr tr tdAAGG Favorite: Palus Somni and Crater Proclus (coordinates)/td td16.1 /td td46.8/td td(Lunar 100 and AL Lunar list) Marsh of Sleep, Greek mathematician, astronomer, philosopher (410-485)/td/tr/tbody /table /p p /p pRemember latitudes that are negative (-) are South and longitudes that are negative (-) are West! /p h3Comets/h3 h3a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html"Comets for the Month/a./h3Check out the a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html"Sky Hound/a site. prequot;One touch of nature makes the whole world kinquot;br/-- Shakespeare/pre pEmail us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com or leave a note in our show notes at www.astronomy.libsyn.combr/Help us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hatbr//p pWoodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants./p /li/fonta href="http://www.woodlandhillshosting.com/index.html"img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/WHCT_Hosting_Grants.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;"//abr/


  10. Show #39: Navigating your way through (part of) the Virgo Cluster
    11. 10 May 2007 at 3:19pm
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    font size="3" /fonth3font size="3"Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/Virgo-Leo-Group.jpg"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/Virgo-Leo-Group.jpg"//abr/br/Image courtesy of a href="http://www.randybrewer.net/"Randy Brewer/a /fontp /p h3font size="3"Virgo Galaxies!/font/h3font size="3"Here is a short list of some good Virgo Cluster reference. Each is different and I have used them all! There are literally 100s of articles written about navigating through the Virgo Cluster. My advice is find a good map and then find a route that suits you. I'm presenting only one way to attack the area but it is a way that works for me fairly consistently. /fontpfont size="3"Good luck! /font/p pfont size="3"Alan M. MacRobert's quot;a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/skyandtelescope/access/887356611.html?dids=88735661 1FMT=CITEFMTS=CITEdate=May+1994author=Alan+M+MacRobertdesc=Mastering+the+Virgo+Cluste r"Mastering the Virgo Cluster/aquot; Sky and Telescope, May 1994 pg 42br/-This is the one I carry in my notebook because I love the route and the map. /font/p pfont size="3"Steve Gottlieb's quot;a href="http://astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In.Deep.Space/virgo.htm"The Virgo Mainline/aquot;br/-This one I carry for sharing a different approach for those who get lost at the beginning of the MacRobert's route. /font/p pfont size="3"bAtlas/bbr/a href="http://www.astrosurf.com/jwisn/m60.htm"Jan Wisniewski's/a Virgo Galaxy Cluster - Finder Chart /font/p pfont size="3"Tonight we are using the a href="http://www.wikisky.org/?ra=12.8882533721587de=11.421868054988204zoom=5locale=EN show_grid=1show_constellation_lines=1show_constellation_boundaries=1show_const_names= 0show_galaxies=1show_box=1box_ra=13.0362778box_de=10.959167box_width=50box_height=50i mg_source=SDSS"WikiSky.org/a Atlas for our Virgo Tour /font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/virgo_leo.png"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/virgo_leo.png"//abr/br/Start by arc-ing from the handle of the big dipper to Arcturus and then quot;Speed onquot; or quot;Spikequot; to Spica. Once at Spica work you way up the body of the Maiden to Porrma, her throat, and then up her outstretched arm to Vindemiatrix. /font/p pfont size="3"Another way is to start from the head of Leo the Lion wander west to Denebola and then across to Vindemiatrx. /font/p p /p pfont size="3"46 Galaxies?!?!? Okay, here we go..../font/p font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/virgo_begin_M59.png"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/virgo_begin_M59.png"//aNorth is upbr/br/ table summary="The Virgo Cluster" tbody tr tdbObject/b/td tdbMagnitude/b/td tdbType/b/td tdbNotes/b/td /trtr /trtr tdfont color="red"Section 1/font/td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdfont color="red"The 'on ramp'...../font/td/tr tr tdEpsilon Virginis - Vindemiatrix/td td2.8 /td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdYellow giant 100 light yrs away/td/tr tr tdBunsen Burner/td td9 and 10th /td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdThis asterism point away from Epsilon and in the direction we want to go/td/tr tr tdStruve 1689/td td7 and 9.5 /td td29quot; apart./td/tr tr tdNGC 4762 and NGC 4754/td td10.3 and 10.5/td tdSp/td td4754 is off by itself and 4762 is between a 9th and 10th mag star. Use averted vision or tap the scope to get 4762 to pop out/td/tr tr tdNGC 4694/td td11.4/td tdSp/td tdVery hard to find 11.4 mag elongated NW-SE/td/tr tr tdNGC 4660/td td11.8/td tdE/td tdTiny round cotton ball/td/tr tr tdM60/td td8.8/td tdE/td tdOne of the biggest and brightest ellipticals in tonight's tour. At higher powers you can make out a slight halo as well as the companion galaxy 4647 /td/tr tr tdNGC 4647/td td11.3/td tdSp/td tdClose companion to M60, 3' to the NW a challenge to pick up unless you use averted vision. It is a spiral but looks much more like a smaller version of its elliptical companion/td/tr tr tdM59/td td9.6/td tdE/td tdHas a profile more like a spiral but this evening is all about being faint so- 0.4deg W not as bright as M60. Giant elliptical slightly elongated SE-NW/td/tr tr tdNGC 4638/td td11.2/td tdSp/td tdFainter and smaller depending upon your field of view (FOV) you can squeeze it in along with M60 and M59 making an isosceles triangle with the three./td/tr tr tdNGC 4606/td td11.8/td tdSp/td tdA toughie. Look for a fuzzy star with two stars on the south. If you have a larger scope you may have passed over 13.0mag 4607 an edge on spiral galaxy out of reach of our smaller scopes. /td/tr tr tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td/tr/tbody /table a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/M59_M87.png"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/M59_M87.png"//aNorth is upbr/br/ table summary="The Virgo Cluster pt2" tbody tr tdbObject/b/td tdbMagnitude/b/td tdbType/b/td tdbNotes/b/td /trtr /trtr tdfont color="red"Section 2/font/td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdfont color="red"The first 'fork in the road'..../font/td/tr tr tdM58/td td13.0/td tdSp/td tdSpiral galaxy a little fainter and smaller than M59 a dark sky and larger scope (bigger than 8quot;) will start to pick out its smoke like wisps of spiral arm. Take a good look at where you are because we will need to return back to M58 after a detour down the M90 (and friends)side alley./td/tr tr tdNGC 4550 and NGC 4551/td td11.7 and 12.0/td tdSp and E/td td(Misprint in the MacRobert's narrative where they are referred to as 4450 and 4451) Heading NW from M58 these two sit very close together and are both very faint and tricky to find./td/tr tr tdM89/td td9.8/td tdE/td tdA nice break from hunting around for the last two. It will seem to pop into view...strange how perspective does that to you. A round fuzzy blob with a brighter core./td/tr tr tdM90/td td9.5/td tdSp/td tdJust after M89 is a little quot;Wquot; that runs to the NNW to M90 a giant spiral galaxy with a low surface brightness but it is very large. There is an unrelated 12 mag star sitting between the Earth and the center of this galaxy. Elongated N-S look for a darkened lane on the eastern edge./td/tr tr tdNGC 4564/td td11.1/td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdBacktrack to M58 and then 0.5 deg SW to a tall box asterism just off the NE corner is 4564. /td/tr tr tdNGC 4567 and 4568/td td11.3 and 10.8/td tdSp/td tdAnother pair of spirals that seem to be joined at the ends. They are nicknamed the quot;Siamese Twinsquot; (Who am I to argue but they reminded me much more of amoeba from high school biology class)/td/tr tr tdNGC 4528/td td12.1/td tdSp/td tdVery tiny and quite faint another candidate for power, aperture and dark conditions/td/tr tr tdNGC 4503/td td11.1/td tdSp/td tdOff by itself and very diffuse on 10quot; or smaller scopes this might take DARK skies, tapping, averted vision...all of your faint fuzzy objects tricks./td/tr/tbody /table a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/M89_M86.png"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/M89_M86.png"//aNorth is upbr/br/ table summary="The Virgo Cluster pt3" tbody tr tdfont color="red"Section 3/font/td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdfont color="red"Back way in..../font/td/tr tr tdNGC 4452/td td12.0/td tdSp/td tdThis galaxy is a tiny little fuzzy. It is in between two rows of stars and there is a third row of stars below it housing.../td/tr tr tdNGC 4429/td td10.0/td tdSp/td tdAn easier find, still a fuzzy blob but easier than 4452/td/tr tr tdNGC 4440/td td11.7/td tdSp/td tdSlid back up to 4452 and then to the NW corner of the three rows (or Arcs) of stars. It sits just SW of the Northern most star in the arc/td/tr tr tdM87/td td8.6/td tdE/td tdNow we begin to appreciate the quot;Msquot; in front of numbers. After so many faint NGC an quot;Mquot; gives us hope for something bigger and brighter. Not to disappoint M87 is .75 deg East of 4440 and a nice big bright giant elliptical. The bright nucleus is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky./td/tr tr tdNGC 4478/td td11.4/td tdE/td tdIs M87's companion much fainter and again needing your faint object tricks/td/tr tr tdNGC 4476/td td12.2/td tdSp/td tdHere we go getting super faint again, another target for larger scopes or darker skies (or sometime more experience) but give it your best because your rewards is.../td/tr/tbody /table a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/M87_M91.png"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/M87_M91.png"//aNorth is upbr/br/ table summary="The Virgo Cluster pt3" tbody tr tdfont color="blue"Section 4/font/td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdfont color="blue"quot;The Grand Tourquot; or quot;Markarian's Chainquot;/font/td/tr tr tdM84-M86/td td9.1 and 8.9/td tdE/td tdWe start with the 'face' of the Chain M84 and M86, both elliptical galaxies, make up the eyes of the face. M86 is distinctly brighter with its own little cluster on the NE corner./td/tr tr tdNGC 4388 and 4387/td td11.0 and 12.1/td tdSp and E/td tdMaking an equilateral triangle to the South and forming the mouth is NGC 4388 and edge on E-W spiral galaxy and directly in the middle of the triangle finishing off the nose is NGC 4387 another elliptical galaxy./td/tr tr tdNGC 4402/td td11.8/td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdIf the face had an eyebrow then it would be 4402. North 8.5ish' from M86 the E-W edge on spiral galaxy appears to have a slight dust lane and a North leaning bulge. Almost like a ladies broad brim hat./td/tr tr tdNGC 4413/td td12.2/td tdSp/td tdIn the opposite direction 9'WSW of 4388, NGC 4413 is an almost face on spiral galaxy/td/tr tr tdNGC 4425/td td11.8/td tdSp/td tdFrom 4388 make and equilateral triangle to the west with M86 and your corner will be roughly in the area of 4425 another edge on spiral galaxy brighter than 4413/td/tr tr tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdbr type="_moz"//td tdNow we can start moving up the Chain in pairs.../td/tr tr tdNGC 4435 and 4438/td td10.8 and 10.2/td tdSp/td tdDraw a line WNW from M84 and M86 to the first pair in the chain, both spiral galaxies. Nick-named quot;The Eyesquot; 4438 is slightly longer with wispy arms reaching NW-SE and both galaxies mirror each other in orientation NW-SE /td/tr tr tdNGC 4461 and 4458/td td11.2 and 12.1/td tdSp and E/td tdThe next pair, fainter the elliptical 4458 is all but indistinguishable (for me)from the small 10.95 mag star to its NW. 4461 is slightly brighter spiral galaxy elongated N-S/td/tr tr tdNGC 4473/td td10.2/td tdE/td tdThis slightly brighter elliptical lost her buddy (bad Scout) and lays E-W alone in the middle of the Chain. You may not have noticed but you are now in Coma Berenices./td/tr tr tdNGC 4477 and 4479/td td10.4 and 12.4/td tdSp/td tdAbout 12' NNW are another pair of spiral galaxies. 4477 is the brighter and Eastern most of the pair/td/tr tr tdNGC 4459 and 4474/td td10.4 and 11.5/td tdSp/td tdA wider pair of spirals 4459 is very close to a 8.2 yellow star and look like an elliptical galaxy. 4474 is much fainter but has that familiar central bulge of an edge on galaxy./td/tr tr tdM88/td td9.6/td tdSp/td tdThe last two links in the Chain are biggies and brighties! M88 is a partial face on spiral with a multitude of arms making a nice even frisbe disk./td/tr tr tdM91/td td10.2/td tdSp/td tdA particularly appropriate reward at the end. This face on barred spiral is beautiful with two large arms sweeping out on opposite sides./td/tr/tbody /table /fonth3font size="3"Sun/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/"Current view of the Sun!/a /fonth3font size="3"Comets/font/h3 h3font size="3"a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html"Comets for the Month/a./font/h3font size="3"Check out the a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html"Sky Hound/a site.br/ /fonth3font size="3"Music/font/h3font size="3"quot;Wake the Dragonquot; by a href="http://www.dragonritualdrummers.com/"Dragon Ritual Drummers/abr/quot;Over Againquot; by a href="http://www.rebeccaloebe.com/"Rebecca Loebe/a /fontprefont size="3"quot;One touch of nature makes the whole world kinquot;br/-- Shakespeare/font/pre pfont size="3"Email us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com or leave a note in our show notes at www.astronomy.libsyn.combr/Help us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hatbr//font/p pfont size="3"Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants./font/p a href="http://www.woodlandhillshosting.com/index.html"img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/WHCT_Hosting_Grants.jpg"//abr/


  11. Show #35: Beyond the Messier List
    12. 11 Jan 2007 at 7:11am
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    font size="3" /fonth3font size="3"Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/mcnaught/10jan07/Viviano1.jpg"img width="250" border="0" src="http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/mcnaught/10jan07/Viviano1.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/Image courtesy of Sal Viviano of Washington, Michigan (featured on the Space Weather site Jan.11, 07) /fontpfont size="3"iAn amateur's reflection of the AAS conference.....(a href="http://www.keckobservatory.org/printer_friendly_with.php?id=99"Mira B/a news was fun!)/i /font/p p /p pfont size="3"ibWhen I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer/b/i/font/p font size="3"When I heard the learn'd astronomer,br/When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,br/When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,br/When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,br/How soon unaccountable I became tired, and sick,br/Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,br/In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,br/Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars. /fontpfont size="3"ba href="http://www.whitmanarchive.org/"Walt Whitman/a, 1865 (TOAOAL-II, PP 821-822)/b /font/p p /p h3font size="3"Listener Feedback/font/h3font size="3"Lots of great email out there with folk sharing their new astronomical acquisitions. This is a familiar scene: /fontpfont size="3"img width="250" border="0" src="http://rigelastronomy.com/images/unpacking.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"/br/Congratulations Dan! /font/p pfont size="3"I had my own great surprise! Can you guess what it is? (click on the picture for the answer) Many thanks to the entire Harris Family! /font/p pfont size="3"a width="500" href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/IMG_1791.JPG"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/IMG_1798.JPG" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/ /font/p h3font size="3"Observing Lists/font/h3 pfont size="3"Ben 34, NGC 1904, M79...a rose by any other name....listed in order of creator's birth.../font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_la_Caille"Abbe Nicholas Louis de la Caille (Lac)/a, French deacon and astronomer (1713-1762) This catalog was compiled during his 2-year journey to the Cape of Good Hope in 1751-52, quot;Catalog of Nebulae of the Southern Skyquot;(a href="http://www.maa.agleia.de/Messier/E/Xtra/History/lacaille.html"list/a)/font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Messier"Charles Messier (M)/a, French astronomer (1730 - 1817) Between 1758 to 1782 compiled a list of 'non-comet' items. The SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space) site is one of the best resources for Messier Objects. (a href="http://www.seds.org/messier/"list. Messier compiled his list of deep sky objects in three parts; quot;Memoires de l'Academiequot; 1774, quot;Connoissance des Tempsquot; 1780, and quot;Connoissance des Tempsquot; 1781. /a/font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9chain"Pierre Francois Andre Mechain /a, French astronomer (1744-1804) co-worker with Charles Messier at at the small observatory at Hotel de Cluny in Paris. Mechain contributed many object to the 'Messier' catalogue and has may other objects an comets to his credit. (a href="http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/history/pmechain.html"list/a) /font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herschel"Wilhelm (William) Herschel (H)/a , (1738-1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer who became famous for discovering the planet Uranus. Herschel published quot;Catalogue of One Thousand new Nebulae and Clusters of Starsquot; in 1786 and quot;Catalogue of a second Thousand of new Nebulae and Clusters of Stars; with a few introductory Remarks on the Construction of the Heavensquot; in 1789 500 more objects were added to complete the 2500 Herschel Objects (a href="http://obs.nineplanets.org/herschel/h2500.txt"list/a)the Astronomical League has an award for observing a href="http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/herschel/h400lstc.html"400/a of the Herschel Objects. /font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Elert_Bode"Johann Elert Bode/a, German astronomer (1747-1826) Bode was the director of the Berlin Observatory, where he published the Uranographia in 1801 that combined the artistic with the scientific. All amateurs should appreciate that he published a small atlas for amateurs called quot;Vorstellung der Gestirnequot; which looked at constellations and their mythologies. quot;Complete Catalog of Nebulous Stars and Star Clustersquot;, Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1779, Berlin (1977) (a href="http://www.maa.agleia.de/Messier/E/Xtra/Similar/bode_o.html"list/a) /font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Herschel"Caroline Herschel (CH)/a, German born English astronomer (1750-1848) was an avid astronomical observer, discoverer of comets (she originally found 8 of them) and deepsky objects (a href="http://www.maa.agleia.de/Messier/E/Xtra/Similar/h2500a.html"list/a) collected from 1783-87 which are included in William Herschel's catalogue. /font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Herschel"John Herschel/a (h), (1792-1871 son of William Herschel) English born In 1833 Herschel traveled to South Africa in order to catalogue the stars, nebulae, and other objects of the southern skies. This was to be a completion as well as extension of the survey of the northern heavens undertaken initially by his father./font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dunlop"James Dunlop (Dunlop)/a, Scottish born Australian Astronomer (1793-1848), James Dunlop's Catalog of southern Deep Sky Objects, compiled 1823-27 quot;A Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars in the Southern Hemisphere observed in New South Walesquot; (list)/font/p font size="3"the SEDS site has a a href="http://www.maa.agleia.de/Messier/E/Xtra/Similar/dunlop100.html"highlight/a list /font pfont size="3"a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dreyer"John Louis Emile Dreyer (NGC, IC)/a, (1852-1926) was a Danish-Irish astronomer. He worked with Lord Rosse at Birr where the giant six-foot Leviathan, at that time the largest telescope in the world, was at his disposal. His major contribution was the monumental quot;New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Starsquot; (NGC), whose catalogue numbers are still in wide use today, as well as two supplementary Index Catalogues (IC); quot;Index Catalogue of Nebulae Found in the Years 1888 to 1894quot;. (a href="http://www.ngcic.org/ngciccat.htm"list/a)/font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/borley/49/bennett.htm"Jack Bennett (Ben)/a, (1914-1990) South African astronomer drew up two lists of southern objects that appeared comet-like in his telescope. His first list (Bennett, 1969) was published four months before he discovered his first comet. The supplementary list (Bennett, 1974) was followed three months later by his second discovery. Bennett's list reads like the quot;Who's Who of the Deepskyquot; and provides Southern observers will an extension to more northern lists. (a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/borley/49/bennett.htm#BennettCatalogue"list/ a) /font/p font size="3"Sir Patrick Moore and the Editors of Sky amp; Telescope created quot;a href="http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/similar/caldwell.html"The Caldwell Catalog: 109 Deep-Sky Delights for Backyard Observers/aquot; a href="http://www.rasc.ca/"The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (/aRASC) has published several useful observing lists in their yearly Observer's Handbook, edited by Roy L. Bishop:br/a href="http://www.astroleague.org/observing.html"The Astronomical League/a has provided extra observing tours beyond the Messier objects for binocular observers, each one for Northern and Southern Deep Sky Objects br/a href="http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/lists.html"The Hawaiian Astronomical Society/a keeps a list of lists, so to speak.br/a href="http://www.saao.ac.za/assa/html/32_deepsky.html"Astronomical Society of South Africa/a has a nice set of 100 deep sky objectsbr/...plus a href="http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/xtra/similar/similar.html"many more/a. /fonth3font size="3"Sun/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/"sunspots/a /fonth3font size="3"Planets/font/h3font size="3"bEvening Planets /bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liMercury - Mag -1.1 in Sagittarius lost in the glare heading for the night time sky. /liliVenus - Mag -3.8 in Capricorn sitting low on the horizon at sunset - spectacular! /liliNeptune - Mag +8.0 in Capricorn less than 1 degree north of the +4.3 magnitude star Iota Capricorni /liliUranus - Mag +5.9 in Aquarius Uranus under 1 degree east of Lambda Aquarii. /liliSaturn - Mag +0.2 on the western edge of Leo just west of Regulus. An easy catch and now rising earlier in the evening! /li/font/ul font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/nep_uran_Nov.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/nep_uran_Nov.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/bMorning Planets/bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liJupiter - Mag -1.7 in Ophiuchus visible on the ESE horizon an hour before sunrise. /liliMars - Mag 1.5 in Sagittarius just above the Sun's glare but visible between Jupiter and the horizon. /li/font/ul h3font size="3"Constellations/font/h3 pfont size="3"bLepus/b - the Hare - one of the animals presumed to be hunted by Orion it is more likely that the poor hare was just startled from his burrow by the great hunter charging Taurus the bull.br/bInvented/listed by:/b Ptolemy br/bDeep Sky objects:/ba href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2017.jpg"NGC 2017/a open cluster binoculars and small telescopes reveal five stars building a multiple star systembr/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/1/n1904.jpg"NGC 1904 /a(M79) globular cluster (7.7 mag)is quite compact and a good object for small telescopesbr/IC 418 quot;Raspberry Nebulaquot; planetary nebula (9.3 mag) between Rigel and alpha Leporis, looks likes a 9th mag quot;starquot;br/bDouble stars:/b gamma Lep is a duo of a yellow and a red star with 4th mag and 6th mag, respectively. Its an attractive pair for binoculars.br/Herschel 3752 is a nice triple star visible in small telescopes same field of view as M79br/bVariable stars:/b R Lep is a long-period variable of a deep red color. It is also known as Hind's Crimson Star is described as a drop of blood on a black surface. The brightness varies from 6th mag to 10th mag about every 430 days.br//font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/lepus.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/lepus.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/Taki's Star Atlas a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/index.htm"chart #104/a/font/p pfont size="3"bPuppis/b - the Poop or Stern - Puppis, the 'Poop' Deck or Stern of the Argos Puppis is actually part of Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonautsbr/bInvented/listed by:/b changed by Lacaille in 1763br/bDeep Sky objects:/b a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2437.jpg"M 46 /abright open cluster containing about 100 moderately concentrated stars. The planetary nebula NGC 2438 lies seemingly embedded in its northeastern edge, br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2422.jpg"M 47/a open cluster contains about 50 relatively bright stars moderately concentrated to the center.br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2447.jpg"M 93/a, Another fine open cluster with a distinct triangular or wedge shape. br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2440.jpg"NGC 2440/a planetary nebula very fuzzy with no apparent central star greenish hue.br/bDouble stars:/b Yellow supergiant xi Pup of 3.34 mag shows an orange companion when viewed through binocularsbr/bVariable stars:/b L2 Pup is a red giant which brightness varies from 3rd to 6th magnitude roughly every 140 daysbr/V Pup is an eclipsing binary every 35 hours the brightness goes down from 4.5 mag to 5.1 mag when the fainter star crosses the brighter one in the line of sight.br//font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/Puppis.png"img width="250" border="0" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/Puppis.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr/br/Taki's Star Atlas a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/index.htm"chart #102/a/font/p pfont size="3"Next show.... /font/p pfont size="3"a href="http://www.chattoogariver.org/content/quarterly/W2006/images/Orion.jpg"img width="250" border="0" src="http://www.chattoogariver.org/content/quarterly/W2006/images/Orion.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;"//abr//font/p h3font size="3"Updates!/font/h3 pfont size="3"a href="http://www.astrowhatsup.com/download-the-book/"quot;What's up 2007 - 365 Days of Skywatching/aquot; by Tammy Plotner and published/sponsored by Fraser Cain at the quot;Universe Todayquot; website/blog/podcast. /font/p h3font size="3"Comets/font/h3 pfont size="3"McNaught! (a href="http://www.spaceweather.com/images2007/08jan07/skymap_north.gif"finder chart/a)/font/p p /p h3font size="3"a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html"Comets for the Month/a./font/h3font size="3"Check out the a href="http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html"Sky Hound/a site. /font h3font size="3"Thanks!/font/h3 pfont size="3"Email us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com or leave a note in our show notes at www.astronomy.libsyn.combr/bHelp us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hat/bbr//font/p blockquotefont size="3"Pumbaa: Timon?br/Timon: Yeah?br/Pumbaa: Ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?br/Timon: Pumbaa. I don't wonder; I know.br/Pumbaa: Oh. What are they?br/Timon: They're fireflies. Fireflies that uh... got stuck up on that big... bluish-black... thing.br/Pumbaa: Oh. Gee. I always thought that they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.br/Timon: Pumbaa, wit' you, everything's gas.br//font/blockquote h3font size="3"Music/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?pageNum_MusicList=1t otalRows_MusicList=6BandHash=1eab6d31a5dbda2e28ea49e33821d4ab"Douglas Spotted Eagle/a quot;Starry Nightquot; and quot;Doo'lit'Saa'Da (Another Silent Night) feat. Dine' Children's Choirquot; /fontpfont size="3"Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants./font/p a href="http://www.woodlandhillshosting.com/index.html"img src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/WHCT_Hosting_Grants.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;"//abr/


  12. Show #37: The Horsehead Nebula and Messier Marathons
    13. 14 Mar 2007 at 1:17pm
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    font size="3" /fonth3font size="3"Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/B33.jpg" target="_blank"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/B33.jpg"//abr/br/Image credit:copyright 2006 by Dr. Walter Koprolin (a href="http://astro.nightsky.at/"astro.nightsky.at/a) /fontp /p pfont size="3"ibALDEBARAN AT DUSKbr//b/i/font/p font size="3"Thou art the star for which all evening waits--br/O star of peace,come tenderly and soon,br/Nor heed the drowsy and enchanted moon,br/Who dreams in silver at the eastern gatesbr/Ere yet she brim with light the blue estatesbr/Abandoned by the eagles of the noon.br/But shine thou swiftly on the darkling dunebr/And woodlands where the twilight hesitates. /fontpfont size="3"Above that wide and ruby lake to-West,br/Wherein the sunset waits reluctantly,br/Stir silently the purple wings of Night.br/She stands afar, upholding to her breast,br/As mighty murmurs reach her from the sea,br/Thy lone and everlasting rose of light.br/ /font/p pfont size="3"ibGeorge Sterling, 1911 /b/i/font/p h3font size="3"Horsehead Nebula -B33/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/B33_annotated.png" target="_blank"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/B33_annotated.png"//abr/br/Image credit:sadly I can't remember who's drawing this is! If it is yours please email me so I can give you due credit. The annotations are mine. /fontp /p pfont size="3"Here is the long windbag version of how I find B33!/font/p pfont size="3"If you have a smaller scope (8quot;) wait until the belt of Orion is as high as it gets or in the darkest part of the sky for your area. Seeing conditions have more to do with success than just about anything else (IMHO). Half of the time I am parked right on it and can't see it at all which can be both frustrating and tantalizing at the same time...so close and yet..../font/p pfont size="3"Start off on the eastern most star in Orion's belt, Alnitak or zeta Ori, move the scope east and look for the Flame Nebula, a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2024.jpg"NGC 2024/a Keep moving east and slide Alnitak out of the field of view, now if you can see the Flame nebula chance are that you will be able to see the Horsehead nebula. If you can't see the Flame then see if you can find a bigger scope or darker skies. If you don't see it at first step away close your eyes and let them re-dark adapt after looking at bright Alnitak. (These days I don't start at Alnitak but just to the west of her...)/font/p pfont size="3"Starting at Alnitak inch south to two relatively bright stars, the first one fainter, the second one brighter, 7th mag labeled quot;Aquot; on the picture This is the higher-contrast, eastern edge of IC 434 the bright 'river' of nebulosity streaming south from Alnitak. East of the second star there is another star surrounded by not-so-faint nebulosity designated a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2023.jpg"NGC 2023/a start getting ready for looooooow contrast./font/p pfont size="3"Drawing an imaginary line from NGC 2023 to the 7th magnitude star, and extending it across IC 434, you will find another two relatively bright stars (the northern one brighter quot;Bquot;, the southern one fainter) not quite aligned with the eastern edge of IC 434. Exactly there, at the eastern edge of IC 434, B33 is located. Make an equilateral triangle with quot;Aquot; and quot;Bquot; and the imaginary 3rd point to the south and just inside the imaginary 3rd point is B33./font/p pfont size="3"To see it, use averted vision and keep the eye steady by fixing one of the stars. If the conditions are excellent and you get a little experience in observing B33, you can even detect the Horsehead shape. Experiment with power and filters but don't give up! If you don't get it then try again another night...you are probably right on top of it!/font/p pfont size="3"My mistake each time is to look for something small and contrasty...you need to look for a larger, dark mass protruding (east to west) into IC 434 with optically very little contrast except with a large scope and darker skies (and maybe a little filtering). I can usually make out the flat top and the bulge of the head but not the snout...not on the 8quot;./font/p h3font size="3"Stellarium/font/h3 pfont size="3"We recently had our Student Program learn to write scripts in a href="http://stellarium.org/"Stellarium/a (with a lot of help from one of our super-parents, Bob!) for their annual public night presentation on the quot;Constellationsquot;. If you haven't played with Stellarium scripts it is a lot of fun and somewhat addicting. You will end up spending a lot more time than you think!/font/p font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/stellarium_scripts.zip"Stellarium zip file/a /fontp /p pfont size="3"Messier_aff.sts -This is one that I wrote (I'm a beginner too!)for our quot;Get ready for the Messier Marathonquot; meeting. It goes through an alternate selection of the viewing order, at least the beginning is different. The beginning of the file runs while we talk about what you need for the marathon. Press quot;Kquot; to advance from object to object (M40 is missing from Stellarium) at each title break it will spin to the next object by itself and then you can continue to advance as you wish. REMEMBER! This was programmed in a hurry and I haven't had a chance to work with it since. But I will get it cleaned up soon./font/p pfont size="3"You will want to comment out the landscape or if you want to see what it is like to view from our observing hill at the college then go to the a href="http://www.tas-online.org/"TAS/a website and a href="http://www.tas-online.org/utilities.php"download our landscape files/a. Follow the directions included in the file to add the TAS Ft. Steilacoom landscape to your Stellarium./font/p h3font size="3"Messier Marathon/font/h3font size="3"The ultimate Messier Marathon site...a href="http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/marathon/marathon.html"SEDS/a!br/As far as the order you use there are several lists on the above site but I like the logic behind a href="http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/billferris/marathon2.html"Tom Polakis'/a order.br/ /fonth3font size="3"Southern Hemisphere/font/h3font size="3"-September would be a good time for a marathon of quot;a href="http://www.maa.agleia.de/Messier/E/Xtra/Similar/bennett.html"Bennett List/aquot; and quot;a href="http://www.maa.agleia.de/Messier/E/Xtra/Similar/JCaldw.html"Best Sky Objects from SAAO latitude/aquot; /fontp /p h3font size="3"Sun/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/"sunspots/a /fonth3font size="3"Listener Feedback/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://www.cloudynights.com/"Cloudy Nights/a Telescope Review /fonth3font size="3"Quick News/font/h3 pfont size="3"New Horizons - This dramatic image of Io was taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons at 11:04 Universal Time on February 28, 2007, just about 5 hours after the spacecraft's closest approach to Jupiter. The distance to Io was 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) and the image is centered at 85 degrees west longitude. At this distance, one LORRI pixel subtends 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) on Io. /font/p font size="3"a href="http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/030107.html" target="_blank"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/images/HighRes/030107.jpg"//abr/br /Time again for the a href="http://www.globe.gov/GaN/"Globe at Night/a program! /fonth3font size="3"Planets/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/show_37_planets1.png" target="_blank"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/show_37_planets1.png"//a a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/show_37_planets2.png" target="_blank"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/show_37_planets2.png"//a br/br/bEvening Planets /bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liVenus - Mag -3.9 moving from Pisces to Aries absolutely wonderful. The only thing shining through the cloud cover here in the Pacific NW. /liliSaturn - Mag 0.0 on the western edge of Leo just now north-west of Regulus between the curve of the question mark and Regulus. Nice and high in the early evening! /li/font/ul font size="3"bMorning Planets/bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liJupiter - Mag -2.1 in southern Ophiuchus in the south before dawn to the southwest is Antares. /liliMars - Mag 1.2 in Capricorn just above the Sun's glare in the southeast /liliMercury - Mag 0.5 in Aquarius very low at dawn between Mars and the horizon /li/font/ul font size="3"bLost in the Sun's glare/bbr/ /fontulfont size="3"liNeptune and Uranus/li/font/ul h3font size="3"Constellations/font/h3font size="3"a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/monoscros.png" target="_blank"img width="250" border="0" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomy/monoscros.png"//abr/br/bMonoceros (moh-NOSS-er-us)/b - the Unicornbr/uIntroduced by:/u very old, reported found on Persian spheresbr/uBest known stars:/u a href="http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/mon-t.html"Plaskett's Star-HR 2422 Monocerotis /aone of the most massive binaries known, with two hugely massive blue-white class O (as best we can tell, O7.5 and O6) supergiants tightly orbiting each other with a period of only 14.40 days.br/Beta Mon-triple star system a great triple star system, especially for smaller telescopes. William Herschel, discovered it in 1781br/uDeep sky objects:/u The Rosette Nebula, 2237, a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2239.jpg"2238/a, 2239, and 2246. Inside the clear center of the rose is open cluster 2244. On the southeast corner of the nebula is a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2264.jpg"2264/a another bright open cluster.br/Also the fan/comet-shaped Hubble's variable nebula NGC a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2261.jpg"2261/a, which is associated with the very young star R Monocerotis at its southern tip. A friend just brought an image in to our last meeting of Hubble's variable and it was quite impressive!br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2323.jpg"M50/a This is a cluster of about a hundred bright stars, rather tightly grouped, ideal for small telescopes. It can even be seen by the naked eye on a good night. There is a red star near its center.br/NGC 2506 is a beautiful , bright mag 7.6, densely packed open cluster...almost a wanna-be globular cluster! br/uDouble stars: /uEpsilon Mon is a fixed binarybr/uVariable stars:/u S Monocerotis located at the center of NGC 2264br/ /fonth3font size="3"Viewing/font/h3 pfont size="3"bNaked eye and binoculars/b M44 - Praesepe (the manger) or the Beehive Cluster in Cancerbr/M31, M32, M110 in Andromedabr/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2232.jpg"NGC 2232 /asmall open cluster in Monoceros, mag 4.2 the stars make a 'wedge' shapebr/ /font/p pfont size="3"bTelescope/b - /font/p font size="3"Northern Hemisphere chart a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/index.htm"Taki's chart/a Maps 78 and 79br/Southern Hemisphere chart a href="http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/index.htm"Taki's chart/a Map 55, Map 104, Map 108br/a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2168.jpg"M35/a in Gemini near Castor's foot but what is more interesting is the neighbor... a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2158.jpg"NGC 2158/a, a href="http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/2/n2175.jpg"NGC 2174 and 2175/abr/IC 418 planetary nebula in Lepus nicknamed the Raspberry Nebula at 9.6 mag in a smaller scope it doesn't