Perth Observatory Summer Edition Newsletter 2019 by Perth Observatory

PERTH OBSERVATORY NEWSLETTER SUMMER EDITION 2019

SUMMER LECTURE

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE FOR OUR 2019 SUMMER LECTURE WITH PROFESSOR FRED WATSON

TEDX SPACE PERTH OBSERVATORY HOSTS

PERTH OBSERVATORY’S NEW TELESCOPE BE AMAZED BY OUR 30 INCH TELESCOPE NOW ON TOUR

AN INTERNATIONAL SALON

GREENWICH OBSERVATORY A SPECIAL LINK TO THE PERTH OBSERVATORY

SPACE IN THE SOUTH SOUTH AUSTRALIA TAKE THE GONG FOR AUSTRALIA'S FIRST SPACE AGENCY

WHATS UP IN THE SKY WHERE TO LOOK AND WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN OUR SOUTHERN SKIES THIS SUMMER

SUMMER NIGHT TOURS ARE

PERTH OBSERVATORY P.O. Box 212, 5729 Wesley Rd. London +20 (36) 123 50 60 hello@talkoftown.com www.talkoftown.com

HERE Experience our amazing night sky through our wide range of telescopes at our sky viewing nights. Our Volunteers will take you on a grand tour of the

EDITORIAL

Southern Hemisphere’s sky with a wide range of targets including Nebulas, planets, dying stars, and enormous star

MICHELLE ASHLEYEMILE Editor-In-Chief

clusters.

JOHN FORD You will also be able to browse our museum and see historical instruments,

Operations Editor

our meteorite exhibit, astrophotographs

MINDY GO

& artwork, and admire the beauty of the

Technical Editor

Atlas Coelestis, the first Star Atlas ever printed in 1729 from the work of John Flamsteed, the First Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory in Great Britain.

Adult: $40.00 Concession: $30.00

CONTRIBUTORS Michelle Ashley-Emile, John Ford, Matthew Woods, Julie Mathews, Brendan Hill.

Child: $20.00 Tours Start:

8:30pm Dec - Feb

SUBSCRIPTIONS SUBSCRIBE ONLINE AIBARAP-AGNAK LAZ :EGAMI

BOOK YOUR TOUR

www.talkoftown.com/ subscribe

“I THINK IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE TO CHOOSE TO BE EXTRAORDINARY.” Elon Musk

X ECAPS :EGAMI

CONTENT 01 A View Through the Eyepiece 03 Upcoming Events

04 Star Adoption 05 The Summer Lecture

07 12

06 March Offsite Tour

07 Lotterywest Grant

08 Australian Space Agency 09 Comet Wirtanen 10 TedX at The Perth Observatory

11 Elite Dangerous Game review 15 Aperture Priority 16 Selfies in Space 17 The Black Hole Saga

16 FIND US HERE

CONTENT 19

18 Messier 78 19 My Day at Greenwich Observatory 24 Cosmic Craft

25 Movie review 26 Whats up in the sky

35 Astro Shop

36 Astronomy Gastronomy 37 An Image From Juno

37 The Perth Observatory 337 Walnut Road Bickley Western Australia PO Box 179 Kalamunda WA 6926 Phone: (08) 9293 8255 Fax: (08) 9293 8138 info@perthobservatory.com.au www.perthobservatory.com.au Office Times: 10am to 4:30pm Mon - Fri (exclude public holidays), and open for scheduled tours

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A VIEW THROUGH THEÂ EYEPIECE WORDS BY Diana Rosman

This Summer Edition of the Perth Observatory Newsletter ends a stellar year for the Perth Observatory. Milestones this year would not have been achieved, without our dedicated staff, committed volunteers and support from businesses and community groups across government, academic and private sectors. 2018 has indeed been a year to celebrate. First among the highlights this year is the significant funding from Lotterywest awarded to enable us to implement most of the heritage and cultural aspects of our strategic intent. With additional support from Rotary Kalamunda, local businesses and a huge volunteer effort the Observatoryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heritage professionally will be preserved and shared. Heritage clocks that set WA time for most of the 20th century will be set in motion; thousands of glass photographic plates dating from 1900 will be digitised, saved and re-analysed; documents, letters and personal stories of scientific discoveries will be captured for posterity. Alongside these memories of 120 years of scientific discovery, an Aboriginal Astronomy Centre will be created to acknowledge 60,000 years of celestial storytelling through art. Yet, as we embark on this period of restoration and development, the challenge will be to maintain operations, particularly the busy schedule of events, while responding to new opportunities as our facilities develop and grow. Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are invited to join us in training to be part of this challenging adventure. We will also partner with other local tour operators to develop and host interesting new events and activities using our site and facilities.

Other highlights for this year include work in restoring the 20 metre Lowell Dome, plans to resurrect the Boller & Chivens telescope and refurbish the historic Grubb Astrographic telescope. There have also been so many site visits and viewing events to remember. Most recently, we were delighted to host an outdoor TEDXPerth salon event, when three “out of this world” speakers and two hundred guests shared personal stories of zero gravity, space telescope development and mars exploration. A sky tour and star viewing under a perfect moonlight sky added to the enjoyment. Our gift vouchers for events and our shop sales have been incredibly popular, too. Looking ahead, we have Valentines on 14th February 2019, then on Friday, 1st March after the busy schedule throughout January and February, the Perth observatory’s annual Summer Lecture will be delivered by Australia’s Astronomer at Large, Fred Watson (www.fredwatson.com.au). I can’t wait to hear Fred speak about the volcanic solar system! On behalf of the POVG volunteers and staff, I’d like to thank all our supporters, donors and sponsors for making 2018 a year to remember with pride and gratitude.

Diana Rosman (POVG Chairperson)

FRONT COVER IMAGE BY ROGER GROOM

CONTRIBUTORS

EDITORIAL

PERTH OBSERVATORY 337 Walnut Road 6076 Bickley, WA

MICHELLE ASHLEY- Michelle Ashley-Emile, EMILE James Ford, Matthew Editor

(08) 9293 8255 newsletter@povg.org www.perthobservatory.com.au

Woods, Terry Edmett Brendan Hill, Zal KangaParabia, Geoff Scott, Roger Groom, Ronny Kaplanian, John Ford

SUBSCRIPTIONS Click Below to subscribe to our newsletter

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THE PERTH OBSERVATORY

UPCOMING EVENTS ADVENTURE

ABSEILING AT THE PERTH OBSERVATORY

FUN

VALENTINES NIGHT TOUR

Want to have a special night with your special someone on Valentine's Day Night? Book on our Valentine's Day night tour and experience our amazing night sky with your partner looking through our wide range of telescopes at our sky viewing nights. Our Volunteers will take you on a grand tour of the Southern Hemisphere’s sky with a wide range of targets including Nebulas,

Need a bit of thrill in your life?

dying stars, and enormous star clusters so you can earn serious brownie

Perth Observatory is teaming up

points with your loved one.

with Spacechameleon Adventure Co to organise a family

You will also be able to browse our museum and see historical instruments,

friendly event where you can abseil

our meteorite exhibit, astrophotographs & artwork, and admire the beauty

our Lowell Telescope Dome. Each

of the Atlas Coelestis, the first Star Atlas ever printed in 1729 from the work

participant will get 3 abseils

of John Flamsteed, the First Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich

through the dome's trap door and

Observatory in Great Britain.

descend the full 20m in a controlled free fall to the ground.

Closer to the date we'll contact you to organise beautiful picnic food

You can also abseil upside down

baskets from Hainault Vineyard if you would like one.

just like Tom Cruise if you choose to do so ;). Both abseiling and climbing

Adult: $45.00

challenge your primal fears, with

Concession: $35.00

falling being the most primal of all.

Child: $25.00

You'll learn how to apply the

Start Time: 8:30 pm

rational mind to understand irrational fears, leads to a greater level of control in many other aspects of day-to-day life. Spacechameleon Adventure Co caters for beginners as well as adrenaline junkies and the event will go ahead rain or shine.

$35 per adult for 3 abseils $30 per concession for 3 abseils $25 per child for 3 abseils

Date: Sunday 3rd February 2019 Time: 12:00 pm to 14:00 pm

14:30 pm to 16:30 pm

GET YOUR TICKETS

14th Feb 2019 GET YOUR TICKETS

Our star adoption program provides a unique gift and is a way to recognise a family member or friend through the adoption of a star. All available stars in the program are between the magnitudes -1 and 4.9 (visible to the naked eye) or 5.0 and 7.9 (visible in binoculars), all in the Southern Hemisphere.

The individual star adoption package includes:

A certificate (suitable for framing)with star name and coordinates, and the duration and purpose of the adoption.

Private star viewing night for the recipient and 3 guests within 12 months that include several other seasonal objects and will be scheduled when your chosen star is available at a suitable time for viewing

A planisphere (a device to show what constellations and stars are in the sky at any time)

Star charts and coordinates showing where the star is located in the night sky, as well as being shown how to use these at the star viewing night

Please note: Perth Observatory’s Star Adoption program doesn’t offer international naming rights to the star as there are no internationally recognised naming rights to the stars. The program is run by the Perth Observatory Volunteer Group Inc, and the income goes towards the Observatory’s not for profit, public outreach program.

BOOK YOUR TOUR AND FOR MORE INFORMATION

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Star Adoption Tour

AIBARAP-AGNAK LAZ :EGAMI

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THE SUMMER LECTURE

This year, the Summer Lecture is on the 1st of March and we’re thrilled to have Professor Fred Watson as our speaker and he’s going to present his “The Volcanic Solar System” talk. Professor Fred Watson has recently been appointed Australia’s first Astronomer-at-large, following his career with the former Australian Astronomical Observatory. He is best known for his radio and TV broadcasts, talks, and other outreach programs, which earned him the 2006 Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science. He has also written a number of award-winning books and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2010. Fred has an asteroid named after him (5691 Fredwatson) but says that if it hits Earth, it won’t be his fault In some parts of the world, volcanoes are an important part of everyday life. In space, too, they are more common than you might imagine. In this informative and entertaining talk, astronomer Fred Watson explains what we know about volcanoes in the Solar System. They occur in a wide variety of different forms, ranging from sulphurous lava-fountains to extinct giants, and from weird volcanic domes to frigid ice-volcanoes. There will a coffee and food van(s) (If there’s no total fire ban in place) on the night and closer to the date we’ll contact you to organise beautiful picnic food baskets from Hainault Vineyard if you would like one. Please Note: The summer lecture will still go ahead rain, hail or alien invasion. If on the day there is a good chance of rain then the summer lecture will be moved to Lesmurdie High School (View Map) and you’ll be informed via email and a phone call.

Price: $20 for Adults $15 for Concession/Children Location: Perth Observatory Date: Friday the 1st of March 2019 Time: 8:00 pm (Gates open at: 6:00 pm)

GET YOUR TICKETS

YADOTESREVINU ASAN :EGAMI

NIGHT TOURS The Perth Observatory site will be closed for a couple of weeks from the second week of March for maintenance on our Main Office Building. The thing is, we can’t sit and relax for that amount of time, we have to be showing the public the stars or we’ll go nuts.

Thanks to Lesmurdie Senior High School, we’re going to stay sane and we’ll be taking our telescopes to the school and running our night sky tour from their oval. We’ll have a sausage sizzle on the night and our Volunteers will take you on a grand tour of the Southern Hemisphere’s sky with a wide range of targets including Nebulas, planets, dying stars, and enormous star clusters.

What happens if it’s cloudy? In the event of a forecast bad weather, the decision to cancel the tour will be made at 2 pm on the day of the tour and all ticket holders will be contacted via email and phone using details provided during the booking process. You will then be given the option to receive a refund or transfer the booking to an alternative tour date/time. (Please ensure that these contact details are correct).

Please Note: Unfortunately due to the location of the oval outside the school’s security fence there is only the staff toilet available and the school has asked that it only be used in the case of emergencies.

Lesmurdie Senior High School 21 Reid Rd, Lesmurdie WA 6076 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Adult: $40.00 Concession: $30.00 Child: $20.00

GET YOUR TICKETS

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MARCH OFFSITE

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LOTTERYWEST GRANT AWARDED TO PERTH OBSERVATORY VOLUNTEERS WRITTEN MATT WOODS

Chairperson, Diana Rosman thanked Lotterywest for their incredible support and said that the Perth Observatory at Bickley is now on track to become the premier astronomical experience in Australia.

“Under the guidance of our volunteer management committee, operations staff and 120 volunteers of all ages, across 10 interconnected development projects, the Observatory’s heritage will be preserved, explained and shared. Heritage clocks that set WA time for most of the 20th century will be set in motion; thousands of glass photographic plates dating from 1900 will be digitised, saved and re-analysed; documents, letters and personal stories of scientific discoveries will be captured for posterity. If only the telescopes could speak!” Operations Manager, Francesca Flynn, added that alongside 120 years of scientific achievement, an Aboriginal Astronomy Centre will be created to acknowledge 60,000 years of celestial storytelling through art. “This collaboration includes Follow the Dream high school students, emerging artists, Elders and local community group Rotary Kalamunda, with works to be led by internationally renowned Noongar Artists Peter Farmer Senior and Sharyn Egan. It will create a centre for us all to learn and appreciate what the night sky means to our first Australians”. Throughout the site, history will come alive, access will be improved, and signage brought into the digital age. The volunteers’ strategic vision for this iconic site can be realised at last.

The volunteers at the Perth Observatory are indeed grateful for the support of Lotterywest and the 10,000 visitors each year who come to their night sky tours, school day tours, special events and lectures.

The project is supported by Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, the City of Kalamunda, Rotary Kalamunda and various Perth Hills community groups and businesses, showing they understand the power of Astronomy to inspire, enthral and unite.

ADELAIDE BECOMES HOME TO THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE AGENCY WRITTEN BY BRENDAN HILL

image: pm.gov.au

In mid-December last year the Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the newly formed Australian Space Agency will be head-quartered in Adelaide in the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site which is currently being transformed into an innovation hub. Adelaide beat out several strong bids, including ones from WA, NSW and Canberra, to become the new centre of space exploration and technology in Australia. The decision raised the ire of some, with claims that the decision was influenced more by political factors and the upcoming election than by the strength of the various bids presented. The government has insisted however that the Adelaide bid was the strongest and will bring the most benefit to the country as whole. The establishment of an Australian Space Agency now has lots of advantages and is broadly considered to be positive step. The agency will be able to regulate the frequent incoming requests from other nations, as we can see parts of the sky that they canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t . Having access to a Space agency within our own country will help to prevent our best and brightest leaving to pursue opportunities overseas. But most of all, it provides an opportunity to fire up the imagination of the public and gain support for more and better spacebased projects in the future.

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THE SOUTHERN SKY

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COMET WIRTANEN

WORDS AND IMAGES BY Ronny Kaplanian Astrophotographer

Beyond Imagination

This is my first close up photograph of a Comet also known as Comet Wirtanen, named after the astronomer Carl Wirtanen in 1948 who discovered it, This comet has an orbital period of 5.4 years which is very short and will be at it's closest to earth on the 15th of December 2018 (11.68 million km). Comets are the left over dust and debris from the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago and they are mostly made of icy water and rock with many frozen gases like methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide. They all originate from the Oort cloud which is way pass the orbit of Pluto and get knocked around thus sometimes coming towards the sun. This comet has a small tail but as it comes closer to the Sun it will warm up and shed more material into space thus creating a longer tail. At some point of time comets used to be believed deliverers of bad omens to humanity as they were feared and misunderstood. We now know what they are and eagerly await them to present their beauty in our skies. Approximately 65 million years ago though the mass extinction of dinosaurs and most life forms was due to a massive comet hitting Earth. This comet is approximately 1.2 km in diameter, although not huge it can shed some devastation if it should ever one day collide in us. This image was taken when it was 20 million km away. travelling at approximately 10 km per second.

TEDx at the Perth Observatory PHOTOS BY MATT WOODS ARTICLE BY MICHELLE ASHLEY-EMILE

On the night of the 8th of December Perth Observatory was honoured to host the Final TEDx Perth Salon Space, in our new outdoor amphitheatre. With a crowd of over 200 stargazers, the evening was opened to up to wonderful stories and research about all things space related. For most guests they were not only treated to three entertaining and informative talks, but also a quick night sky tour. Our volunteers had telescopes at the ready to guide our stargazers into the skies, looking at objects such as the Orion Nebulae, Globular clusters, planets and double stars. The speakers began with a talk from Danail Obreschkow on his studies and experience on weightlessness and the plane fondly known as the ‘Vomit Comet’. This was followed by a quick question time for our audience to engage with our speaker and the subject matter. Following this, Garth Illingsworth began his talk on finding the first galaxies in our Universe. Our guests were treated to a wonderful show of some of the youngest and further away galaxies ever viewed, and the advances in telescopes and radioscopes and what the future will be able to tell us about our universe and how it all began. During question time and a short demonstration of the night sky by volunteer Steve Ewing, one of our night tour groups was lucky enough to catch a fireball lighting up the sky, a great introduction to the talk by Gretchen Benedix , which was about fireballs and meteorites, and What they could tell us about Mars. At the conclusion of Gretchen’s talk guest were invited to view a meteorite from Mars retrieved from Antarctica. It was such a fantastic evening of science and space, and a big thank you to all of our guests, speakers, volunteers and the organisers at TEDx for providing us with an amazing night under the stars. If you missed out, and are interested in Perth Observatory’s next lecture series, please click here for more information.

ELITE DANGEROUS Game review by James Ford Astronomers dream of being able to voyage between the stars they observe and explore our galaxy. While it's very unlikely that we will get to voyage the stars in our lifetime due to the vast distances involved, the computer game Elite Dangerous gives us pretty good idea what it might be like. Elite Dangerous, released in December 2014, is the fourth game in the Elite series. The first version of Elite was written by David Braben and Ian Bell for the BBC Microcomputer, and was released way back in 1984. For the time, it was a huge technical achievement, and a milestone in computer gaming. It was followed by Frontier: Elite II on the Amiga computer in 1993, and Frontier: First Encounters in 1995, which introduced a game world based on real world star data. David Braben has keen interests in mathematics and physics, and this is reflected in the games he helped create. Elite Dangerous is an online multiplayer space simulation game. In the game, players (known as Commanders, or CMDR for short) start with very little money, at the controls of a Sidewinder, a small spaceship docked in a remote star port with 7.56ly jump range and modest cargo capacity. Players can earn money in the game running missions between space stations, either alone or teaming up with other human players, aspiring to upgrade their ship, or even trade up to bigger and more capable ships. Careers open to players include trader, miner, passenger liner pilot, military, search and rescue, bounty hunter, pirate, smuggler - and explorer.

The centrepiece of the game is its open world - Our own Milky Way galaxy, recreated at 1:1 scale in stunning detail with more than 400,000,000,000 stars. One only needs to use the zoom feature available on the game's Galactic Map to get a sense of how massive our galaxy really is. Stars of all known spectral types are represented - from blue-white stars and hyper giants, to common red dwarfs, to rarer Wolf-Rayet, Carbon stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and even black holes (complete with gravitational lensing). Within each star system, planets of many different types and hues can be found, from barren rocky bodies, to icy worlds, to earth-like worlds and gas giants, some including complex moon and ring systems. Wherever you are in the galaxy, the backdrop of stars you see from your spaceship is correct based on your location. From the starting location, Barnard's Loop and Witch Head nebula are clearly visible.

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From the moment your ship travels up the elevator and departs space dock, the feeling of scale is immense. The game creates some truly beautiful visuals of our galaxy, and the game supports virtual reality headsets. The only concession the game makes to real world physics is the ability to exceed the speed of light and hyperspace between stars. This concession allows players to journey anywhere within our galaxy.

THE CENTREPIECE OF THE GAME IS ITS OPEN WORLD - OUR OWN MILKY WAY GALAXY, RECREATED AT 1:1 SCALE IN STUNNING DETAIL

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The large and small Magellanic clouds, M31 Andromeda, Messier 110 and Triangulum galaxies are ever present in the distance. The in-game galaxy features approximately 150,000 real stars in their correct positions, taken from available sky catalogue data (such as Luyten, Hipparcos, Bonner Durchmusterung, Harvard Revised Photometry Catalogue). In addition, there are dozens of spectacular nebulae of varying types (taken from New General Catalogue) recreated in 3D, including reflection, supernova, planetary and dark. Of course, our solar system "Sol" is recreated faithfully, with all planets present in the correct positions (for the year 3304), as well as many planetoids and major moons. From our solar system, the band of the Milky Way is bright in the sky, and familiar constellations are instantly recognisable. Mars has been terraformed, and the great canyon Valles Marineris is visible as an enormous ocean. On Europa, geothermal geysers shoot ice skywards. As a kind of an Easter egg, the "ancient" Voyager 1 and 2 space probes can be found by keen explorers in the positions they will be in by 3304. Locating these probes can be done by careful alignment of our sun against specific real background stars. From the comfort of their own home, Commanders could recreate their own version of famous images, such as the Blue Marble, Earthrise, and the Pale Blue Dot. For areas of the galaxy outside our catalogue of known stars, a computer algorithm called "Stellar Forge" procedurally generates star systems using current scientific understanding of stellar formation. Stellar Forge uses "available mass" for regions of space, from which to generate stars and planetary systems. The location of generated stars, and the orbits of bodies in star systems are determined by physics.

How accurate is the galaxy that this system creates? As it turns out, eerily accurate. Trappist-1 is a very faint red dwarf (spectral type M8) 39.6ly from Earth. So faint in fact that it does not appear in most star catalogues, and so was not originally included in the game. When 7 planets were discovered orbiting Trappist-1 in 2015, it was found that the Elite Stellar Forge algorithm had already determined through unaccounted mass that a star should be there, and created a brown dwarf star within 1ly of the real Trappist-1 location. Not only that, it had 7 terrestrial planets, just like the real Trappist-1. It only required a small tweak, and Trappist-1 was depicted accurately within the game. In 2016, astronomers announced the discovery of Proxima Centauri B, a possible earth-like world in orbit around Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri in Elite Dangerous already had a planet orbiting it Eden. In the lore of the game, the possibility that Eden was Earth-like and the confirmation in the early 21st century of the presence of water on Eden made it the destination of the first interstellar voyage. However, on reaching Eden, it turned out to be far from paradise. Instead of a blue marble, explorers found an inhospitable metallic body with water atmosphere, irradiated by the nearby star. Players of Elite Dangerous lobbied to have the real planet officially named Eden. Explorers are free to travel wherever they like in the galaxy. A player might choose to take a trip to Maia in Pleiades Nebula. Or, one could take a trip out to the double star Albireo in Beta Cygni - 433.8 light years from Sol - to see how far apart these stars actually are. You can visit the supergiants Betelgeuse and VY Canis Majoris. You can even voyage 25,900 light years to the galactic core and stare into the abyss of intense gravitational lensing of Sagittarius A*, the super massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. You could take a tour of the many nebula in our galaxy. Such a trip could start at the Witch Head Nebula, then outwards to the Orion Nebula (there is a visitor's centre there), Barnard's Loop and Horsehead Nebula, then keep going across the Orio-Persan gap between Orion Spur and Perseus Arm, 5000ly out to Jellyfish Nebula.

The galaxy represented within the game is so rich, it has inspired Commanders to band together into official expeditions. There is a player community effort to map the Elite galaxy, and record discoveries in the Elite Dangerous Star Map website (edsm.net). These explorers have set distance records attempting to visit stars most distant from Sol. Early explorers struggled to reach Beagle Point (65,279ly), but after newer more capable exploration ships were introduced, and after technology improvements within the game, commanders have been able to reach even more distant worlds. Semotus Beacon (Ishum's Reach) (65,647.34ly) is now the most distant accessible star, and SalomĂŠ's Reach, the outermost moon of the secondary star, officially the most distant point from Sol in the galaxy. Players who are the first to visit stars and planets in the game have their Commander name forever recorded on them as the first discoverer. And yet, with all the concerted efforts of Elite commanders, to date players have explored only 0.04% of the galaxy. Perhaps one day, I will see you out in the black, Commanders. o7 CMDR HunterZero

Elite Dangerous is available on PC, XBox One and PS4.

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APERTURE PRIORITY words and images by john ford This 2018/9 viewing season, the POVG has made an

Simpson, then MLA for Darling Range, on 29th

exciting addition to its public viewing telescope

September 2016. The girth of the telescope meant

line-up: a Dobsonian-mounted Newtonian reflector

that it couldn’t be brought in through the door: the

with a large 30” (76cm) f/4 primary mirror, made by

mirror box had to be lowered in by crane! The

the highly-regarded Obsession company in the

telescope itself was then disassembled, cleaned

USA. Its mirror, one of the largest in use for public

and upgraded. The giant mirror was gently cleaned

viewing in Australia, gathers nearly four times at

by some of the very experienced volunteers to

much light as the next largest telescope at the

remove years of accumulated dust. A fully

Observatory, promising more detailed views of dark-

automated GOTO and tracking system was installed

sky objects and planets than before, and possibly

so volunteers could spend more time interacting

add more objects to the viewing program.

with the visitors and less time finding objects and

ITS MIRROR IS ONE OF THE LARGEST IN USE FOR PUBLIC VIEWING IN AUSTRALIA, The telescope was originally acquired in 2007, along

adjusting the telescope tracking! Over the winter

with several Nagler eyepieces, accessories and a

months of 2018, enough volunteers were trained in

custom trailer to transport it. Due to its large bulk

the use of the telescope so that it could be added

and requiring two people to operate it efficiently, it

to the 2018/9 tours.

was used only intermittently over the following

All volunteers who have had the chance to look at

years, including at Perth Astrofest in 2017.

some of our favourite targets through the new

Finally, it was decided to move ahead with giving

telescope have been impressed with the extra

the telescope a permanent home at the Observatory.

detail they see: more nebulosity in Orion and

A new concrete pad with an electrical supply was

Tarantula Nebulas; subtle cloud bands on Saturn’s

added next to the main viewing area, and a dome

surface and a crisp sharp Cassini division in Saturn’s

with remote-operated rotation and shutter opening

rings; details in the equatorial bands of Jupiter, and

was assembled on it. The new dome was named the

of course its Great Red Spot. The POVG is very

Jubilee Dome in honour of the 50th anniversary of

excited to share this with the viewing public over

the Perth Observatory opening at its current location

the coming months.

at Bickley and was officially opened by Tony

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SELFIES IN SPACE WRITTEN BY MICHELLE ASHLEY- EMILE Move aside social media with your fitness and party selfies, nothing can beat these epic self shots that are totally out of this world. The first astronaut selfie was taken by Buzz Aldrin in 1966 during the Gemini Mission. This photo has recently sold for $9200 USD.

Following suit , numerous astronauts have taken the opportunity to snap a quickie with the blue marble, in sighting awe and jealousy amongst the rest of us. Nothing can compare to a selfie with 8 billion people photo-bombing in the background, or the crisp blackness of space behind. #NOFILTER.

THE BLACK HOLE SAGA AN ONGOING SERIAL INTO THE QUEST FOR BLACK HOLES

WRITTEN

TERRY

EDMETT Alternatively if you might venture into the world of String

Good evening, young man. I hope you are continuing your quest for information about Black Holes. There has been quite a lot of work done since you last asked and I hope you have found what you have been looking for.

Theory where every particle is seen as a minute vibrating string of various configurations that are seen as the various particles, then the picture changes considerably. Instead of a star collapsing into a singularity surrounded by an event horizon it becomes a tangled 'ball of strings'

There has also been some research into the possibility that Black Holes might not even exist and might possibly just be an illusion from something else that looks like what we might expect them to be. For example, comes

with a 'fuzzy' surface so anything falling on to one might find their sub atomic structure combining with the other strings and become blended in perhaps. This of course hasn't been proven in any way yet.

an article from Cornell University on an alternative Alternatively the Black Hole singularity might actually be

possibility :-

a 'Wormhole' that might possibly connect to another part

'Gravitational Condensate Stars: An Alternative to Black

of the universe or if the mathematics of String Theory is correct that postulates alternate universes then the

Holes

singularity might just connect to another universe

Pawel O. Mazur, Emil Mottola (Submitted on 11 Sep 2001 (v1), last revised 27 Feb 2002

entirely. There are multiple theories on possible configurations of alternate universes which could cause

(this version, v5))

problems with navigation if ever it was possible to use

A new solution for the endpoint of gravitational collapse is proposed. By extending the concept of Bose-

one to go elsewhere and then want to return home. Again unproven.

Einstein condensation to gravitational systems, a cold, compact object with an interior de Sitter condensate phase and an exterior Schwarzschild geometry of arbitrary total mass M is constructed. These are separated by a phase boundary with a small but finite

thickness of fluid with eq. of state p=+ , replacing both the Schwarzschild and de Sitter classical horizons. The new solution has no singularities, no event horizons, and a global time. Its entropy is maximized under small fluctuations and is given by the standard hydrodynamic

It looks like there is a lot to be learned yet and even the gravitational waves that have been detected so far might possibly have been caused by a collision of spinning Wormholes rather than spinning Black Holes although existing instrumentation is not yet sufficiently sensitive to detect any difference in the echo generated in their final seconds of the collision. Scientists are working on improving the sensitivity of their instrumentation ready for the next event.

entropy of the thin shell, instead of the BekensteinHawking entropy. Unlike black holes, a collapsed star of

So keep at it young man, keep on with your research

this kind is thermodynamically stable and has no

and studies and the mystery of the 'Black Hole' will

information paradox.'

surely be solved perhaps even by yourself.

NOMADIC

NOITIDE REMMUS â&#x20AC;˘ 81 EGAP

MESSIER 78

WORDS AND IMAGES BY Ronny Kaplanian Astrophotographer

Beyond Imagination

This is my 4th attempt at Messier 78 via my Hyperstar lens system, the nebulae is a very dark and mysterious object in space positioned very close to Orion's hot super stars. This intricate and amazing nebulae lies appx 1600 light years from Earth. Messier 78 is a reflection nebulae as it doesn't contain a lot of Ionised gas so it reflects the blue colour from those very young hot blue stars inÂ its midst. A lot of Mystery shrouds this nebulae with plenty of unexplained Dark matter obscuring the light from reaching us. like most objects in space, there is more wonder and mystery far beyond our reach. The streaks of light across the image are meteorites from the Geminids meteor shower, I kept them in the image to be seen.

MY DAY AT THE GREENWICH OBSERVATORY ARTICLE & IMAGES BY MARY HUGHES

I had always had this visit on my bucket list. But it didn’t happen until August this year. I booked my entry for the Observatory and my viewing time at Caird Hall. I had two particular goals in mind with this visit. First you may ask what is at Caird Hall? Well one of my interests as a volunteer at the Observatory is the Atlas Coelestis and here I was with the opportunity to view three of them in one day. I was so excited I was like a kid in a lolly shop and I was not disappointed…secondly I have a fascination with the Harrison clocks and after reading Longitude by Dava Sobell, I had to see them. So there you have most of my day. At Caird Hall you have to book time to view books so that was my first task. I had ordered the books to view online several months in advance so they were there for me when I arrived. They have a large reading area with long tables to spread out on. Glass paperweights help you hold the pages down and surprisingly I didn’t have to use gloves but you are asked to be careful and use only the edges. There is no restriction on photo taking so my phone had a bit of a workout! The first item to note is that their 1729 book was purchased from a Mr John Parnell so unlike ours it did not come down through a family member.

The second thing is that it is pristine in condition having no notes or markings throughout. I never tire of looking through the pages as the book draws me in some way. I sometimes think John Morris (John was one of the original group of volunteers in 1996) must have seen it in me to pass on his knowledge for which I thank him. The pictures below are taken by me from the 1729 book in Caird Hall. Ok that done I asked for the 1753 version wondering really what would be the difference. Well this one wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pristine there were comments and highlights in it. Here is an example: The later version has a fair amount of pencilled comments throughout the book. Also the owner of the book at the time had marked lots of stars in red and explained the reason in the book list at the front.

THE PERTH OBSERVATORY COPY

ORION

TAURUS

GEMINI

And yes there is such a book as Captains Smiths Celestial Cycles. Some pages from this book here: LINK Click The last edition in Caird Hall is the 1781 version. Below 4 images I was beginning to run out of time by this point and was keen to observe the Harrison clocks. The 1781 version really is the original book by a different publisher and the only difference I could see was the list of contents and a longer manuscript book. All in good condition. So to summarise: I believe as did John Morris that our book is unique! There are a few around the world but if you are at our Observatory in the Perth Hills, take time to look at the page that is displayed in the Museum when you visit…it will usually show a relevant constellation and we do change the pages to preserve the quality of the book. It’s a wonderful piece of history and while you look, take some time to remember a man who devoted his whole life to astronomy the Rev John Flamsteed…. Onwards to the clocks:

RED STARS EXPLAINED

1729 VERSION

1753 VERSION

The Harrison clocks are astounding pieces of work with so many moving things going in all directions and really I couldn’t work out what each bit was doing but who cares it was a joy to behold and when I think John Flamsteed was commissioned in 1675 by Charles 2nd who commanded that ‘that they should apply themselves with the utmost care and diligence to rectify the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, in order to find out the so much desired longitude at sea, for the perfection of the art of navigation.’ And how many years would pass before a clock maker would work it out and actually build the item. It’s a great story all round. Astronomers in general believed in the Lunar Distance method but it was more difficult to apply. I think they didn’t want to accept this fact especially Neville Meskelyne the 5th Astronomer Royal who gave Harrison a bit of a rough time in collecting his prize money….which he got in the end! And well deserved in my humble opinion!

Going through Flamsteed House was very interesting and I loved seeing the room that Flamsteed worked in. I didn’t really know what to expect as I had seen old pictures but the real thing was enlightening…perhaps bigger and higher than I expected. But all in all it was an experience to go there and take time to imagine the difficulties astronomers had in those days.

HARRISON'S "SEA WATCH" NO.1 (H4), WITH WINDING CRANK

HARRISON'S CHRONOMETER H5

Flamsteed had to build all his own equipment or get someone else to help which often was his assistant Matthew Sharpe. A stipend of 100 pounds a year didn’t go far and he had to take in pupils to supplement his income. I had to appreciate the time he spent at the Observatory in fact over 50 years and hadn’t received overly much recognition for his work. To be honest I thought there would have been a picture of him in the Octagon Room but only Charles 2nd and James 2nd graced the space above the door. I waited ages for that lady in the picture to move sadly no, she didn’t!!

COSMIC CRAFT A TRUE TALE, THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING

The late night sky gazing has occasional moments of quiet, and where some astro-photographers stare up endlessly into the dark void of awe and wonder, Roger Groom was busy scribbling drawings and notes onto his iPad. Like Einstein on his chalkboard, Roger rallied notes and diagrams for a plan hatched in the deep, dark night. For you see, like the great scientists before him, Roger had a problem that was incredibly difficult to solve. How do you keep a group of 3-year old’s entertained for at least 2-3 hours at a Perth Observatory Volunteer Function? For those of us who have ever had to be around small children for any amount of time know that this problem surpasses all laws of logic and physics, however it is not entirely impossible. Roger’s scribbles danced in his head and soon he journeyed into the local art and craft store, for Styrofoam spheres, glue, cardboard and all things glittery and shiny. The plan was now underway. There was no turning back now. On the big day of the Volunteer annual Christmas BBQ at the Perth Observatory out came the craft. The three-year old’s were shy at first but curious, and it wasn’t long until they jumped right into the activity, gluing and sticking gems, shapes and pipe cleaners to create magnificent rockets. As night fell the glow sticks were activated and giggles and smiles fuelled the rockets that blasted through the air around the premade Styrofoam planets and stars. They learned about the rings on Saturn, the heat of the Sun, and how to run in the dark without crashing into each other. As the rockets returned to earth at the end of the evening, fuel running out and eyelids getting heavy Roger knew the mission was a success… the three-year old’s were thoroughly entertained, and tired…. Well, at least until morning.

CRAFT AND IMAGES BY ROGER GROOM ARTICLE BY MICHELLE ASHLEY-EMILE

XONIUQE GNIRPS • 81 EGAP

A WRINKLE IN TIME

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MERCURY Mercury will be lost to the glare of the Sun until halfway through February, but it'll be hugging the western horizon and set around 19:45 pm (AWST) so you'll only set it for less than half an hour. Mercury will also reach its greatest elongation in the west on the 27th of February at 09:00 am (AWST) and then will start to head back towards the sun.

VENUS Venus is viewable in the early morning rising at 02:19 am (AWST) in the Ophiuchus (The Serpentbearer) Constellation and will rise at 02:49 am (AWST) by end of the month.

MARS Mars starts of the month still in the evening in the Pisces (The Fish) Constellation as a bright orange dot and sets at the beginning of the month at 22:29 pm (AWST). As we move through February, Mars will move into the Aries (The Ram) Constellation and will set at 21:34 pm (AWST) by the end of the month.

JUPITER Jupiter can be found in the Ophiuchus (The Serpent-bearer) Constellation in our early morning sky this month. Jupiter rising around 01:36 am (AWST) at the beginning of the month and rises at 00:06 am (AWST) by the end of February.

SATURN Saturn will be in the Sagittarius (The Centaur with a bow) Constellation during the month of February rising at the beginning of the month at 03:35 am (AWST) and at 02:01 am (AWST) by the end of the month.

URANUS Uranus will be viewable in the evening and is in Constellation of Pisces (The Fish). At the start of January, the planet will set around 22:53 pm (AWST) at the beginning of February and by the end of the month it'll set around 21:09 pm (AWST).

NEPTUNE Neptune, the last planet in our Solar System is also viewable in the evening and is currently in the Aquarius (The Water Bearer) Constellation. At the start of February, the planet sets around 22:56 pm (AWST) and we'll lose it to the glare of the sun after the halfway through February.

WHATS UP IN THE SKY BY MATT WOODS

FEBRUARY

THE ALPHA CENTAURIDS METEOR SHOWER Yeah!!!!!! The first meteor shower of the year for the Southern hemisphere is upon us. The Alpha Centaurids are unfortunately a minor meteor shower, but hey, it's a good excuse to go out with a chair and a beer or Milo and watch the sky. While observers in 1974 and 1980 reported seeing with rates of 30 meteors per hour, the rates for this meteor shower has been slowly falling no matter where you live in the Southern Hemisphere. You should expect to see approximately six meteors per hour in the hour before dawn and around two meteors before then and it may be worse due to fact that The Moon is close to its Full Moon phase. The Alpha Centaurids usually produce meteors of swift streaksÂ which is due to the meteors travelling at about 56 km/sec, so don't expect any fireballs if at all.

ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS

The Alpha Centaurids were discovered by M. Buhagiar who is Western Australian (#TheWestIsBest haha), who observed the shower between 1969 and 1980 and listed the shower in his "Southern Hemisphere Meteor Stream List" of 1980. During 1979, members of the Western Australian Meteor Section (WAMS) also managed to observe the meteor shower between the 2nd to the 18th of February, with the peak night being on the 7th of February. There is some thought that the Alpha Centaurids may have been detected by radar at The Adelaide Observatory during 1969 shower when G. Gartrell and W. G. Elford detected two meteors in the vicinity of The Pointers while operating the radar system between the 10th to the 17th of February. This year, the meteor shower is active from the 28th of January through to the 21st of February with the peak being on the night of the 7th/8th of February. You need to get up and go outside from 12:30 am (AWST) onward (Although around 4 am would be better) and look towards The Pointers below The Southern Cross which is where the radiant point for the shower is. There is a New Moon during the peak night, so the fainter meteors might be viewable if you're in rural areas.

THINGS TO LOOK AT MESSIER 46 Messier 46 is an interesting open star cluster in that it appears to have a planetary nebula (NGC2438) embedded in it. The cluster is about 40 light-years across and located some 5,500 lightyears away from Earth. There are an estimated 500 stars in the cluster, and it is thought that most are around 300 million years old which is still very young for stars. While the planetary nebula appears to lie within M46, it is most likely unrelated to the cluster as it doesn't share the cluster's radial velocity. The star of this planetary nebula is a white dwarf with the surface temperature of about 74,700°C which makes it's one of the hottest stars known to us.

THE ORION NEBULA The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated north of Orion's Belt (In the southern hemisphere) in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae in our skies and is visible to the naked eye. Messier 42 as it's also called, is located at a distance of 1,344 light-years away from our Solar System and is estimated to be 24 light-years across. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust.

THE TARANTULA NEBULA The Tarantula Nebula is an Emission Nebula which isn't even located in our galaxy, but in one of our galaxies satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Nebula is some 160,000 light-years away from our Solar System and is 300 light-years across. This Nebula is an extremely luminous object, its luminosity is so great that if it were as close to Earth as the Orion Nebula, the Tarantula Nebula would cast shadows and take up 20% of the horizon. It's the most active starburst region known in the Local Group of galaxies, this is because the nebula resides on the leading edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud where ram pressure is stripping, and the compression of the interstellar medium likely resulting from this, is at a maximum.

WINTER ALBIREO Winter Albireo (H3945 and SAO173349) is a visual double star in the constellation Canis Major and is named by Sir John Herschel (son of Sir William) and sometimes referred to as "Herschel's Lovely Double" or the "Southern Albireo". This is not a binary system, but two stars on the same line of sight. The primary star HIP35210 is a Supergiant, 'citrus orange' in colour and magnitude at +4.8 is much further away at ~6523 light-years away compared to its companion star HIP35213 which is a 'royal blue' coloured star which at a distance of ~258 light-years away and magnitude +6.0. Both stars are actually close double stars themselves with narrow separation, not visible in our modest telescopes. The orange star is a Supergiant over twice the diameter of Betelgeuse with a diameter of 2.6 billion km. It would encompass the orbit of Jupiter if in place of our Sun. It is also ~365,000 times brighter than the sun because of its size, however, it hasÂ a much cooler surface temperature of ~3 300 K. The secondary star is a much smaller main sequence star at ~2.9 times the diameter of the sun and ~22 times the brightness with a much higher surface temperature of ~7 300K.

47 TUCANAE 47 Tucanae or NGC 104 is the second largest and second brightest globular cluster in Milky Way. The Globular cluster is 16,000 light years away from us and is located in Constellation Tucana (Named after the Tucan bird) and it's a naked eye 'star' and clearly visible in binoculars as a 'fuzzy blob'. Omega Centauri contains at least 1 - 2 million stars and the cluster has a diameter of roughly 120 light-years and the stars are roughly 10 billion years old. The average distance between the stars at the centre are around 10% of a light year or more than 100 times the diameter of our solar system. In February 2017, indirect evidence for a likely intermediatemass black hole in 47 Tucanae was announced.

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MERCURY Mercury will out of the Sun's glare and will be viewable in the morning sky in the Aquarius (The Water Bearer) Constellation from the last week of March. The planet will rise at 5:09 pm (AWST) on Monday the 24th of March and will rise at the end of the month at 04:37 pm (AWST).

VENUS Venus is viewable in the early morning rising at 02:52 am (AWST) in the Sagittarius (The Centaur with a bow) Constellation and will move into the Capricornus (The Sea-goat) Constellation by the end of the month where it'll rise at 03:42 am (AWST).

MARS Mars, Saturn and Neptune are at the moment high Mars starts of the month still in the Aries (The Ram) Constellation as a bright orange dot and sets at the beginning of the month at 21:32 pm (AWST). As we move through February, Mars will move into the Taurus (The Bull) Constellation near the Pleiades Cluster (Messier 45) and will set at 20:39 pm (AWST) by the end of the month.

JUPITER Jupiter can be found in the Ophiuchus (The Serpent-bearer) Constellation in our evening sky this month. Jupiter rising around 01:03 am (AWST) at the beginning of the month and rises at 22:11 pm (AWST) by the end of February.

SATURN Saturn will be in the Sagittarius (The Centaur with a bow) Constellation during the month of January rising at the beginning of the month at 01:57 am (AWST) and at 00:09 am (AWST) by the end of the month.

URANUS NEPTUNE Uranus will be viewable in the evening and is in Constellation of Pisces (The Fish). At the start of January, the planet will set around 21:05 pm (AWST) at the beginning of February and by the end of the month it'll set around 19:12 pm (AWST). Neptune, the last planet in our Solar System like Mercury, will come out of the Sun's glare and will be viewable in the morning sky in the Aquarius (The Water Bearer) Constellation from the last week of March. The planet will rise at 5:06 pm (AWST) on Monday the 24th of March and will rise at the end of the month at 04:39 pm (AWST).

WHATS UP IN THE SKY BY MATT WOODS

MARCH

THE JEWEL BOX An open cluster the Jewel Box can be found very close in the Crux (Southern Cross) Constellation, the Jewel Box is located some 6,440 light years away from Earth and is 14 light-years across. The cluster contains just over 100 stars, and with an estimated age of its stars being just 14 million years, this star cluster is one of the youngest clusters that we've found. The Jewel Box cluster also has some of the brightest stars in the Milky Way galaxy. These stars are supergiants and the red, white and blue stars in the centre of the cluster look very much like the lights of a traffic light.

OMEGA CENTAURI Omega Centauri or NGC 5139 is the largest and brightest globular cluster of 180 in Milky Way and is the second largest known, with only Mayall II in the Andromeda Galaxy being larger coming ins about twice its mass. The Globular cluster is located in Centaurus Constellation and it's a naked eye 'star' and clearly visible in binoculars as a ‘fuzzy blob’. Omega Centauri contains at least 3 million stars and the cluster has a diameter of roughly 150 light-years and the stars are roughly 12 billion years old. The average distance between the stars at the centre is around 10% of a light year or more than 100 times the diameter of our solar system. It may be a dwarf galaxy that has been captured and disrupted by the Milky Way galaxy and measurements of its star movement by Hubble has indicated that a black hole may be located at the core of the cluster.

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The latest product in augmented reality and 3d printing has arrived at The Perth Observatory. Get your hands and devices onto these scale models and notebooks from our supplier Astro Reality Call or email to find out what planets we have in stock or place an order with us!

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ASTRONOMY GASTRONOMY

GALAXY CUPCAKES

FROM BUTTERWITHASIDEOFBREAD.COM INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

From myhomebasedlife.com

Use the black colour to tint chocolate frosting black. Colour about

8-10 Chocolate Cupcakes unfrosted

cup of the white

frosting purple. Frost all the cupcakes black and use the purple frosting to make swirls around on top

1 can White Frosting

the black frosting. Put one large yellow gumball on each cupcake to resemble the sun.

1 can Chocolate Frosting

Put 4 or 5 small gumballs or candies to resemble planets, make sure you use different colours, so they look like different planets. An optional step I did was to use a short

1 pkg Round Candy small, multi-colour piece of red rope licorices to wrap around a small gumball to look like Saturn.

8-10 Gumballs large, yellow

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From Juno

THE JUPITER DOLPHIN

MOORG REGOR :EGAMI

The Perth Observatory 337 Walnut Road Bickley Western Australia PO Box 179 Kalamunda WA 6926 Phone: (08) 9293 8255 Fax: (08) 9293 8138 info@perthobservatory.com.au www.perthobservatory.com.au Office Times: 10am to 4:30pm Mon - Fri (exclude public holidays), and open for scheduled tours