Spring 2012 Astronomy Course Mississippi Valley NightSky Conservation The Sky Around Us

1. Spring 2012 Astronomy CourseMississippi Valley NightSky ConservationThe Sky Around Us • Program developed by • Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority • Royal Astronomical Society of Canada • Ottawa Astronomy Friends • Instructors: • Pat Browne • Stephen Collie • Rick Scholes • Earth Centered Universe software for illustrations – • courtesy David Lane

2. Lectures combined with Observing Course runs each Friday during the month of April and the beginning of May Course time: 19:30 – 22:00 formally with priority given to observing when clear 5 lectures covering observing the night sky: I Celestial Sphere and our place in it II Stars within our galaxy, binary systems, variable stars, dying stars (‘planetary nebula’) III Star clusters Open Clusters within the disk of the Milky Way, Globular clusters , in a halo around the Milky way IV Galaxies V Observing stellar and non-stellar objects, galaxies, clusters of Galaxies, • and always … Observing Techniques: • star charts • astronomy applications • logbooks and handbooks • Postings for the course, and discussion group are at the Mill of Kintail Night Sky Conservation Yahoo Group. You can join here: • http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MoK_NSC

3. Course Notes availableatwww.millstonenews.com/the-night-sky

4. Activities Activities will include … Moonlit walk to Fred Lossing Observatory Dark sky observing Guest speakers *Sanjeev Sivarulrasa astro-photographer Videos

5. Night Sky Conservation ByLaw 03-62 in partnership with MVC NightSky Conservation, and the RASC NOW WHEREAS, properly designed light fixtures do not emit undesirable illuminating light rays up into the night sky and thus protect the nighttime environment NOW THEREFORE the Council of the Corporation of the Town of Mississippi Mills ENACTS AS FOLLOWS: The Outdoor Illumination By-Law for Mississippi Mills for the regulation and standards for responsible lighting, light pollution abatement, and the conservation of the night sky environment. CONSIDER THIS...

6. Our Dark Sky Site – Long History of Looking up Mississippi Mills is the home of the Fred Lossing Observatory (FLO) maintained and operated by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). Located at the Mill of Kintail Conservation Area, it was built by the scientific community with high-quality optics from the National Research Council of Canada. Thanks to the continued preservation of the night sky at the Mill of Kintail, the local dark skies have permitted the visual discovery of 5 comets, making FLO the only observatory in Canada to do this Comet Garadd click on this link to download movie (19 MB): http://millstone.typepad.com/files/garad2-2.avi

7. Lecture 1 The earth in space StartShip Earth within its Celestial Sphere • The sky in different seasons • Planetary and comet observations (those objects which grace our skies only temporarily) • Navigating around the sky – knowing when to observe objects and where to look The closest objects to us... The solar System … planets Mars (right) and Saturn (left)

8. Celestial Sphere M65, M65 Galaxies The celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere The concept of the celestial sphere provides a simple way of thinking about the appearance of the stars, and other celestial objects from our location on Earth without the complication of a realistic model of the universe. The position of a celestial object is given by its Right Ascension (RA) and Declination (Dec) in the same way as our position on earth is given by our Longitude and Latitude. We can locate the celestial object, like the star Regulus in Leo by specifying its RA and Dec. It is visible in the springtime along with the galaxies in Leo, such as M65 and M66

9. EarthRotation – Night and DayEarth Orbit - Seasons Day and Night around the year As we stand on the earth looking up ½ of the hemisphere is obscured by the earth itself. As the earth orbits around the sun in the year, the night-sky will contain different objects, different constellations. What we see in the sky depends on • Time of Year (and what is our night-time view when our Time of Day is after sunset) 2. Our latitude on earth: This sets our horizon, and what is above or below it when we look up at night. Objects below the horizon cannot be viewed. Certain celestial objects remain permanently below our horizon.

10. Earth orbit and Tilt – Seasons and star fields… • We do not see the same objects in the sky day after day due to our orbit and tilt. To understand this better watch this video that explains the sky at different points in its elliptical orbit … and at different times of year in its cyclical , tilting traversal around the sky…. see A Year on Earth… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhqzW97_47w&feature=relmfu double click or if that fails, copy and paste this link into your browser -minor errata They point to the cross-over point of the analemma as the the equinox. This is not the case. The equinox occurs halfway betweenthe most northern, and south excursion of the Sun So we can see that our orbit takes us around the sidereal year where we see different constellations and different objects like stars, star clusters and galaxies within these constellations as we travel around our orbit

11. What we can see in April … The celestial sphere presented in this lecture is set for April 13 2012 at 10 pm • Mars and Jupiter are visible • Bright stars can be identified such as Regulus in Leo • Open clusters such as M44, the magnificent Beehive cluster – visible naked eye! • Globular clusters are less abundant due to where we are looking in our orbit . We have to wait till the summer to view such knots of stars as seen in the summer portion of the Milky way • Next time we will see the celestial sphere has turned a bit. We will notice this as we look up! constellation Leo

12. The Observers Handbook of the RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada) has tables of objects visible for our location for different times of the year. The Observer’s Handbook Edition includes data from 17 of the astronomical object catalogs printed in the Observer’s Handbook. The catalogs included are: 1. Brightest Stars 2. Nearest Stars 3. Double and Multiple Stars 4. Colored Double Stars 5. Carbon Stars 6. Open Clusters 7. Globular Clusters 8. Galactic Nebulae 9. Messier Catalogue 10. Finest NGC Catalogue 11. David Levy’s Deep Sky Gems 12. Deep Sky Challenge Objects 13. Southern Hemisphere Splendours 14. Dark Nebulae 15. Nearest Galaxies 16. Brightest Galaxies 17. Radio Sources

13. Astronomical Cataloguing … (A historical note) What’s the M in M1, 2, … 109? A contemporary comet hunter, David Levy writes… Fuzzy objects that are not comets lurk all over the sky . They are beautiful to watch, but for people who search for comets they can be viewed as an inconvenience; comet discoverer Leslie Peltier called them “comet masqueraders.”. At the end of 1758, Charles Messier found a fuzzy patch around Zeta Tauri. As he studied it from hour to hour and from night to night, he found that the faint fuzzy object stayed plastered to the sky; even though it looked like a comet, it never moved like a comet Deep Sky Objects, David Levy, p. 24 There are other catalogues, but the Messier catalogue is the best one to start with! M1

14. Nomencalture for Earth Centered Universe (ECU) Double and Multiple Stars Example: Porrima (Gamma Virginis) Open Clusters Example: M44, Beehive Cluster Globular Clusters Example: M53, Coma Berenices Brightest Galaxies Example: Leo Galaxies, M65, M66

15. Mars As the Earth Turns –Tour of the Night SkyApril 13 2012, 9pm EDT N/S line - Meridian M44 M67 When planning your are observing session , start with the things that are going to set first – Westward HO! Here is the ECU view of the celestial sphere showing the western sky, You can see this on your planisphere. But your planisphere does not record the planets because they change from year to year. ECU can program the planets in… Jupiter, nearly set… Venus (the brightest object) We shall see a phase on Venus Constellation Object ---------------- --------- Taurus M1 Crab Nebula – Supernova remnant Taurus M45 – the Pleaides – setting… Gemini M35 – Open Cluster Auriga M37,M36,M38 OCs Orion M42 Orion Nebula Emission, M78 Reflection Nebula Monoceros M46, M47 OCs Cancer M44 Beehive Cluster , M67 We finish the Western tour with ruddy Mars which is culminating on our meridian. M37 M35 M36 M46,M47 M38 M1 M78 Venus Venus M42 M45 line of the planets (ecliptic) horizon (west) Jupiter

16. As in 2004, 8 years ago, this season we can see 4 naked eye planets… venus mars jupiter (set) saturn View - Southern horizon

17. Turning to the South… M81,M82 Constellation Object ---------------- --------- Leo M65,M66 Galaxy pair Canis Venatici M51 Whirlpool Galaxy M3 Globular cluster Ursa Major M81,M82 peculiar galaxies oh, and planets Mars(again) and Saturn … PostScript: Many people are imaging Mars as we observe. If you see a feature like the South Polar Cap, you might be able to see it at: http://www.christone.net/astro/mars/index.html M51 M3 M65,M66