Thesis finally has a title and Abstract

Well, at least it is a start, have been fortunate that Brad was down observing at the AAT as it meant we were able to catchup on a plan of where I ma actually going with it all. Of course it was also cool that I got to spend most of Friday ight and several hours last night in the AAT control room.

Space Shuttle Update

The Space shuttle Endeavour undocked Wednesday from the International Space Station at 9:26 am AEST. After completing a fly-around of the space station, Endeavour performed a manoeuvere to separate itself from the station. Shuttle astronauts will inspect next Endeavour’s heat shield one more time today as they begin to set their sights on an early saturday mornign AEST time landing. On Sunday, Discovery was rolled to the VAB to be readied for the next Shuttle Mission in August.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch Postponed Again

Today's launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour - STS 127 has been cancelled due to weather. This occurred about an hour ago at around 8.40 our time. The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

The mission has been rescheduled for Thursday July 16th at 8.03 am Australian Time - which is 6.03pm Wednesday US EDT time. There were thunderstorms in the area and the crew were already inside the shuttle and the countdown had been stopped at the second of 2 hold positions at T-9minutes this was a planned 45 minute hold and it was 40 minutes into this hold and about 11 minutes from the preferred lift off time that it was cancelled.

In Melbourne for ASA Conference and Harley Wood Winter School

My head is spinning for all the information that has been funnelled into it over the last few days - it is amazing the depth of knowledge that is being studied in Astronomy in Australia. Lots of radio and cosmology studies and searching for blackholes, AGN's and the beginning of time.

Not a lot of stellar stuff or planetary science - athough yesterday there were some talks on the Sun and helioseismology. I have taken more notes than fit into a shorthand size notebook and had to buy another one!

Mind you I am more than ever convinced that those of us who actually enjoy looking at the sky and actually observing as opposed to theorising are a minority!

But that could be sour grapes because I must confess to being totally out of my depth on some of the models etc being discussed.

Still the food is incredible! People have looked at my poster!

The Sunspots are Returning!

A new group of sunspots have developed over the last few days, and while not dramatic by historic standards, the spots were the most significant in many months as they may mark the end of one of the longest sunspot droughts of modern times - at least since 1913.

Solar activity goes in a roughly 11-year cycle. Sunspots are the visible signs of that activity, and they are the sites from which massive solar storms lift off.

The past two years have marked the lowest low in the cycle since 1913, and there have been losts of theories abounding as to the possible explanation for the prolonged minimum.

The new set of spots, named 1024, is kicking up modest solar flares.

Sunspots are cool regions on the sun where magnetic energy builds up. They serve as a cap on material welling up from below.

Often, that material is released in spectacular light shows called solar flares and discharges of charged particles known as coronal mass ejections.

The ejections can travel as space storms to Earth within a day or so, and major storms can knock out satellites and trip power grids on the surface.

Prior to the low-activity period, astronomers had been predicting that the next peak in solar activity, expected in 2013, might be one of the most active in many decades.

Been slack lately

Well, it is a while since I posted. Been really busy at work - Was observing on the 2.3M from May 4-11 and prior to that was receiving training on the new WiFeS instrument.

Had a look at C/2007 Q3 Siding Spring which is one of the two comets I found while working at Uppsala. Also took a cool pic of Comet Garrard with the

After my run finished I had a few nights doing support astronomer work for a lovely PhD student studying Tran Neptunian Objects and doing support for another group on the new instrument. So that was around 15 nights straight and the weather was good all that time - can you believe it! Since then I had one Saturday off which I slept most of and then have been organising the Open Day here as well working with the Protocol folks from ANU to organise the event for the Opening of Skymapper.

Today I have to finish off paperwork then head off to Canberra for the final day of a training course for Supervisors.

Then back to finishing off my data reduction of all the data I received, I have a Poster Paer to prepare and a real paper and get my Thesis back on track.

Western Sydney Astronomy Group Talk

Last night I had a great time out at the Observatory at University of Western Sydney - after an amazing meal at the Indian restaurant at Kingswood (thanks guys!). The meeting was incredible fun and the people enthusiastic and keen - I really enjoyed myself and hopefully I did not bore anyone too much with my stories of the trials and tribulations of working at Siding Spring!

The Astroinformatics School I am also attending at Uni of Sydney is also great and I am learning heaps - but boy am I tired after the few nights of observing clouds from the AAT!

Keep our Skies dark!

This year, the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) "Dark Skies Awareness" Global Cornerstone Project is endorsing Dark-Sky Week on a global level as the International Dark Skies Week (IDSW), as part of IYA's dark skies preservation efforts. The first night of IDSW will coincide with the Starlight Initiative's "World Night in Defense of Starlight."

National Dark-Sky Week (NDSW) is an event in the United States, usually occurring in April, during which people in the United States are encouraged to turn out their unnecessary outdoor lights in order to temporarily reduce light pollution. Light pollution is a hazy blanket of light in the atmosphere caused by improper lighting fixtures which direct light up into the sky instead of down toward the ground. Not only does light pollution waste energy, but it also creates great problems for stargazers. This “blanket of light” causes the beauty of the night sky to fade, and if the problem of light pollution is not addressed now, we are destined to lose the beauty of the cosmos that have been a part of human civilization since its beginning.

This would be a really cool project to carry on from Earth Hour - so why not consider it for wherever you are in the world. Go outside and check out the night sky and see what you can see!

This weeks column sent off today

This week sees Jupiter looking very prominent in the morning skies about 6 hand spans above the Eastern horizon an hour before sun rise. Jupiter is the largest of the planets in our own Solar System. It has a mass of 1.90 * 10^27 kg, more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined and a radius 11 times that of the Earth at 71,492 km.

Observed by Galileo, in the 1600’s it still amazes first time backyard viewers and just like him they can see its four largest moons, Io, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. Nowadays we know that Jupiter has at least 63 moons.

As of Saturday, the International Space Station is the now the second brightest object in the night sky. Unfortunately unless you caught over the last few you have missed out for at least another week or so until it becomes visible to southern viewers again. It will now be brighter than Venus with only the moon being brighter. The astronauts of the STS-119 mission successfully deployed the solar array truss segment, known as Starboard 6. Weighing 14,000 kilograms and measuring 5 metres wide and13.8 metres long and filled the whole of the shuttle’s cargo bay. The ISS now has four solar panels on each end of its power truss. This gives a total surface area of all the arrays of approximately one acre. This is capable of generating 84 to 120 kilowatts of useable power.

Another interesting note about this shuttle mission is that there are two teachers aboard and although they won’t be teaching from space – they contributed to the deployment of the solar panels and in fact carried out two space walks as part of the mission. Another piece of trivia – a bat was seen clinging to Discovery during launch – trying to hitch a ride perhaps?

There has been a lot of coverage in the media lately about small asteroids – or pieces of rock passing relatively close to the earth. On March 2nd, 2009 DD45 a 35 metre rock passed about 72000 kms above the earth, then last week 2009 FH a 20 metre asteroid passed 80,000 kms away and on Friday 2009 DO1111 a much larger rock passed 1.2 times the distance from here to the moon away from us. None of these posed any threat to the Earth and with improved technology more and more will be found. The surveys are out there searching for asteroids which are a threat to Earth and the plan is map all asteroids greater than 100m in diameter.

Coming up in April is the IYA 2009 cornerstone Project, 100 hours of Astronomy. It should be the single largest event taking place this year world wide. The event will take place over four days and nights, from 2-5 April 2009 (local time). During this period, amateur astronomer will share the experience of observing the sky. Locally a number of National Parks are running Starry Starry Night events and in a number of towns folks will be doing sidewalk astronomy – where we take our telescopes out onto the streets and show off the sky. Check out www.astronomy2009.org.au for what is happening around the region.

Don’t forget Earth hour next Saturday March 28th from 8.30 to 9.30pm. Turn off your lights and do your bit for climate change and also see the difference that turning off lights has on the night skies. Remember light pollution is the singles greatest threat to optical astronomy in this country.

Welcome to another week of what’s happening in the world of Astronomy

8.30 pm March 28th is Earth Hour this year. This is set aside as a time to turn off your lights for one hour to take part in a global event, which is aimed at drawing attention to the need to address the problem of climate change. But as an astronomer, there is another reason why this project is important. Light pollution is the number one threat to the work we do at Siding Spring and other optical observatories around the world.

Light pollution is the illumination of the night sky caused by artificial light sources on the ground (streetlights, billboards, etc.). Both the light and the loss of contrast make it difficult to find fainter stars and nebulae. The amount of outdoor lighting increases as a result of increasing population. As cities and suburban areas grow, the number of lights at night also increases. Lights, contrast, and glare all impact the number of stars that are visible in a given location. Only the brightest stars are visible when there is a lot of night time lighting.

This light is scattered in the atmosphere by particles and aerosols causing the air above urban areas to glow. The end result is that we are unable to see most of the 2500 stars that would normally be seen under dark skies. Astronomers at Siding Spring Observatory are affected in their research by sky glow as far away as Sydney and suburbs. Reducing sky glow, unlike other forms of pollution, actually saves us money and also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as ensures we can still can enjoy the night sky.

So, while the lights are out for that hour on March 28th and you have the BBQ fired up there is another IYA project you can have a go at!

You don’t need special equipment and you don’t even need to leave home. Between March 16 and March 28 you can participate in one of the IYA cornerstone projects called the Globe at Night. The project invites people to participate in the annual global sky observation known as GLOBE at Night. GLOBE at Night brings people outside to observe the constellation Orion from 16-28 March 2009. Participants simply choose a clear night on which stars are visible, count how many stars you can see in Orion – in particular in his belt and the sword (or for those of us who know it as the saucepan – in the base and the handle), record the time and place and weather conditions such as partly cloudy, clear etc and let me know your results. I am also putting together a kit for groups to use and send back to Siding Spring as a part of this project. If you would like to participate or request a copy just contact me on the details below.

Orion is almost overhead after sunset and then gradually moves towards the west during the night.

More asteroids to Buzz the Earth this week

A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2009 FH will fly past Earth tonight only 80,000 km (0.00057 AU) away. It was discovered by the NASA's US based Near Earth Object Observation Program, known as Spaceguard. 80,000 km is a little more than twice the height of a geosynchronous communications satellite.  Experienced amateur astronomers in North America should be able to photograph the 20-metre-wide space rock racing through the constellation Gemini after sunset tonight. For Southern Observers, it will be very low on the horizon and only visible for about an hour after sunset.  It should be about as bright as a 14th magnitude star. You can get an ephemeris and updates at spaceweather.com.

Interestingly, this new object comes only two weeks after a larger (50 metre wide) asteroid 2009 DD45 was spotted passing the Earth at a similar distance on March 2nd. So it begs the question, why are we seeing so many asteroids lately?
 On March 2nd, 2009 DD45 passed by only 72,000 km away.  Measuring some tens of meters in diameter, 2009 DD45 and 2009 FH are approximately Tunguska-class objects, meaning they pose no global threat but could cause local damage if they actually hit Earth.  In years past, asteroids of this size often passed unnoticed, but recent improvements in asteroid surveys have resulted in growing numbers of space rocks caught in the act of near-Earth flybys.

"This asteroid flyby will be a good viewing opportunity for both professional and amateur astronomers," said Don Yeomans from the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The asteroid poses no risk of impact to Earth now or for the foreseeable future."

There will be another recently discovered rather larger piece of rock designated 2009 DO111 which will pass by around 1 and a quarter lunar distances away. This one which is between 70 and 170 meters in size was first spotted by the Steward Observatory at Kitt Peak USA. It won't be visible down under though.

Although it might seem there are a lot more asteroids than before, this isn't the case, the technology is just getting better at finding them.

AStronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have been able to gain a valuable new insight regarding the atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto. They found unexpectedly large amounts of methane in the atmosphere, and also that the atmosphere is hotter than the surface by about 40 degrees, although it still only reaches a raher chilly minus 180 degrees Celsius. These properties of Pluto's atmosphere may be due to the presence of pure methane patches or of a methane-rich layer covering the dwarf planet's surface.

check ou the rest of the story at http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=8341

so I wonder if any other dwarf palnets have an atmospere as well

That lump of rock better known as 2009DD45

Well, I can't believe the reactions of the press here in Australia to coverage of the near earth asteroid discovered by my friend and colleague Rob McNaught last Friday morning - a small fast moving 19 magnitude blip on his regular survey images - the approx 100' in size piece of rock was still about 1.5 million kms away from us. As usual he took a number of follow up images as did others who constantly follow up discoveries listed on the MPC web page and it became clear that it would certainly come between the earth and the moon but at a relatively safe distance of around 65,000 kms up about twice the distance from the surface of the Earth to the geostationary satellites orbit ting above us.

Now it was predicted to make its closes approach on Tuesday morning at 12.45am AEDST and so was a good opportunity for amateurs to have a look from their backyards as it brightened by more than 5000 times between Friday and Tuesday - except that here is was too hard to do more than catch glimpses through clouds!

this weeks column for the local papers

Autumn has arrived again, and the nights are getting longer. Anyone wandering out and about at night can take the opportunity to stare up at the Autumn skies and see the Milky Way, and the constellations of Carina, Puppis and Vela, blaze across our night sky. Orion the Hunter and his dog Canis Major are also magnificent. Nights are often cool now, so don't forget your warm jumper before doing any extended star watching.

Venus is still a spectacular crescent low in the western skies at sunset for the first week of the month – by the 13th you won’t be able to see it anymore of an evening.

Comet Lulin looks great in binoculars still even though it is fading.

Looking at the eastern horizon and if you can find the upside down question mark which is Leo and move your binoculars to the left you will find the comet. The circles show the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. Comet Lulin will pass the Beehive cluster of the 6th and 7th of March, then the waxing Moon will make the comet difficult to see.

Mercury , Mars and Jupiter are quite easy to find in the morning sky this month – you probably need to get up about 5,30am to see then well in the east but if you are up it is certainly worth the effort to go outside and see them.

On Friday evening, Rob McNaught working on the Near Earth Object Siding Spring survey found a small (less than 30mtres in diameter) surprise, which has been given the designation 2009 DD45. It was only a 19th-magnitude blip in images taken by Rob. At that time it was already within 1½ million miles of Earth and closing fast. Why am I mentioning this? Well, because this small asteroid will pass close to Earth tomorrow morning 00:44 AEDST. So how close will it get? It is calculated that it will be that it'll be 0.00047 of an astronomical unit from the centre of the earth or in more normal terms about 63,500 km up. This distance will put it well within the orbit of the Moon but at least twice as high as the altitude of most communications satellites!

This is no threat to the Earth but just interesting as it was discovered locally only a few days ago. Just for interest, this isn't the closest "near-miss" asteroidal fragment on record. That belongs to tiny 2004 FU162 which skirted just 5,500 kilometres from us on March 31, 2004.

where are the planets in the sky at present

Sun:in Aquarius, 32.3 arcmin in diameter.
Moon:moving through Taurus, disc is 41% illuminated (waxing crescent), visible in the sky after sunset, 80 degrees from the Sun, 32.0 arcmin in diameter.
Mercury:in Capricornus, visible in the eastern sky before sunrise, appears close to Mars and Neptune, magnitude -0.2, 21 degrees from the Sun, 5.5 arcsec in diameter.
Venus:in Pisces, visible in the western sky after sunset, magnitude -4.6, 32 degrees from the Sun, 47.6 arcsec in diameter.
Mars:in Capricornus, visible in the eastern sky before sunrise, appears close to Mercury and Neptune, magnitude 1.0, 22 degrees from the Sun, 4.1 arcsec in diameter.
Jupiter:in Capricornus, visible in the eastern sky before sunrise, magnitude -2.0, 29 degrees from the Sun, 33.2 arcsec in diameter.
Saturn:in Leo, visible in the sky before sunrise and for most of the night, magnitude 0.6, 173 degrees from the Sun, 19.7 arcsec in diameter.
Uranus:in Aquarius, probably too close to the Sun to be seen, magnitude 5.9, 8 degrees from the Sun, 3.1 arcsec in diameter.
Neptune:in Capricornus, visible in the eastern sky before sunrise, appears close to Mercury and Mars, magnitude 8.0, 18 degrees from the Sun, 2.0 arcsec in diameter.