BBC Sky at Night (2017-07)

JUNO GALLERY: STUNNING IMAGES OF JUPITER
Sky at Night
THE UK’S BIGGEST SELLING
ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE
#146 JULY 2017
DID LIFE COME FROM
SPACE?
The evidence bringing us closer to discovering
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PLUS
Be an asteroid
HUNTER
How to protect our planet
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JULY’S
NIGHT SKY
PLUTO 17 PAGES OF OBSERVING
The new science ◆ Image noctilucent clouds
New Horizons’ data drives ◆ Tour the Veil Nebula region
ƅQGLQJVWZR\HDUVDIWHUƆ\E\ ◆ See a bright comet in Aries
CLASSIC BOOK
EXTRA EPISODE
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PREVIEW
A comic
creator and
VIDEO
INTERVIEW
ONLINE WKH RULJLQV RI OLIHLQD
1978 Sky at Night
episode
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explore the
Universe
Richard Darvill, the UK
engineer building a new
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR JULY 03
Welcome
This month’s
contributors
include...
Ainsley Bennett
Award-winning imager
Ainsley Dig deeper into the secrets, surprises and dangers of asteroids
explains
how he used
The question of how our
Lightroom planet came to host such How to contact us
to create a unique abundance of Subscriptions, binders and back issues
his IAPY 2016 Skyscape life is one that many 0844 844 0254
category winner, branches of science have Mon to Fri 8am to 8pm; Sat 9am to 1pm for orders
Binary Haze. Page 84 Editorial enquiries
sought to answer. Within 0117 314 7411
Jasmine Fox-Skelly astronomy there’s one 9.30am to 5.30pm, Mon to Fri
Science writer theory that life didn’t Advertising enquiries
Jasmin helps 0117 314 8365
begin on Earth at all, but was brought here
us make
sense of
from elsewhere in space by impacting comets
and asteroids. This hypothesis – known as
[email protected]
Subscription email enquiries
asteroids: Editorial enquiries

like the panspermia – is not new: it was first put forward [email protected]
in the 19th century. Now there’s fresh evidence, App enquiries
planets themselves,
http://apps.immediate.co.uk/support
they show wonderous which Nick Spall assesses on page 32. [email protected]
variety. Page 78 Those asteroids that could have delivered Editorial enquiries
Emily Lakdawalla life in the past can certainly end it in the BBC Sky at Night Magazine, Immediate Media Co
Planetary geologist present, which is why we mark Asteroid Day Bristol Ltd, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN
Amateurs this month. On page 78, you’ll find a guide
have been to the types of asteroid lurking out there in closest double you can split with binoculars.
processing the Solar System. It’s a stark reminder of the And if light nights, weather or a
data from
Juno to create
dangers we face – there are close to 800 near- combination of both conspire against you
exciting new images; Earth asteroids over a kilometre in diameter this month, take a look at the Jupiter image
Emily examines some whose impact would be an extinction-level gallery on page 66. These were processed by
of the best. Page 66 event. The good news is amateur astronomers amateurs using photo data from NASA’s
can do something about the risk: on page 44 Juno probe and can be done at any time!
Mark Parrish
Astronomy craftsman
find out how you can observe, track and even Enjoy the issue.
Mark shares discover space rocks for yourself.
an easy If asteroids aren’t your thing, July is peak
method for season for noctilucent clouds, and we’ve
adding a got guides to imaging them on page 64 as
red light
well as creating a timelapse to show their
illuminator to a finder, to
make it easier to find bright movement on page 38. Our 17-page Sky
Guide is packed with many more observing Chris Bramley Editor
celestial targets. Page 81
targets, including a challenge to find the PS Our next issue goes on sale 20 July.
Sky at Night Lots of ways to enjoy the night sky...
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Find out what The Sky Visit our website for All the details of our The BBC Sky at Night Get each month’s Follow @skyatnightmag
at Night team will be reviews, competitions, latest issue, plus news Magazine team discuss issue on your iPad or to keep up with the
exploring in this month’s astrophotos, observing from the magazine and the latest astro news in iPhone, now with bonus latest space stories and
episode on page 19 guides and our forum updates to our website our monthly podcast video and images tell us what you think
skyatnightmagazine.com 2017
04
CONTENTS NEW TO ASTRONOMY?

Get started with The Guide on
page 78 and our online glossary at
Regulars
C = on the cover www.skyatnightmagazine.com/dictionary
06 EYE ON THE SKY
Features 38 11 BULLETIN
19 WHAT’S ON
32 LIFE FROM SPACE
C We explore the possibility that life on Earth
did not begin on our planet in the first place. 21 A PASSION FOR SPACE
With The Sky at Night co-presenter
Maggie Aderin-Pocock.
38 6800(5ŝ6 1,*+7ƨ
SHINING SPECTACLE 23 JON CULSHAW
66
Make the most of this year’s NLC season, and Jon’s off-world travelogue continues.
learn how to tell a real display from regular cloud.
24 INTERACTIVE
44 CATCHING THE
PLANET KILLERS 26 SUBSCRIBE
C How you can become an asteroid hunter
and protect Earth from an extinction-level event.
28 HOTSHOTS
66 PORTRAITS
49 THE SKY GUIDE C
OF JUPITER 50 Highlights
C Discover the latest views of Jupiter from 52 The Big Three
Juno’s JunoCam, processed by citizen scientists. The top three sights for this month.
54 The Northern Hemisphere
73 GETTING TO THE All-Sky Chart
56 The Planets
HEART OF PLUTO 58 Moonwatch
94
C Two years after the New Horizons flyby, 59 Comets and Asteroids
the data the probe collected is still transforming C/2015 ER61 PANSTARRS.
our understanding of the dwarf planet. 59 Star of the Month
60 Stephen Tonkin’s Binocular Tour
32
61 The Sky Guide Challenge
The tightest binocular pair you can split.
62 Deep-Sky Tour
64 Astrophotography
Noctilucent clouds.
78 SKILLS
78 The Guide
The science of space rocks.
81 How To...
Build a clip-on finderscope illuminator.
84 Image Processing
Combining local and overall edits in Lightroom.
87 Scope Doctor
89 REVIEWS
FIRST LIGHT
90 Celestron CGEM II equatorial mount
94 PrimaLuceLabs AIRY ED100 apo
doublet refractor
98 Meade LPI-G colour video camera
102 Books
104 Gear
106 WHAT I REALLY

WANT TO KNOW IS…
How fast is the Universe expanding?
CONTENTS JULY 05
JULY’S BONUS CONTENT

ACCESS THE CONTENT ONLINE AT
www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonuscontent
ACCESS CODE: WMUBYF6
Highlights and much more…

Z Hotshots gallery
Z Eye on the sky
Classic Episode:
Z ([WUD(402'ƅOHV
Where Did Life Begin?
Z Binocular tour
Many of us take it for granted that
life on Earth began on Earth. But Z Equipment review guide
what if it began somewhere else in Z Desktop wallpaper
the Universe? In this classic The Sky
at Night episode from 11 October
Z Observing forms
1978, Patrick Moore explores this Z Deep-sky tour chart
very conundrum, turning to the help
of astronomers Fred Hoyle and
Chandra Wickramasinghe.
EVERY MONTH
Interview: UK’s ‘Air- Video: The Majesty Audiobook Preview:
Virtual
Breathing Rocket’ of the Milky Way We Have No Idea Planetarium
We speak to Richard Varvill, Watch astrophotographer What happens when an With Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel
the British engineer whose Adrien Mauduit’s galactic illustrator meets a particle Explore July’s night-sky highlights
new rocket engine could tribute. How many deep- physicist? Download a with Pete and Paul.
revolutionise spaceflight. sky objects can you spot? chapter of their new book.
Production Coordinator Emily Mounter [email protected]

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06
EYE ON THE SKY JULY 07
Close
encounters
of the
galactic
kind
Look closely and you may be able to spot evidence
of an encounter between two galaxy clusters, the
effects of which have lasted for billions of years
CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY, 2 MAY 2017
The Perseus Galaxy Cluster glows in X-rays at degrees Celsius and a surrounding area in
temperatures averaging tens of millions of which the gas was three times hotter. But
degrees, meaning it can be observed only when a smaller galaxy cluster containing
using dedicated observatories like NASA’s about a thousand times the mass of the Milky
Chandra X-ray Observatory. The cluster is Way skimmed by it at a distance of 650,000
so-called because it resides in the constellation lightyears from its centre, the vibrations could
of Perseus. It’s some 11 lightyears across and have shaken the cluster up, causing the two
about 240 million lightyears away. regions of gas to mix, creating an expanding
In this image, at roughly the seven o’clock spiral of cold gas rippling through it.
position, is a dark, curved wave blowing across Fast-forward 2.5 billion years and this
the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. The wave spans process has blown the cold gas almost
about 200,000 lightyears; roughly twice 500,000 lightyears from the centre.
NASA/CXC/GSFC/S.A.WALKER ET AL
the size of the Milky Way. It was probably Waves begin to form in the outer edges
formed billions of years ago as a result as a result of the encounter. According to
of a close encounter between the galaxy simulations, the waves would last hundreds
cluster and a smaller counterpart. of millions of years before fading away.
Astronomers have theorised that the
gas in the Perseus Galaxy Cluster would YOUR BONUS A gallery of these
have originally settled into two separate and more stunning
regions: a ‘cold’ centre about 30 million
CONTENT space images
08
Icy ring
ALMA/HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE,
18 MAY 2017
A ring of cosmic debris about two billion km
wide encircles the young star Fomalhaut
at a distance of about 20 billion km in this
millimetre-wavelength image. The ring is
likely to be icy debris from comet collisions
at the outer edges of a planetary system,
and reveals the influence of the orbiting
bodies within. The ring appears thicker
the farther it is from the star because the
orbiting debris travels slower at these
points, causing a build-up of material.
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) M. MACGREGOR/NASA/ESA HUBBLE P. KALAS B. SAXTON (NRAO/AUI/NSF), ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ LEE ET AL,
ESA/HUBBLE & NASA, NASA/ESA/NRAO/AUI/NSF AND G. DUBNER (UNIVERSITY OF BUENOS AIRES), ESO/VISTA VMC
EYE ON THE SKY JULY 09
Perspective is
everything X
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 24 APRIL 2017
TYC 3203-450-1 is the name of the bright star
that is prominent in this image, which seems
to outshine the irregular galaxy NGC 7250 to
its right. The only reason this galaxy, which is
prone to bright bursts of star formation and
stellar explosions, appears dimmer is because
it lies over 45 million lightyears away from
Earth, while the star is a million times closer.
S A star is born T Nosy neighbours

ALMA, 15 MAY 2017 VISTA TELESCOPE, 3 MAY 2017
Stars form when clouds of gas and dust This is the biggest infrared view ever captured of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring
collapse under the pressure of gravity. Here, galaxy to our own. Visible light telescopes struggle to peer into the inner workings of the dwarf
the leftover stellar ingredients have formed a galaxy due to pervading clouds of interstellar dust, but infrared instruments like VISTA allow
glowing shroud around newborn star HH 212 astronomers to get a closer look. The bright object on the right is globular cluster 47 Tucanae.
in the Orion Nebula. A dark lane of dust can
be seen running through the disc. This is the
first time astronomers have been able to spot
a dust lane at such an early stage in a star’s
life; it’s just 40,000 years old.
S Recapturing the Crab

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/XMM-
NEWTON/CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY
/SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE/KARL G.
JANSKY VERY LARGE ARRAY, 10 MAY 2017
The 19th-century Irish astronomer William
Parsons, third Earl of Rosse, named this
nebula ‘The Crab’ because of how it appeared
through his 36-inch reflector. He doubtless
would have been impressed had he glanced
upon this new image of the nebula captured
using five different telescopes, some of which
are floating beyond Earth’s atmosphere!
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BULLETIN JULY 11
PLUS
Bulletin The latest astronomy and space

news written by Elizabeth Pearson
CUTTING
14 CHRIS LINTOTT
16 LEWIS DARTNELL EDGE
Our experts examine the hottest
new astronomy research papers
Though Titan is the

only other body in
the Solar System
with flowing rivers,
its surface may
have more
in common
with Mars
COMMENT
by Chris Lintott
Plate tectonics is such an
integral part of the story
we tell ourselves about
Earth that it’s easy to
forget that it isn’t common
throughout the Solar
System. Its absence on
Titan – a world where
Titan’s rivers the landscapes may be

eerily familiar but the
chemistry is entirely
different from that on
RUN SMOOTH
Earth – adds to the store
of evidence that its
presence here really
is special. And that
might be important.
Saturn’s largest moon seems unaffected by plate tectonics The other special thing
about the Earth is our
The methane rivers of Saturn’s largest moon, and the rivers have been eroding into that existence on it. Plenty of
Titan, run through the landscape unaffected topography ever since, as opposed to having new arguments have been put
by rising mountains. That’s the finding of mountain ranges popping up all the time, with forward to suggest that
researchers studying the moon’s ‘waterways’ rivers constantly fighting against them,” says life thrives only in the
presence of plate tectonics,
in maps created from the latest Cassini data. Taylor Perron, associate professor of geology
which continually recycles
They conclude that Titan’s rivers are not at MIT, who took part in the study.
carbon, bringing fresh
controlled by tectonic activity, making it The new maps of Titan were created from images supplies to the surface.
more similar to Mars than Earth. taken by the Cassini probe, which has flown past The tectonic cycle shapes
On Earth, plate tectonics constantly change the moon many times. The thick atmosphere the variety of ocean and
NASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA/UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO
the surface topography, pushing up new around Titan reduced the resolution of the map land habitats, and the
mountains that deflect rivers, changing their significantly, but the team were able to find runaway greenhouse
course. Though Mars currently has no liquid similarities between the rivers of Mars and Titan. effect that led to Venus’s
water flowing on its surface, the channels left by “One prediction we can make is that, when we scorching temperatures
rivers in its early history can still be seen. These eventually get more refined topographic maps has even been blamed on
ancient waterways were not diverted by new of Titan, we will see topography that looks more the lack of moving plates.
This discovery on Titan may
formations, showing that Mars’s surface has like Mars than Earth. There’s this amazing
just be a reminder we got
remained largely unchanged since it was opportunity to use the landforms the rivers
lucky in the cosmic lottery.
bombarded by meteors early in its history. have created to learn how the histories of these
“Titan might have broad-scale highs and worlds are different,” says Perron. CHRIS LINTOTT co-
lows, which might have formed some time ago, > See Comment, right presents The Sky at Night
12
NEWS IN
BRIEF
PUBLIC
SEARCH FOR
SUPERNOVAE
A new citizen science
project is asking for
helpers to scour images
taken by the SkyMapper
Transient Survey to look
for supernovae. “As
well as finding Type Ia
supernovae, which we
use to measure how the
Universe is expanding,
we will also find other The jet appears green
types of supernovae that in this image, while the
change in brightness reflection cavity glows red
with time – ranging
from a couple of weeks
to months,” says Anais
Möller from the
Largest brown
dwarf jet seen
Australian National
University. Join the hunt
at www.zooniverse.
org/projects/skymap/
supernova-sighting
7KHMHWLVRIDVLPLODUVL]HWRWKDWVHHQRQIXOO\ƆHGJHGVWDUV
A huge jet of charged gas has recently been stars, brown dwarfs form when clouds of gas
discovered erupting from a brown dwarf. collapse to a dense core. As the initial cloud
Though often observed being given off by young often has some rotation, this causes the end star
stars, this is the first time such a large feature to ‘spin up’ when it contracts, much like an ice
has been seen coming from a failed star. skater drawing in their arms.
LARGEST EVER The jet was seen emanating from Mayrit 1701117, “Molecular clouds have much more angular
MIRROR CAST a brown dwarf near the Sigma Orionis Cluster, momentum than can be contained by stars or
)25(ƨ(/7 which is a youthful three million years old. The brown dwarfs. So the system needs to lose angular
The blank for the largest jet, labelled HH 1165, was observed using the SOAR momentum for the object to grow in mass. Jets
convex mirror ever telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American remove angular momentum from the system,
designed has been cast. Observatory, which observed the emission from helping to solve the ‘angular momentum problem’
NASA, SCHOTT/ESO, NOAO, IMAGE BY WALTER ROBINSON/LEHIGH UNIVERSITY,
It’s destined for use as

sulphur ions in its plasma. It extends 0.7 faced by stars as well as brown dwarfs,” says Riaz.
the European Extremely
lightyears from the dwarf; previously only The jet also shows bright knots of emission,
Large Telescope’s (E-ELT)
secondary mirror. The
‘microjets’, which are 10 times smaller, have suggesting it was stronger at some times than
glass-ceramic block is been observed emanating from brown dwarfs. others, a potential sign that gas was episodically
4.2m in diameter and “Our results show that brown dwarfs can falling onto the dwarf. There also appears to
MIKE SALWAY, REACTION ENGINES LTD, NASA/JPL/USGS
weighs 3.5 tonnes. It will launch parsec-scale jets similar to those from be a cavity in the gas on the dwarf’s other
now be shaped and young stars,” explains Basmah Riaz, from the side, excavated by an opposing jet and
polished to a precision Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial glowing with reflected light.
of 15nm across the Physics and who led the study. Brown dwarfs are “The HH 1165 jet shows all the familiar
entire surface. The final between 0.01 and 0.1 solar masses, meaning hallmarks of outflows from stars: emission
telescope will collect
they inhabit the middle ground between a gas knots, a cavity with reflection nebulosity,
light from the farthest
Universe using a novel
giant and a star. They are larger than a planet and bow shocks at the ends of the flow. It
five-mirror system. The but unable to sustain nuclear fusion in their cores. checks all the boxes quite convincingly,”
39m primary mirror, The jet indicates that brown dwarfs may be says co-author Emma Whelan.
however, will comprise more star-like than previously thought. Like www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/
798 hexagonal elements.
Þ Material is being drawn off the white dwarf into the BULLETIN JULY 13
black hole, but it’s thought the star will survive all the same
NEWS IN
Bright star hosts puffy planet BRIEF
The extended atmosphere could aid future observations of exoplanets
A newly found planet that is as light searches for planets transiting
as polystyrene could provide a bright stars. The host star,
unique testbed for the KELT-11, is the brightest
techniques that may one star in the southern
day probe the hemisphere known to
atmospheres of host such a planet.
habitable worlds. The combination WORK STARTS
“It is highly of bright star ON UK ROCKET
inflated, so that and puffy TEST SITE
while it’s only a atmosphere Building has begun on a
fifth as massive makes the new rocket testing facility
as Jupiter, it is planet an in Buckinghamshire. The
nearly 40 excellent target site will be used to test
fire Reaction Engines’
percent larger, to focus on for
SABRE engine, which
making it about atmospheric
could allow spacecraft
as dense as observations. to take off and land like
[polystyrene] with Perfecting the an aircraft, by scooping
an extraordinarily necessary techniques up atmospheric air in
large atmosphere,” using KELT-11 could the low-altitude parts of
says Joshua Pepper from lead astronomers to its launch. “The facility
Lehigh University who observing atmospheres enables the ground test
led the study. around Earth-like planets of the engine cycle,
The star was studied using Þ An artist’s impression of KELT-11b, in future. opening the way to the
thought be similar to Jupiter and Saturn first test flights, and to a
the Kilodegree Extremely www.astronomy.ohio-state.
but just a fraction of the density new era,” says Franco
Little Telescope (KELT) which edu/keltnorth
Ongaro, ESA director
of technology,
galaxies served as engineering and quality.
background flashlights
that shine through the
bridge. Its magnetic
field then changes
the polarisation of
the radio signal. How
the polarised light
is changed tells us LAVA WAVES
about the intervening SEEN ON IO
magnetic field,” Waves of molten rock
The Large and Small says Kaczmarek. have been discovered in
Magellanic Clouds, seen It’s uncertain how Jovian moon Io’s largest
above the telescope that volcanic crater, Loki
the magnetic field was
detected the magnetic Patera. The formations
bridge that links our
created; it could have
been generated when were observed in images
Milky Way to them
taken by the Large
the bridge formed, or it
Binocular Telescope
2XUƅUVWPDJQHWLF PDS may have been ripped
from the Magellanic
Observatory when
Europa passed in front
clouds at a later date.
WRWKH0DJHOODQLF FORXGV “The Large and Small
Magellanic Clouds are
of Io on 8 March 2015.
Europa incrementally
blocked out the light
A magnetic field has might exist, but the strength of Earth’s, our nearest neighbours, from Loki as it passed,
been detected for the no one has observed and was detected by so understanding allowing researchers to
first time in the cosmic it until now,” says observing galaxies how they evolve may map infrared emissions
in the region. They found
bridge between the Jane Kaczmarek beyond the bridge help us understand
that while lava at the
Milky Way and its from the University with the Australia how our Milky Way
western end was around
nearest neighbours, the of Sydney who authored Telescope Compact Galaxy will evolve,” 200 days old, the eastern
Magellanic clouds. the research. Array radio telescope. says Kaczmarek. was only 75 days old,
“There were hints The bridge’s magnetic “The radio emissions www.narrabri.atnf. indicating a wave had
that this magnetic field field is one-millionth from the distant csiro.au passed across the area.
14
CUTTING astronomers. One of the problems they faced was

Our experts examine the
hottest new research EDGE that the infrared sky is not uniformly dark, but
instead is illuminated by the glow of dust in our
Solar System. Once this is subtracted, you should
be left with a nice clean image of the sky.
Except this time, they weren’t. In data taken
The cosmic dust cloud over the course of a fortnight in January 2007,
towards the constellation of Sextans, there was
we missed for 10 years still a glow which wasn’t there in sets of data
obtained six months earlier and later. The anomaly
is bright enough to make us confident it’s real,
The cause of the transient patch of interplanetary and it is large, extending over more than 50
infrared haze remains unexplained square degrees, running roughly north to south.
The fact that it appears to cover such a large area
of the sky, and that it had vanished just a few
months later, tells us that it’s probably local.
So where did it come from? One possibility
is that the cloud is the debris from a recent asteroid
collision, but vigilant searchers for near Earth
asteroids should have spotted any such event.
Perhaps, the team suggest, the passing cloud
might be associated with a coronal mass ejection
“The anomaly is bright

enough to make us
FRQƅGHQWLWŝVUHDODQG
LWLVODUJHH[WHQGLQJ
over more than
VTXDUHGHJUHHVŠ
(CME) occurring on the Sun’s surface. Such
events can send tiny dust particles out into the
Solar System – they’ve been detected on the
ISS – and there was a CME on 25 January 2007,
Þ This would be another
F
red Hoyle, the great Cambridge just before the observations were taken.
astronomer now best known for his lack nightmare scenario: a dust That theory, then, seems to fit together nicely.
of belief in the Big Bang (a term he coined, cloud engulfing Earth itself There’s one problem, though, which is that this
incidentally) somehow found time amongst conveniently timed CME was nothing special:
his research to write science fiction. His best-known there were at least four others of similar size
work is probably A for Andromeda, which was during the period that Akari was observing,
turned into a hit drama series by the BBC in the but no more dust clouds. This still seems to be
1960s, but I’ve always liked The Black Cloud. the most likely explanation, though, and the
The story features a bunch of astronomers authors point out we don’t really understand
puzzling over the imminent arrival of an how long it would take particles like those seen
unexpected dark dust cloud that threatens to by Akari to reach us.
engulf the Sun, plunging the Earth into darkness. So there you have it. Ten years ago, a small
I was therefore ready to leap into action when cloud of dust passed close to the Earth and
I saw the title of a recent paper from a Japanese nothing bad happened. It may not be exciting
team using the Akari infrared space telescope, science fiction, but it’s a great example of what
announcing the discovery of an ‘interplanetary CHRIS LINTOTT is an happens if you dig deep into data.
dust cloud’ passing close to the Earth. astrophysicist and
Fortunately, the reality is rather less scary than co-presenter of The Sky
at Night on BBC TV. CHRIS LINTOTT was reading… A likely detection of a
Hoyle’s scenario, but still interesting. The team local interplanetary dust cloud passing near the Earth in
ISTOCK X 2
He is also the director

had been hard at work preparing data from of the Zooniverse project. the Akari mid-infrared all-sky map by D Ishihara et al.
Akari’s infrared survey of the sky for release to Read it online at https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.01541
BULLETIN JULY 15
Failed star is really a planet NEWS IN

What was thought to be our closest brown dwarf is nothing of the sort BRIEF
The closest brown dwarf to Earth “This newest addition to
has been unmasked as a free- the very select club of
floating exoplanet, following free-floating planet-like
recent measurements objects is particularly
of its mass. remarkable, because we
SIMP J013656.5+093347 had already detected MOON FOUND
is around 200 million years fast-evolving weather AROUND DWARF
old. Knowing both its age patterns on the surface A moon has recently
and temperature, scientists of SIMP0136, back when been found around the
were able to calculate that we thought it was a third largest dwarf
its mass is around 13 times brown dwarf,” says Étienne planet, 2007 OR10,
the mass of Jupiter, right Artigau, from the Université using images from the
on the boundary between a de Montréal who led the Hubble Space Telescope.
small brown dwarf (what original discovery of the “The discovery of
satellites around all of
is popularly called a object in 2006.
the known large dwarf
‘failed star’) and a Þ Free floating exoplanet SIMP0136 is particularly www.exoplanetes. planets – except for
large exoplanet. noteworthy for its rapidly changing weather systems umontreal.ca Sedna – means that at
the time these bodies
formed billions of years
Super ‘Saturn’ behind mystery eclipses ago, collisions must have
been more frequent,
A giant planet that is 50 times the mass of Jupiter and that’s a constraint
and has rings far grander than Saturn’s is believed on formation models.
If there were frequent
to be responsible for a series of eclipses experienced
collisions, then it was
by a young star called PDS 110 in Orion. The
quite easy to form
Wide-Angle Search for Planets (WASP) survey satellites,” says Csaba
detected two dips in the light from the Sun-like star Kiss of the Konkoly
on November 2008 and January 2011. “During both Observatory, Budapest.
eclipses we see the light from the star change
rapidly, and that suggests that there are rings in the
eclipsing object, but these rings are many times
larger than the rings around Saturn,” says Matthew
Kenworthy from the Leiden Observatory.
The next eclipse is predicted to take place this
September, and the star is bright enough that
NASA/JPL-CALTECH, UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, NASA/STSCI/WESLEY FRASER/GÁBOR MARTON ET AL, NASA/JPL

amateur astronomers might be able to observe it. Þ The rings of this predicted planet are thought to be
www.superwasp.org much greater in extent than any in our Solar System 200TH ISS
SPACEWALK
The International Space
Station saw its 200th
LOOKING BACK THE SKY AT NIGHT spacewalk on 12 May,

when NASA astronauts
Peggy Whitson and
24 July 1979 Jack Fischer spent four
hours performing repairs
On 24 July 1979, The Sky at surface, much closer than its twin, and maintenance. The
Night covered Voyager 2, which the images showed the moon was first ISS spacewalk took
had flown by Jupiter a few remarkably smooth. If there had place on 7 December
weeks previously on 9 July. been plate activity the surface would 1998, when astronauts
The flyby followed on the heels have been much more rugged. It connected the inaugural
of Voyager 1’s on 5 March. was postulated that instead the components of the
During this first pass, the moon may have a subsurface ocean station together – the
spacecraft took low resolution which caused the cracks.
US Unity and Russian
images of the moon Europa, The probe would continue on to
Zarya module. Since
revealing intersecting lines fly past Saturn, Neptune and Uranus
then spacewalkers have
thought to be deep cracks caused before flying out into the unknown.
by the movement of tectonic racked up a total of
It is still transmitting data back to
plates. However when Voyager 2 1,247 hours and 55
Earth as it continues its journey out Þ Voyager 2 images revealed
passed 200,000km from the towards interstellar space. Europa’s crust to be cracked minutes outside the
space station.
16 BULLETIN JULY
CUTTING The same researcher, William Sparks of the Space

Our experts examine the
hottest new research EDGE Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, has now
led a team to follow up with new observations from
Hubble, and they found good evidence for another
water plume spewing out of the same location on
Europa. This means that the region is probably a
Do water plumes rise consistently active eruption site. What’s more, this
region of the surface matches with the location of a
over Europa? warm spot detected in 1999 by the thermal imaging

camera aboard the Galileo probe. Looking at the
best quality photographs available of that area of
Water jets could be pushing up through a warm Europa, Sparks noticed two fractures in the surface
spot in the moon’s icy crust ice as well as geologically recent, small, dark pits or
domes – either of which could very plausibly be the
Sparks examined an sources of ‘cryovolcanism’ and these water plumes
area on Europa north spurting up into space. If the water plumes are
of Pwyll crater. The indeed coming from the warm spot seen by Galileo
circled region is almost 20 years ago, then this spurting region is
thought to contain
long-lived, with an hour-long plume erupting
the plume source
roughly every six hours.
So the evidence is becoming increasingly
convincing that Europa is active today, with
“What we don’t know

is what process is
driving this activity.
Is the ice layer thin
around this region,
for instance?”
water from the global ocean below sporadically
spurting out of the surface. What we don’t know,
however, is exactly what process is driving this
I
f you’re searching for life beyond Earth, many activity. Is the ice layer particularly thin around this
astrobiologists would consider Jupiter’s icy region, perhaps due to a hydrothermal vent on the
moon Europa a better bet than even Mars. sea floor beneath, and is water from the Europan
While Mars was once a warmer, wetter, world ocean able to erupt out directly (which would
with a thick atmosphere, and seas and lakes of represent the most promising scenario for life in
liquid water on its surface, it has since suffered an the moon)? Or perhaps the ice shell is pretty
environmental collapse and is now a freeze-dried thick, and an enclosed reservoir of water has
desert – any microbial life on the surface has likely slowly risen up through it and is now causing
been driven to extinction. Europa, on the other the plumes as it nears the surface? ESA’s JUICE
hand, still seems to offer habitable conditions for (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission will
life today: a warm salty ocean beneath its frozen hopefully start providing answers to the ice-
face and energy for hungry cells. thickness question with its ice-penetrating
The main questions with Europa, however, are radar when it arrives in the Jovian system in
how thick is the entombing shell of hard-frozen ice 2030. It’s scheduled for launch in 2022.
and how geologically active is the moon? Planetary LEWIS DARTNELL is an Either way, Sparks points out, this plume region
NASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
scientists have become increasingly optimistic about astrobiology researcher offers a very promising location for future missions
the prospects for finding life within Europa after at the University of to analyse the chemistry of Europa’s internal ocean,
Westminster and the
some very exciting observations from the Hubble and thus how habitable it is for life.
author of The Knowledge:
Space Telescope. Images taken in 2014 appeared to How to Rebuild our World
show a plume of water 50km high spurting out of from Scratch (www.the- LEWIS DARTNELL was reading… Active Cryovolcanism
Europa’s surface just south of its equator, much like knowledge.org) On Europa? by William B Sparks.
those already known for Enceladus. Read it online at https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.04283
Understanding the
Universe: An Introduction
to Astronomy, 2nd Edition
Taught by Professor Alex Filippenko
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
LECTURE TITLES
T I ME O
ED F 1. A Grand Tour of the Cosmos 50. Brown Dwarfs and
IT 2. The Rainbow Connection Free-Floating Planets
FE
LIM
51. Our Sun’s Brilliant Future
55%
3. Sunrise, Sunset
R
4. Bright Objects in the Night Sky 52. White Dwarfs and Nova Eruptions
5. Fainter Phenomena in the Night Sky 53. Exploding Stars—
Celestial Fireworks!
6. Our Sky through Binoculars
and Telescopes 54. White Dwarf Supernovae—
off 7. The Celestial Sphere

Stealing to Explode
55. Core-Collapse Supernovae—
LY
8. The Reason for the Seasons Gravity Wins
RD
U
9. Lunar Phases and
E R BY 31 J
56. The Brightest Supernova
Eerie Lunar Eclipses in Nearly 400 Years
10. Glorious Total Solar Eclipses 57. The Corpses of Massive Stars
11. More Eclipse Tales 58. Einstein’s General
12. Early Studies of the Solar System Theory of Relativity
13. The Geocentric Universe 59. Warping of Space and Time
14. Galileo and the Copernican 60. Black Holes—Abandon
Revolution Hope, Ye Who Enter
15. Refinements to the 61. The Quest for Black Holes
Heliocentric Model 62. Imagining the Journey
16. On the Shoulders of Giants to a Black Hole
17. Surveying Space and Time 63. Wormholes—Gateways
to Other Universes?
18. Scale Models of the Universe
64. Quantum Physics and
19. Light—The Supreme Informant Black-Hole Evaporation
20. The Wave-Particle Duality of Light 65. Enigmatic Gamma-Ray Bursts
21. The Colour of Stars 66. Birth Cries of Black Holes
22. The Fingerprints of Atoms 67. Our Home—The Milky Way Galaxy
23. Modern Telescopes 68. Structure of the Milky Way Galaxy
24. A Better Set of Eyes 69. Other Galaxies—“Island Universes”
25. Our Sun, the Nearest Star 70. The Dark Side of Matter
26. The Earth, Third Rock from the Sun 71. Cosmology—The Really Big Picture
27. Our Moon, Earth’s 72. Expansion of the Universe
Nearest Neighbour and the Big Bang
28. Mercury and Venus 73. Searching for Distant Galaxies
29. Of Mars and Martians 74. The Evolution of Galaxies
30. Jupiter and Its Amazing Moons 75. Active Galaxies and Quasars
31. Magnificent Saturn 76. Cosmic Powerhouses
32. Uranus and Neptune, of the Distant Past
the Small Giants 77. Supermassive Black Holes
33. Pluto and Its Cousins 78. Feeding the Monster
34. Asteroids and Dwarf Planets 79. The Paradox of the Dark Night Sky
35. Comets—Gorgeous 80. The Age of the Universe
Primordial Snowballs
81. When Geometry Is Destiny
36. Catastrophic Collisions
82. The Mass Density of the Universe
37. The Formation of Planetary Systems
83. Einstein’s Biggest Blunder?
38. The Quest for Other
Planetary Systems 84. The Afterglow of the Big Bang
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Background Radiation
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Interstellar Travel
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43. Stars—Distant Suns
89. Grand Unification &
44. The Intrinsic Brightnesses of Stars Theories of Everything
45. The Diverse Sizes of Stars 90. Searching for Hidden Dimensions
46. Binary Stars and Stellar Masses 91. The Shape, Size, and
Uncover the Cosmic Clues

47. Star Clusters, Ages, and Fate of the Universe
Remote Distances 92. In the Beginning
48. How Stars Shine—Nature’s 93. The Inflationary Universe
Nuclear Reactors
94. The Ultimate Free Lunch?
to Our Amazing Universe

49. Solar Neutrinos—Probes
of the Sun’s Core 95. A Universe of Universes
96. Reflections on Life and the Cosmos
Our world is part of a vastly larger cosmos. But how large is it? Where do Understanding the Universe:
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WHAT’S ON JULY 19
What’s on
Cassegrain: Who Was He?
Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge,
Edinburgh, 7 July, 8pm.
Today the Cassegrain design and

its derivatives are the foremost
Our pick of the best events from around the UK technology for large professional
telescopes and for a significant
segment of the amateur telescope
PICK market. It is surprising then that
OF THE almost nothing was known about
MONTH Monsieur Cassegrain for over
300 years, and we still know
very little. Horst Meyerdierks,
secretary of the Astronomical
Society of Edinburgh, reveals
what we know. Admission is free.
www.astronomyedinburgh.org
Journeys to the Dark Side

of the Moon
The Royal Institution, London, 25 July, 7pm
The total solar eclipse
occurring over the US
on 21 August will attract
amateur astronomers
from across the world.
In anticipation,
theoretical physicist
Þ Musical heavyweights rub shoulders with scientists and astronomers at Bluedot
and eclipse chaser
Bluedot Festival 2017 Frank Close describes why eclipses happen, their role
in history and culture and how they have captivated
Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, 7-9 July humanity for millennia. Tickets are £14 for adults, £10
for concessions, and £7 for RI members and patrons.
Bluedot returns to Jodrell Bank for three There will also be comedy from
www.rigb.org
days of music, science, technology and the likes of Richard Herring and Nick
the arts. This year’s music stages will be Revell, while BBC Radio 4 Infinite
headlined by Pixies, Orbital and Alt-J, Monkey Cage regular Helen Keen Armagh Summer Shows
with Hawkwind, Soulwax, DJ Yoda and hosts a space quiz and Doctor Who
Armagh Planetarium, County Armagh, July & August
Goldfrapp also among the lineup. obsessive Toby Hadoke explains why
The science programme for this year is the show means so much to him. Plus, Northern Ireland’s premier
just as impressive, with talks and debates this year’s festival will see the cult planetarium is adding two
new digital theatre shows
led by expert speakers all weekend. The children’s TV show Knightmare return
to its programme this month.
Sky at Night’s Pete Lawrence discusses to the stage for a new live adventure.
Launching on 1 July, Secrets of
how solar eclipses work and why they Expect colourful light shows, parades,
Gravity is a family show
are such significant astronomical events, street food and cosmic theatre all
exploring the theories of Albert
Dallas Campbell presents an illustrated weekend. Day tickets to the festival are Einstein, while Asteroid: Mission
guide to leaving Earth, Dr Katherine Joy £59 and weekend camping tickets are Extreme takes its audiences on
discusses her exploits searching for also available. For more information and a journey to discover how
meteorites in Antarctica and Dr Marcus prices, visit the festival website. asteroids may be dangerous
BLUEDOT FESTIVAL, NASA, H MEYERDIERKS, KATHERINE LEEDALE, ARMAGH PLANETARIUM
Chown explores the mysteries of gravity. www.discoverthebluedot.com but could be used as stepping
stones to other worlds. For the full programme of
shows, visit the planetarium’s website.
BEHIND THE SCENES www.armaghplanet.com/events
THE SKY AT NIGHT IN JULY
Four, 9 July, 10pm (first repeat Four, 13 June, 7.30pm)*
INTO THE DARK ZONE MORE LISTINGS ONLINE
This month the team explore what Visit our website at www.
we know about the outer regions of skyatnightmagazine.com/
our Solar System, beyond Neptune. whats-on for the full list of
Here, astronomers are finding this month’s events from
around the country.
thousands of strange objects: dwarf
planets with their own moons, To ensure that your talks,
objects with strange orbits, the observing evenings and star
possibility of liquid water and even parties are included, please
organic material. submit your event by filling
in the submission form at
There’s still a great deal we don’t know *Check www.bbc.co.uk/skyatnight
the bottom of the page.
about the icy realms beyond Neptune for subsequent repeat times
An invention for the skies,
a revelation for the eyes
The Omegon family of apochromats!
Planets, double stars or nebulae - an apochromat opens
up new horizons with these objects! The sharpness and
high contrast of the image from these telescopes has
delighted a host of observers and astrophotographers.
These popular and inexpensive apochromats are now

available in four different apertures - 80 mm, 102 mm,
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A PASSION FOR SPACE JULY 21
A PASSION FOR
with Maggie Aderin-Pocock

The Sky at NightSUHVHQWHUUHƆHFWVRQKRZWKH9DWLFDQ
KDVFRQWULEXWHGWRDVWURQRP\DQGFRQWLQXHVWRGRVR
A
trip to the incident proved to be a
Galileo had a hard time at the
Vatican hands of the Vatican and was
source of embarrassment
is always forced to defend his astronomical for the Vatican for years
illuminating, observations to the Inquisition to come.
whether it is as a pilgrim
or as a tourist, but it may Vatican firsts
seem a strange destination In modern times the
for The Sky at Night. So Vatican has been at the
you may be surprised to forefront of astronomy.
learn that not only does Father Angelo Secchi was
the Vatican have a long a Jesuit priest and also a
history of astronomy, it passionate astronomer
continues to perform who ran the Vatican
research today. Observatory for 30 years.
The Vatican’s He introduced a new
documented astronomy technique to astronomy
work began with Pope that enabled astronomers
Gregory XIII in 1582. to view stars as they had
In his time it had been never been seen before.
noticed that the calendar He was the first to use
was slipping: the spring equinox that should Having established an aptitude for spectroscopy to classify stars into different
have occurred around 21 March was actually astronomy, what came next seemed a bit of types, a technique we still use today. Another
happening on a calendar date near 10 March. a surprise. In 1632, Galileo published a book, Vatican first is the Carte du Ciel, the first
The motivation for the investigation was The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief photographic survey of the whole sky, created
to stop the date of Easter slipping from the World Systems. It was written as a discussion in conjunction with 19 other scopes around
time of year that it was celebrated when it among three people: one who supports the the world, the results of which are being
was introduced by the early Church. Copernican theory of the Sun-centred used as a baseline for our modern surveys
A thorough enquiry into the duration Universe, one who argues against it using like Gaia. But perhaps not surprisingly, the
NORTH WIND PICTURE ARCHIVES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
of a year resulted in a 0.002 per cent Aristotle’s theories and one who is impartial. Vatican today is also asking the deep
adjustment, as their measurements and Though Galileo claimed Dialogues was philosophical questions, such as what was
calculations gave the duration of a year neutral, it clearly was not. The Aristotelian that moment of creation actually like?
at 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 advocate comes across as a simpleton, getting They have people working on an answer.
seconds. On 4 October 1582 Pope Gregory caught in his own arguments, and it was I found that our trip to the Vatican was
implemented the change and the day after thought that he represented the Church. both surprising and enlightening – a true
the 4th became 15 October – a slip of Although the church took umbrage at insight to work happening at the cutting
11 days. It took a while for other countries Galileo and the book, just a few years later edge of astronomy today and in the past.
to adopt the change – some thought it they accepted the Copernican theory. It
was a catholic sabotage plot – but it was was not until 31 October 1992 that Galileo Maggie Aderin-Pocock co-presents The
eventually accepted universally. received an apology, however. The Galileo Sky at Night and CBeebies Stargazing
EXOPLANET EXCURSIONS JULY 23
JON CULSHAW’S
EX PLANET
EXCURSIONS
Jon has a whale of time visiting a rather unearthly Earth-like world in Cetus
T
hirty-nine lightyears seems Also in favour of this world’s life- due to gravity. The thick atmosphere
to be a lucky distance as far supporting potential is its position in creates an overcast sky with the texture of
as Earth-like planets are the system’s habitable zone, completing colossal cumulonimbus clouds. Unlike
concerned. Similarly distanced a near circular orbit in 25 days at a the grey appearance of a cloudy day on
to the TRAPPIST-1 system – 39 lightyears distance of 13.5 million km. Earth, the shade of the whole sky here is
from us – in the constellation of Cetus is My ship, the Perihelion, needs its heat like a strong Rioja: deepest maroon with
an M-class dwarf star called LHS 1140. and force field shields set to near maximum tumbling textures of cotton wool across
This five-billion year old star, around to withstand the turbulence and ferocious the whole horizon.
MAIN ILLUSTRATION: MARK GARLICK, SPACECRAFT: PAUL WOOTTON, PHOTO: EMMA SAMMS
15 per cent the mass of the Sun, has a temperatures of passing through this This overarches an ocean of what
name that might be better suited to a planet’s staggeringly dense atmosphere. appears to be liquid water. Tsunami scale
steam locomotive. It also a remarkable It’s like many a reality TV star – thick waves loop and tower in a curiously
super-Earth in orbit around it. but benevolent: it doesn’t appear to be uniform manner; this ocean undulates
Planets with parent stars like causing a catastrophic greenhouse like a giant, liquid sine wave.
LHS 1140 have chance to enjoy effect like that of Venus. The crimson hue of the parent star
enormous longevity. The star of this This world, discovered by the MEarth washing through the dense alien clouds is
system is likely to live for tens of trillions project, is 40 per cent bigger than our planet reflected by the sine wave motions of the
of years, slowly and steadily releasing and seven times more massive. It certainly ocean, creating an entire red wine shade
its energy. Unlike the dwarf star of the gives a crushing feeling when you first vista of contrasting textures. It’s a
TRAPPIST-1 system, LHS 1140 rotates experience its gravity. With every step, I hypnotic, almost hallucinogenic, vision.
comparatively slowly and poses less feel like a 10ft-tall, cast-iron Transformer Like an animation technique the Beatles
of a threat in terms of flare activity built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. This might’ve used in their Sergeant Pepper
destroying planetary atmospheres. planet could well have a dense iron core era. LHS 1140b turns out to be an Earth-
Scientists have prophesised that this – probably how Mr Brunel would’ve created like world that is nothing like Earth.
bodes well for super-Earth LHS 1140b, it had he progressed onto building worlds.
a world with a thick atmosphere and The alien view from the surface of LHS Jon Culshaw is a comedian, impressionist
deep oceans on its surface. 1140b is worth any temporal discomfort and guest on The Sky at Night
24
Interactive
EMAILS \ LETTERS \ TWEETS \ FACEBOOK
Email us at [email protected]
MESSAGE
OF THE
Leading by example MONTH
I have been a subscriber for 18 months the dome was conceived. By the end of that
now and always look forward to the issue summer it had been built – complete with
dropping on the doormat. Now and then, a pier and a GRP dome – all home-made.
other readers ask how to construct their Since then I’ve added motor drives to rotate
This month’s top prize: own observatory and whether it’s worth the dome and operate the shutter, and fitted
the effort. I can say, from my own two computers for the astro imaging and
four Philip’s books experience, that it definitely is. simple radio astronomy I do now. The joy of
The ‘Message of the I was a keen stargazer in my youth and going in to find everything waiting for me
Month’ writer will my six-year-old granddaughter Chloe got is fantastic, and all the grandchildren enjoy
receive four top titles courtesy of me back into the night sky in 2015, when it too. They all say the same thing: it’s nice
astronomy publisher Philips: Robin
her school took part in Stargazing Live. not to be standing out in the cold night air!
Scagell’s Complete Guide to Stargazing,
Within two days of finding out I had got a Terry Hill, Brinsley, Nottinghamshire
Sir Patrick Moore’s The Night Sky, Robin
Scagell and David Frydman’s Stargazing 4-inch reflector and we were viewing the
with Binoculars and Heather Couper and Moon and Jupiter. I had the bug again and Your drive to get back into astronomy is
Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2017. soon upgraded to an 8-inch Newtonian on fantastic, Terry. And it’s great that you’re
a Go-To mount. But it was too big to keep using your new facilities to inspire your
taking out and setting up, and that’s when family too. – Ed
Tales from
THE EYEPIECE
Stories and strange tales from the world
of amateur astronomy by Jonathan Powell
I always encourage new starters to

make a reconnaissance of any intended
observing site. Having found a suitable
place away from street lighting, the
reason for the recce will become apparent. Þ Terry’s dome through various stages of construction, the finished article, and the scope within
One such site was a large field at the
back of my parent’s house. No need
for a reconnaissance, just a nod of Dressed down
permission from the landowner and then Tweets I had to laugh at one item featured in the
a hop and a skip over the stile and I was Paul Gear guide for March – somehow,
in the field, ready to set up and observe. @8lakeyuk • May 21 I don’t think Patrick would have
However, even this gift of an observing It’s almost there! Dry run tonight
site managed to cause issues. The key
worn it! On a serious note, what is
whilst it’s clear. #home
word here is farmland, and what with the a dress doing being promoted in
#Observatory #diy #astronomy
field being intermittently used by cows, an astronomy magazine? If that
sheep and horses, there was the totally qualifies, then perhaps so do my
overlooked additional feature of ‘pats’. Stars & Stripes underpants?!
I had made my way deep into the field Terry Byatt, Spalding
before this had dawned upon me!
Jonathan Underpants must be brand new
Powell is the
to qualify for Gear, Terry! On a serious
astronomy
correspondent note, we include items not strictly
for the South related to practical, observational
Wales Argus astronomy in Gear because we cater
for a broad range of interests. – Ed
INTERACTIVE JULY 25
Meanwhile on
FACEBOOK… SOCIETY in focus
WE ASKED: Stephen Hawking believes we At our last meeting on 24 May one of
need to become a multi-planet species within our pupils, Simon, achieved the first part
a hundred years. Where do we start? of a doublet lens for his folded refractor
project, wet-grinding using a concrete tool
Jonathan Draycott with steel nuts embedded in it. Bucky, our
Private enterprise. NASA got men on the man of many mirrors, polished a 4-incher
Moon but Space X is showing more vision for a portable Newtonian. Rosie and
right now and it’s a vision that captures the Austin, our two first-timers, got working on
imagination even if it’s very optimistic. Þ Members hard at work grinding mirrors billets that will become standard
The Amateur Telescope Makers of Dobsonians. Austin was trying to polish
Vince Ralph London provide materials and guidance out a hill in the middle and a ring around
I personally don’t think we will need to worry to enable amateur astronomers to grind the edge of his mirror.
about running out of space. I think we will their own mirrors. Terry brought in a specially made
destroy ourselves and Earth before 100 years. It’s an iterative process that gradually 6-inch Dobsonian to enable new
changes the shape of a piece of glass members to see how the system works.
Craig Harding until a Foucault test shows it is perfect. We managed to get outside and catch
We don’t deserve to ruin other planets. We gather round our mentor Terry’s a glimpse of Jupiter through it!
We’ve already pushed this one to its limits Foucault tester to discuss results, and Chris Bryant, membership secretary,
and should reap what we sow. The human commiserate if they are not quite there yet! Amateur Telescope Makers of London
race is greedy and destructive. We have no
divine right to carry on existing indefinitely.
Nothing ever lasts forever! us. But the light was already 1,350 years
Steve Green
Tweets old when it reached us, having taken this
long to cross the 12 quadrillion km of space
We should start by gathering up as many Juleah Kaliski
to reach the Atacama array! – Ed
comets and asteroids as we can find, drag @JuleahKaliski • May 22
them to a near-Earth solar orbit, bind them Now to polar align. Got to
together into planet size bodies and then find Polaris. A clever mimic
terraform them. On a recent trip to
Dublin, I think I may
Chris Morgan have spotted
Got it all wrong there, mother nature needs to noctilucent clouds
delete most of humankind to survive the next
from my hotel room
hundred years.
window. As I’ve never seen them before I
Alan Davenport can’t tell and I’m not sure whether it was
We need to control the population HERE too early in the year to see them. I took a
and stop destroying THIS planet. There aren’t photo of what I saw with my mobile phone,
enough resources on Earth to move any at about 10.15pm on 4 May 2017, in an
sizable part of the population to another
approximately westerly direction.
planet, nor the political will to do it even
if it weren’t fiction. Cosmic cultivar David Weightman, via email
This is Petunia Night Sky
– it gives one something This looks more likely to be twilight seen
Tweets astronomically interesting to through gaps in the clouds, David. For more
Yuri Beletsky
look at when the Sun is up! on identifying NLCs, turn to this month’s
@YBeletsky • May 22 David Radlett, Gillingham, Kent feature about them on page 38. – Ed
#Moai statues under the #stars
and #Vega at #EasterIsland in What a unique cultivar, David;
the Southern #Pacific #Chile introduced only last year I believe. – Ed
Tweets
@thisisChile #rapanui #night Matthew Hodgson
@skyatnightmag #sky
Faster than light @Alpha_lyrae_uk • May 14
Married yesterday. The wedding
In the June 2017 issue the ‘Technicolour cake reflected our passion for
collision’ spied by the Atacama Array astronomy featuring favourite
(Eye on the Sky) was reported to have constellations and Lyra as the
occurred 500 years ago at a location cake topper.
1,350 lightyears away. The 500-year-old
light seems to have travelled here a bit
quicker than it should have, surely?
Martin Glegg, Glasgow
Uniquely, lightyears is unit of distance that

factors in time. As far as we on Earth are
concerned, this stellar collision occurred
500 years ago, when its light first reached
Sky at Night
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Sky at Night MAGAZINE

28
Hotshots
YOUR
BONUS
CONTENT
A gallery
containing these
and more of your
stunning images
This month’s pick of your very best astrophotos
PHOTO
OF THE
MONTH
S Centaurus A
HAIM HULI, NAMIBIA, 22 APRIL 2017
Haim says: “At the end Equipment: FLI MicroLine ML8300 mono About Haim: “As long as I can remember
of April I travelled to the CCD camera, ASA 12-inch astrograph, I have always been fascinated with
southern hemisphere to an ASA DDM85 mount. everything related to the cosmos. A few
astro farm in Namibia. For years ago I found that even an amateur
the first three days after BBC Sky at Night Magazine says: “As astronomer could take photos of the night
I arrived the sky was full of astrophotographers well know, Centaurus A sky with amazing detail. I started investing
clouds. On the fourth night is incredibly bright, and we feel Haim has my time in learning how to take photos like
I ‘wowed’ when I finally saw the southern captured this active galactic nucleus with that. I found that this amazing hobby is a
skies for the first time. My number one amazing detail. The wisps of dust are mind-opening experience that I enjoy sharing
target was NGC 5128, the Centaurus A incredibly intricate, and Haim has managed with the world. Astronomy has become an
Galaxy. It is one of the oddest deep-sky to bring out a good variety of colours oasis in my routine after a week of intense
objects that I have ever seen.” amongst the old and young stars.” work in the tech industry.”
HOTSHOTS JULY 29
W First Quarter Down Under

JULIE STRAAYER, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA, 3 MAY 2017
Julie says: “I was trying to capture the Lunar X and V but
was too late for the X. The V was just visible. I have been
a visual observer for many years and smartphones have
enabled me to capture images just as I see them through
the telescope.”
Equipment: Samsung Galaxy J5 smartphone, Sky-Watcher

Skymax-150 Pro Maksutov-Cassegrain, Sky-Watcher AZ EQ5 mount,
Orion SteadyPix EZ smartphone telescope photo adaptor.
S The Whirlpool Galaxy

JAROSLAV VLCEK, DOLNI CERMNA, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1 APRIL 2017
Jaroslav says: “This popular object is one of the most
picturesque galaxies in the sky, with extraordinary colour
variety and contrast with interacting galaxy NGC 5195.”
Equipment: Atik One 6.0 CCD camera, Sky-Watcher

Explorer-200PDS Newtonian reflector, Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro
SynScan equatorial mount.
S Comet C/2015 V2
Johnson
TONY HORTON,
HEREFORDSHIRE, 24 APRIL 2017
Tony says: “Off the back of a
brilliant time at the Astrocamp
star party in the Brecon Beacons
S The Milky Way and talking to some excellent imagers there,
I wanted to see if I could get a result with my
JOHN NELLIST, SOUTHWOLD BEACH, SUFFOLK, 27 APRIL 2017 small setup. It’s my first image of a comet that
John says: “I’d headed out to the coast to capture some Milky Way shots as it was I am really chuffed with. It’s a great memory
the first opportunity I’d had for a while. When I arrived I was amazed by how clear from a great weekend of astronomy.”
the Milky Way was to the naked eye. I’m pleased with the shot but quite amazed
Equipment: Canon EOS 1100D DSLR camera,
by how much the orange glow of light pollution extends out into the North Sea.”
Altair Starwave 80ED-R refractor, Celestron
Equipment: Nikon D600 DSLR camera, Samyang 14mm lens. Advanced VX mount.
30 HOTSHOTS JULY
W Globular cluster M3
PHIL SHEPHERD, DEEPING ST JAMES, LINCOLNSHIRE, 27 APRIL 2017
Phil says: “I chose M3 as I wanted to show the field of view
of my newly acquired camera, having imaged this cluster
many times in the past but never at this scale. The image
was processed in PixInsight and required very little work
due to the great signal captured on the night.”
Equipment: Atik 16200 CCD camera, Altair Wave Series 4-inch f/7
Super ED triplet apo refractor, iOptron CEM60-EC mount.
T Lyrid fireball trail

GUILLAUME DOYEN, PAYS DE LA LOIRE, FRANCE, 22 APRIL 2017
Guillaume says: “I wasn’t lucky enough to see the
impressive fireball that released this trail. Fifteen seconds
after the event, I took this picture and I also launched a
timelapse to see for how long the trail would linger.
Unexpectedly, it lasted more than 36 minutes!”
Equipment: Canon EOS 700D DLSR camera, Sigma 18-35mm lens.
S The Milky Way

PETER LOUER, TENERIFE, SPAIN, 26 APRIL 2017
Peter says: “I always look forward to this time of year
and the return of the Milky Way to the night sky. Being
retired and on a limited budget it offers a great target
without having to spend a fortune on equipment.
Given a dark site and a basic DSLR, with a bit of
practice anybody can take breathtaking photos.”
Equipment: Canon EOS 700D DSLR camera, Canon 18-55mm lens.
ENTER TO WIN A PRIZE! We’ve teamed up with Altair Astro UK to offer the winner
of next month’s Hotshots a SkyTech City Light Suppression
Filter, designed to block out light pollution while allowing the light from deep-sky objects through. The filter is
WORTH compatible with all APS-C sized Canon EOS cameras www.altairastro.com • 01263 731505
£59 Submit your pictures via www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotography/gallery or email

[email protected]. T&Cs: www.immediate.co.uk/terms-and-conditions
2016
32
It’s an unresolved
question, even on
Earth – does life
have to begin on a
planet, or could it
arrive as a stowaway
on a space rock?
ORIGINS OF LIFE JULY 33
The debate continues

Could simple life travel across space to seed
suitable planets? Nick Spall considers whether
we are closer to discovering the truth behind the
extraordinary concept of panspermia
T
he search for extraterrestrial life is now could arise independently – a process known as
a fundamental driver for space research abiogenesis. But there is another hypothesis, that
and astronomy. We now know of almost life could arrive from afar, carried by meteorites,
3,500 confirmed exoplanets and it seems comets or asteroids, an idea we call panspermia.
like new candidates are being identified daily. One Exobiologists have traditionally focussed on the
recent find could be a water world: GJ 1132b, which possibility of life occurring on Mars and within
is 1.4 times the size of Earth, is thought to have an the subsurface oceans of the icy moons Europa
atmosphere of either water or methane. While it is and Enceladus, but could simple life forms such as
likely to be too hot for life to exist there, eventually bacteria and extremeophiles be – as panspermia
astronomers expect to find a really promising proposes – much more widespread? Could life be
world that could support life – a real Earth- drifting through interplanetary space right now,
type exoplanet in the perfect goldilocks in the form of dormant spores and bacteria?
DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, ISTOCK X 2
zone around its star.

On a benign planet like A seed of an idea
that, we theorise The concept of panspermia began in a basic form
that life from the work of researchers such as Jöns Jacob
Berzelius, Hermann Richter and Svante Arrhenius
from the 1830s through to the early 1900s. In
more recent years it has been promoted by Prof
Chandra Wickramasinghe, a former
colleague of the famous cosmologist
Sir Fred Hoyle. His views also
include the idea that
pandemics and
outbreaks >
ABOUT THE WRITER
Nick Spall is a freelance
space writer. He’s
interviewed astronauts,
and experienced zero-G
DQG SDUDEROLFƆLJKWV
34
> of illness have grown as plants

occurred as a result back on Earth.
of active spores The EXPOSE
travelling across results represent
the vacuum of the first data
interplanetary space evidence that basic
and arriving in the cryptoendolithic
atmosphere. life – organisms that
A good many colonise cavities in
exobiologists doubt the structures of
these conclusions. rocks – can be hardy
However, it was enough to survive
Wickramasinghe movement through
who first proposed, outer space. This is
with Hoyle in 1974, of key importance
that some dust in to the panspermia
interstellar space was largely organic as Þ The EXPOSE-R2 facility during installment debate and future exobiology research
it is composed of carbon compounds, on the outside of the ISS in August 2014 directions. It is also of direct relevance
including silicates, inorganic carbon to future Mars mission sample analysis,
NASA X 2, ISTOCK X 2, ESO, PAPILIO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
(such as graphite) and ices of various radiation and extremely low temperatures. planetary protection sterilisation for
kinds. Today the scientific community This material might also withstand an lander probes and the future exploration
accepts that organic molecules are entry into a planetary atmosphere. of possible life-bearing environments
common in the Galaxy. From 2008 to 2016, EXPOSE’s samples across the Solar System and beyond.
To add to the panspermia debate, recent were exposed to space and then returned
results of the EXPOSE experiments on the to Earth from the ISS. Some have survived, Types of panspermia
International Space Station (ISS) have even after 1.5 years mounted outside Panspermia addresses the way that life
shown that meteorite-type protection the ISS – in one case 100 per cent of the could be distributed across the Galaxy, not
layers around organic biological samples bacterial endospores placed in Mars-type how life actually began. Various methods
could indeed allow for bacterial endospores conditions were viable – still capable of transport are included in the theory.
and even seeds to survive in the harsh of life, in other words. A quarter of the ‘Lithopanspermia’ proposes that
vacuum of space, despite heavy ultraviolet experiment’s tobacco seeds survived to be extremophile-type microscopic life could
IS PANSPERMIA POSSIBLE? TWO DIFFERENT VIEWS

Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe and Prof Ian Crawford make the case for and against the theory
<HVGHƅQLWHO\
Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe, director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham
When Fred Hoyle and I first interstellar space. This data was combined studies indicating the role of extrinsic viruses
proposed the theory of with perceived flaws and inadequacies in the in the evolution of terrestrial life.
cometary panspermia in standard theories of the origin and evolution The enormous survivability of bacteria and
the early 1980s, the of life on the Earth to develop the Hoyle- viruses, as well as plant seeds and tardigrades
supportive evidence was Wickramasinghe theory of cosmic life. under space conditions, powerfully adds to the
very limited compared to Many predictions of the H-W theory have case for panspermia and for life as a cosmic
what we have today. Our since been verified. These include the detection rather than terrestrial phenomenon. In my view,
starting point was the unexpected evidence of biomaterial in comet dust collected in the the old primordial soup idea will soon be
that was obtained in the 1970s for the stratosphere, discoveries following from the relegated to the archives of science history. Over
widespread occurrence of complex organic space exploration of comets and the a period of three decades no data has come
molecules resembling biological dust in surprising evidence from DNA sequence to light that contradicts cometary panspermia.
1RLW KDV VWLOO WR EH SURYHQ

Prof Ian Crawford, professor of planetary science and astrobiology, Birkbeck University of London
It is theoretically plausible for Panspermia, if it occurs, does not solve the been operating in the Solar System is to explore
microbes to travel between problem of the origin of life, but merely relocates other habitable, or past habitable, environments
planets in meteorites, but that event to somewhere else in the Universe. on other planets – such as Mars. If panspermia
this has not yet been The main theoretical advantage of panspermia has been operating, it will predict that all life
demonstrated. If it proves as a concept is that wherever ‘somewhere found throughout the Solar System will have a
to be physically possible else’ was, it may have permitted more time common origin and thus share key biochemical
then it follows that life may for the pre-biological chemical reactions that characteristics – such as the same genetic code.
have arrived on Earth from elsewhere, perhaps led to the origin of life, but we don’t currently On the other hand, if life did not travel between
from Mars or another location in the Solar know that more time was actually required. planets, we would expect that any life we find
System, although there is no evidence for this. The only way to determine if panspermia has would be quite different to our own.”
Lithopanspermia says that life

could be carried into space
amongst the planetary ejecta
from an asteroid impact
Þ Dust clouds such as those within NGC 6537 Þ Tardigrades or ‘water bears’ are tiny Þ Lunar lander Surveyor 3 is said to have been
could harbour the building blocks of life, a organisms famed for being able to survive the interplanetary ferry for Earth bacteria,
variation known as pseudopanspermia in the harshest conditions, even space which survived in a dormant state
exist in debris blasted into space from Many researchers have questioned BIOPAN on Russian Foton capsules and
planetary collisions with asteroids and whether panspermia is really possible. EXOSTACK on the US Long Duration
comets. Alternatively, ‘radiopanspermia’ Both Iosif Shklovsky and Carl Sagan Exposure Facility satellite. These have
postulates that organisms might travel noted how the harsh environment of space shown that when given basic protection,
through space via radiation pressure could seriously damage viable DNA or spores, lichens and even tiny animals
from stars – it is argued in this situation RNA in spores and microorganisms. In known as tardigrades could survive for
that the lethal action of ultraviolet and response, Wickramasinghe and others a few years in space.
X-ray radiation, plus the vacuum of space, consider that given enough microbes Famously, a piece of the Surveyor 3
does not completely destroy all the in a dust cloud, some could survive in lunar lander that was bought back to
microorganisms, and that enough may space in a dormant form. Earth by the Apollo 12 crew in 1969 was
possibly survive to seed a suitable planetary found to contain an Earth bacterium that
environment. Another variant is Experimental evidence appeared to have survived unprotected
‘pseudopanspermia’ where, in a relatively The search for extraterrestrial life and for over two years on the airless surface.
soft molecular process, the organic building the possibility of organisms surviving Controversy surrounds whether this
blocks of life originate in interstellar dust the harsh space environment has been bacterium came from laboratory
clouds and are transported to the surfaces investigated with numerous orbital contamination on arrival back on Earth,
of planets where life is then developed experiments. As well as the ISS’s but the excitement it caused gave added
via abiogenesis. EXPOSE experiments, there has been concerns over future contamination by >
36
PANSPERMIA
The evidence so far
Over the decades numerous missions have searched for evidence of life spread across the Solar System
Research balloons and sounding rockets Comet probes

ISRO and NASA launched several high-altitude atmospheric NASA’s Stardust sample-return mission to Wild 2 (completed in 2006)
missions between 2001 and 2010. They have returned uncertain and ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, which orbited 67/P Churyumov-
and contrasting conclusions on the presence and origins of Gerasimenko (pictured) from 2014 to 2016, identified the amino acid
extraterrestrial cells in the upper stratosphere. glycine, a building block for life, plus 16 basic organic compounds.
NASA X 2, ESA/ROSETTA/NAVCAM, NASA/JPL, NASA/JPL-CALTECH/CORNELL UNIVERSITY, NASA/JPL/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE, JACQUES DESCLOITRES,
MODIS LAND RAPID RESPONSE TEAM, NASA/GSFC, DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, NASA/JPL-CALTECH, ESA/AOES, ESA/ATG
MEDIALAB, NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS/ROMAN TKACHENKO, JAXA, NASA’S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, NASA/JPL-CALTECH/FFI
Viking landers on Mars Other Mars landers and rovers

The landers of the NASA Viking 1 and 2 missions touched down NASA’s Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover (landed 1997), its
on Mars in 1976, equipped with instruments designed to analyse Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers (landed 2004 and 2012)
soil for signs of life. The data they returned provided inconclusive and its Phoenix lander (landed 2008) have all found evidence of
evidence for positive reactions to life experiments. water and ice, and past clay strata, but no microfossils.
Orbital research Cassini mission

NASA, ESA and Roscosmos have conducted several orbital experiments Cassini, the fourth spacecraft to visit Saturn, has identified
including EXOSTACK (1984), LDEF (1984-1990), ERA (1992-1993), BIOPAN molecular hydrogen within water vapour, as well as organics,
(1992-1997) and EXPOSE (ongoing), which have provided evidence in the erupting plumes of the Ringed Planet’s icy moon Enceladus.
that organic material can survive protected for several years in space. All are possible sources of energy for life within it.
THE SEARCH FOR LIFE CONTINUES

The quest to discover life in the Solar System is a key research objective for future missions
Ongoing ƨ 2020

EXPOSE on the ISS NASA’s Juno NASA’s Insight JAXA’s Hayabusa 2 NASA’s OSIRIS-REX NASA’s Mars 2020
will continue to study mission to Jupiter lander to Mars is will reach asteroid will bring back 2kg rover will look for life
the survivability of will perform close set to carry out 162173 Ryugu in of material from past and present, and
organic material in studies of the icy interior studies of 2018 and return asteroid 101955 store samples for a
space until 2024. moon Europa. the Red Planet. samples by 2020. Bennu by 2023. future mission to collect.
2020 2022 Mid 2020 From 2030s Post 2050s Late 21st
ESA’s Exomars rover ESA’s JUICE mission NASA’s Europa Human landings on Future lander and century
will drill deep below will send an orbiter Clipper will perform Mars, focused on sample-return missions Human landings and
the surface to seek to study Jovian moons multiple flybys of surface life studies, to icy moons could research on Europa,
potential past and Europa, Ganymede Europa to analyse its drilling, and sample include subsurface Titan, Enceladus,
present life. and Callisto. liquid water ocean. analysis and return. ocean probes. Ganymede and others.
before and after hurricanes suggested Europa and Enceladus to properly solve the
that large-scale convection could question of life in the Solar System.
transport Earth bacteria very high into Comparing any life forms found, be
the upper reaches of the atmosphere. they past or present, with Earth-type life
What of future space missions to will be a crucial test of panspermia and
seek out answers to the question of exobiology researchers have to take the
panspermia? Several orbital and landing possibility on board when designing life-
missions are planned for Mars, the icy seeking space missions for the future. Until
moons, and asteroids and comets. But probes find direct evidence of space-borne
many believe that it will need the presence life, whether on a planet or moon surface
of astronaut explorers on the surfaces of or via deep-space sample collection, the
Mars and other longer distance targets like panspermia debate will continue. S
Þ Cells high in a world’s atmosphere does not

We may need to put men on Mars
guarantee panspermia – extreme weather
before we can really rule out life
systems such as hurricanes could lift them there
on the Red Planet once and for all
> lander probes to Mars and destinations
such as Titan, Europa and Enceladus.
A search for space microorganisms
at stratospheric altitudes was carried
out by the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) via balloon flights
between 2001 and 2006. The results
were considered by Wickramasinghe
to indicate that living interplanetary
cells existed in air samples taken from
above 41km, a level at which air from
lower levels of the atmosphere could
not normally be transported. However,
in 2010 NASA atmospheric sampling
38
Summer’s
night-shining
spectacle As the nights get shorter, turn your eyes to the
twilight to search for noctilucent clouds. Will Gater
explains how to catch this mysterious sight
NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS JULY 39
You can see more fantastic astronomical images like

these at the 2017 Insight Astronomy Photographer
of the Year competition. The winners will be
announced in September at the Royal Observatory
Greenwich. For more details visit www.rmg.co.uk.
T
he summer months can often get a Þ A bright and highly If that ‘c’ word has you throwing down your
bit of a bad rap from astronomers with structured NLC display is copy of BBC Sky at Night Magazine in disgust,
the short nights and bright, twilight a spectacular sight to see just bear with us. As anyone who has ever seen a
skies forcing something of a lull upon on a warm summer night bright display of these ‘NLCs’ will testify, these are
us when it comes to observing and imaging. But quite unlike the clouds that torment us ordinarily.
for those of us who love looking up at the sky, Noctilucent means ‘night-shining’ and that’s a
there’s one phenomenon visible during these clue as to why many amateur astronomers and
balmy nights that more than makes up for the astrophotographers take delight in hunting this
dearth of darkness: it’s a celestial spectacle that beautiful phenomenon on clear, warm evenings
combines the enigmatic elusiveness of the aurora between late May and mid August.
with the splendour of a dark-sky Milky Way To attempt to describe the appearance of an
view and the thrill of a dynamic show that can NLC display is to run into the same problem
WILL GATER
change from minute to minute. They’re known one finds when trying to describe the Northern
as noctilucent clouds. Lights, in that you inevitably fail to convey the >
40
“Because noctilucent clouds
sphere
Exo-
600km
are a phenomenon of the ISS
(400km)
twilight sky, light pollution 180km
isn’t too much of a problem

160km
when observing them”
Thermosphere
> magic of standing under the sparkling summer
constellations watching these clouds against the 140km
bright azures and oranges of the twilight sky.
There’s no doubt that NLCs have an extraordinary,
ethereal quality to them with colours ranging 120km
from the oft-cited ‘electric blue’ – which in our Aurorae
experience is only really seen well at the tops of
particularly bright, extensive displays – to a delicate
silvery-white. But it’s the fact that they really do 100km
appear to be glowing, hence the name, that make
them so striking. So where do these clouds come Meteors
from and how do they form? Mesopause 80km
NLCs
Mesosphere
Marvels of the mesosphere
The answer is that they occur in a layer of Earth’s
atmosphere known as the mesosphere. “The 60km
atmosphere has a temperature maximum at
about 50km [altitude] then [above that] it gets
Stratosphere
colder and colder and colder. That part where it’s 40km
ILLUSTRATIONS BY STEVE MARSH, WILL GATER X 7
getting colder is the mesosphere,” explains Dr

Hugh Pumphrey, an atmospheric scientist at the Weather balloon
University of Edinburgh. “Then you get to a point
called the mesopause where it’s at its coldest and > These glowing clouds 20km
form close to the top of Weather clouds
[the atmosphere] gets hotter again after that – above Earth’s mesosphere
sphere
Tropo-
that point it’s called the thermosphere. So the

mesosphere is the bit where it’s getting colder as 0km
þ NLCs are clouds
you go up, between about 50km and about 80km.” of icy particles, lit
In the summer months in the northern from below the cause water vapour there to freeze onto tiny grains
hemisphere the mesosphere cools and this can horizon by the Sun of dust, creating clouds of icy particles. “They form
at the top of the mesosphere, pretty much at the
mesopause, round about 82km,” says Pumphrey. It’s
NLC visible due to reflection of sunlight this great height that makes the clouds visible to us.
Because they are so high up the icy clouds are still
illuminated by the Sun long after it has set from
Sunlight path
our perspective. So while we sit in darkness, or at
least what passes for darkness during the summer
months, up there in the mesosphere they’re basking
in sunlight. The clouds scatter that light and we see
their beautiful, noctilucent forms in the twilight
sky near where the Sun has just set in the evening or
where it’s destined to rise in the morning.
Observing noctilucent clouds couldn’t be easier.
Even a modest display is visible to the naked eye
as long as the skies are relatively clear and free
of the haziness we sometimes get in the summer
months. And because they are a phenomenon of
Tropospheric
the twilight sky, light pollution isn’t too much of
clouds in shadow
Observer a problem when observing them either – though
Sun at 6º of course for fainter, lower-altitude, displays it
below the horizon
always pays to be in a nice dark-sky location,
especially if astrophotography is your aim; in >
CREATE A NOCTILUCENT CLOUD
TIMELAPSE
The shape and structures within a bright NLC display can change dramatically in just a few
minutes: creating a timelapse video from stills can reveal these transformations unfolding
1. Set up your imaging equipment 2. Composition and focus

Here we’ll assume you’re using a DSLR or bridge camera and a Arrange your image and focus the view. Since you’ll be locking off
photographic tripod. A wide kit lens will be fine for capturing large, the tripod, it’s worth taking and reviewing a few test exposures to
bright displays, while long focal length lenses are effective for see where the most interesting movement is and to check that the
showing the evolution of smaller-scale features within NLCs. display is not moving out of frame.
3. Set exposure length 4. Begin image capture sequence

Now’s the time to select your exposure length. If your timelapse An intervalometer (pictured) is useful for taking shots with a delay
covers a long period you may find that you have to briefly pause between them. Or you can set your DSLR to ‘continuous’ shooting
the capture process to alter the exposure length to account for and lock a remote release in the fire shutter position – but beware
the changing sky brightness. this will capture a lot of images with short exposures.
5. Import your stills 6. Edit and view

Once you have your collection still frames, you may wish to Most video editing software will allow you to import still images and
batch process (i.e. edit and enhance) them using image set their individual display length to a short period to create a timelapse
processing software. When you are happy with them, open effect when played back. Alternatively the freeware Startrails (www.
them in your chosen video editing software. startrails.de) will create a video from a sequence of still frames.
42
> recent years we’ve marvelled at bright displays Other times the clouds appear like a thin veil against
from central Bristol, so don’t be put off looking the twilight sky with a subtle texture akin to the soft-
if travelling from an urban location is not an edged ripples you sometimes see on a sandy sea floor.
option for you. What you will require, however, If you’re particularly lucky a display will be a spectacular
is a relatively clear northern horizon, ideally mass of bright filaments, waves and ripples. That’s
unobstructed by tall trees or buildings. That’s part of the fun of NLC hunting – you may see nothing
because from more southerly parts of the for a few nights, even weeks, and then: “Wow!”
UK, most modest NLC displays really appear
to hug the horizon. ABOUT THE WRITER Rolling waves, wispy ripples
On a clear summer night most NLC hunters will Will Gater is an The wave-like features within a good noctilucent
astronomy
generally begin their search around an hour or two cloud display are one of the things that make the
journalist, author
after sunset or two to three hours before sunrise and presenter. Follow late nights worth it. Binoculars can come in very
– morning observing sessions usually wrap up him on Twitter at handy for taking a close look at these wonderful
about an hour or so before sunrise as the twilight @willgater or visit structures. With careful observation you may even
sky starts to become too bright. In the evening willgater.com notice another striking feature of the waves and
you’ll want to look to the northwestern horizon the broader display itself – noctilucent clouds are
while in the morning twilight it’ll be the skies on remarkably dynamic. Many bright NLC displays
the northeastern horizon you’ll need to keep an will move and evolve over the course of just a few
eye on. That being said, the brightest and most minutes, with the wave structures appearing to flow
extensive displays can actually cover huge swathes like a river. This movement is particularly evident
of the northern horizon. if you take a series of still images of the display and
Not every white-ish looking cloud in the summer animate them together.
twilight skies is a noctilucent cloud. The more In our experience it’s not possible to predict
modest NLC displays you observe, however, the whether NLCs will be visible from a given location
better at recognising true NLCs you’ll become. on a certain night. The best you can do is to closely
Bright, highly structured displays seen in deep monitor reports from observers around the UK
twilight are totally unlike any of the usual NLC and Europe and use them as a very rudimentary
‘mimics’, though, and these are the displays that ‘advance-warning’ system. There are a number of
veteran watchers cross their fingers for. NLC websites with webcams pointing north based
WILL GATER X 5
The appearance of noctilucent clouds can vary a in continental Europe and these are useful for
great deal. Sometimes a display might consist of just seeing if there’s any activity about; just remember
a few closely packed wisps very low on the horizon. that if NLCs are visible on them, that’s no guarantee
NLC OR NOT?
Other clouds can be mistaken for NLCs – make sure you know how to tell the difference
How can you confirm that what you’re seeing
is a noctilucent cloud? One way is to check the NLC ‘mimics’, likely to be high Not all twilight clouds will
direction in which you’re looking. From the cirrus or dispersed contrails be NLCs – far from it
UK, NLCs are largely a phenomenon of the
northern sky and the northern horizon; the Bright NLCs
bigger the display or the farther north you are
in the UK, the higher in the sky NLCs can get.
But as a general rule if what you are looking
at is toward the southern horizon it’s probably
not a noctilucent cloud.
High cirrus cloud is perhaps the best mimic
of true NLC activity. Even late into twilight,
high wisps of cirrus can catch the Sun, giving
the appearance of a noctilucent cloud. Here,
careful observation and practice in NLC
watching will help you learn to discern the Silhouetted lower-
real deal from high, cirrus-like clouds, which Faint, veil-like NLCs altitude clouds
generally appear more diffuse and without showing ripple features
the exquisite structures often seen with real
NLCs. Binoculars may help with confirmation Finally, watch out for deceptive gaps in NLC display; in our experience, light-polluted
too, as will monitoring to see if the cloud layers of opaque cloud. The summer twilight urban observing sites – where it might not
maintains its ‘glowing’ appearance as twilight sky is remarkably bright and when it’s seen be immediately obvious if the sky is clouded
deepens (as NLCs generally do) or fades from through narrow, wavy openings in low cloud over or clear – are particularly susceptible
view as lower clouds tend to. it can sometimes appear like a low-altitude to this trick of the light.
of seeing a display from the UK. However, if a Þ Top: Structures within DSLRs, even with just a basic kit lens, excel at
particularly extensive and bright display is evident, NLC displays can vary noctilucent cloud photography.
it’s certainly worth checking your northern horizon widely from streaming A photographic tripod is essential for keeping
ribbons, tendrils and
once darkness arrives here. Similarly, social media your camera still during the exposure, which
filaments (pictured) to
sites – such as Twitter and the various astronomy complex wave-like ripples for most NLC displays will likely be in the
web forums – can be useful tools for checking to see region of two to 10 seconds at an ISO of 200-400,
if other observers are seeing anything. Remember, Above left: The brightest though of course this varies greatly depending
too, that even if you don’t spot any NLCs in the NLC displays can even be on the lens, camera and ISO setting you use. As
hours after sunset it’s still worth checking in seen from light-polluted, with aurora photography, try to avoid very long
urban locations
the pre-dawn hours, if you can, as a display may exposures as the motion of the NLCs may blur
materialise in the intervening hours. Above right: The exquisite
very fine details, especially if you are using a
With their intricate structures and unusual wave structures within lens with a longer focal length to capture smaller
textures – often appearing with the vibrant many NLC displays can be structures within the clouds.
gradients of a starry twilight sky as a backdrop remarkably dynamic Whether you’re an imager or an observer, veteran
– noctilucent clouds make wonderful targets for sky watcher or complete stargazing beginner,
astrophotography. Bright displays can even be noctilucent clouds provide something for everyone.
picked up by the cameras in modern smartphones. So if you’ve never set eyes on a display, why not
High-end point and shoot cameras should also be take the opportunity this month to go in search of
quite capable of showing good displays, as long as summer’s, extraordinary, night-shining spectacle.
they allow for exposures of a few seconds at least. > Discover more about imaging NLCs on page 64. S
44
&DWFKLQJ WKH
SODQHW
NLOOHUV
Huge asteroids with the
power to destroy all life on
Earth are lurking nearby.
(OL]DEHWK 3HDUVRQ explains
how amateur astronomers
like you can help keep
an eye on them
Asteroid Day is marked on 30 June, which is the

anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska event, a meteor
impact that flattened 2,000km2 of Siberian forest
– an area roughly comparable to that of a large
city. The day is the focus of a global campaign to
raise awareness of the potentially devastating
effects of asteroid impacts.
Find out more at http://asteroidday.org
1($5ƨ($57+2%-(&76 JULY 45
E
very year, dozens of asteroids large Association (BAA; www.britastro.org/asteroids).
enough to destroy a city narrowly “If you have a 6-inch aperture telescope or larger,
miss Earth. Though there are there are so many possibilities.”
several searches currently hunting How bright an asteroid appears depends on its
for these potential killers, such as Pan-STARRS size and proximity. Most can only be seen when
and the Catalina Sky Survey, many close passes they’re at opposition or on their closest approach
are only discovered after the asteroid has to Earth. Though the brightest objects, such as
already zoomed by. On Asteroid Day, 30 June, Vesta and Ceres, will be visible with a small
astronomers and concerned citizens call on the $%287 7+(:5,7(5 telescope or binoculars, the majority of asteroids
world to step up the search in the hope we can Dr Elizabeth Pearson will require a larger instrument.
is BBC Sky at Night
prevent a catastrophe. Whatever your setup, you can find out what
Magazine’s news
But with more and more asteroids being editor. She gained her asteroids will be visible at www.minorplanet.info.
discovered and their positions noted, the time PhD in extragalactic The website holds a table of the positions of
has never been better for astronomers at home astronomy at most known asteroids, known as an ephemeris
to observe these passing space rocks for Cardiff University. service, and allows you to filter by factors such
themselves. Here we will tell you everything as date, brightness (limiting magnitude) and
you need to make your start position (declination).
in asteroid watching. Once you have selected an object to focus on,
First, you should start you will need to work
with the right asteroid.
“It’s best to start with a
“With more asteroids being out where on the sky
it will appear during
bright object,” says discovered, the time has never been your observing window.
Richard Miles, director The Minor Planet
of the Asteroids and better for astronomers to observe Center (MPC; www.
Remote Planets Section minorplanetcenter.net),
of the British Astronomical these space rocks for themselves” a website run on behalf >
:+(5($5( THEY ALL?

Asteroids can be found throughout our Solar System. Originally the remnants from
the formation of the planets, today most have fallen into a set of stable orbits
0DLQ EHOW
+LOGDV
Most asteroids are
found in the main Found between
belt between Mars 3.7 AU and 4.2 AU,
and Jupiter, between these asteroids have
2 AU and 3.2 AU. a 3:2 orbital resonance
Between one and with Jupiter. We know
two million are over of around 1,100
1km across, though Hilda asteroids.
there are thought to
be hundreds of
millions that are Venus
smaller than this.
Mercury
Mars
Sun 1HDU(DUWK
7URMDQV Earth
REMHFWV
Located 60º ahead These are the asteroids
of and behind a that orbit within the
planet are two inner edge of the
stable gravitational asteroid belt. We
ISTOCK X 2, ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL WOOTTON
‘wells’. Asteroids know of over 16,000

that fall into stable objects in this region,
orbits in these though there are likely
wells are known Jupiter many times more.
as Trojans. Jupiter There are two classes
has by far the most, of asteroids that
with over 6,000 cross Earth’s orbit:
that we know of. Atens asteroids and
Apollo asteroids.
46
> of the International night, and make a

Astronomical Union, note of the body you
has another ephemeris thought was an asteroid.
service that allows Has it moved? If it has,
you to generate you’ve detected your
accurate RA and first asteroid.
dec. coordinates for Next comes a
asteroids at time bigger challenge
intervals of anywhere – astrometry, or
between a few seconds measuring an asteroid’s
and several days. position. Not only is
Additionally, several this an interesting
observing planners, test of skill, but it can
such as Cartes du also help defend the
Ciel, SkyTools3 and planet. Most of the
MegaStar, not only professional asteroid
allow you to search search programmes,
for potentially visible such as NEOWISE,
asteroids, but also allow you to create a star Þ A mono CCD camera have little time to spend on follow-up observations,
chart to help you find them. attached to a scope on and so they ask amateur astronomers to submit
a Go-To mount is the their own measurements to keep tabs on these
Your first hunt best combination for
effective asteroid hunting
celestial wanderers. This allows scientists to
Now you’re ready to head out and start predict an asteroid’s path more accurately, and
observing. Start by polar aligning your scope calculate whether there is a risk of it colliding
as precisely as you can, as this will make finding with Earth at a future date.
an asteroid much easier. If you don’t have a The MPC allows members of the public
Go-To mount, it’s best to find a bright star close to submit positional data for asteroids. There
to your intended target and then star hop until are several campaigns, such as NASA’s Target
you reach your intended area of sky. Asteroids! and those run by the BAA, that will
Once in position, there should be what list specific asteroids to track, but the MPC will
appears to be an extra star nestled in accept positional data for any asteroid you
amongst the regulars – a potential asteroid. choose to try your hand at measuring.
However, verifying this takes time as asteroids Here, though, a simple sketch won’t be enough.
move across the sky imperceptibly slowly, You will need to take images, and for that
so you will need to you’ll need a
record your observations.
Make a sketch of the
“Measuring an asteroid’s position monochrome CCD
camera. A colour
view, including a dozen is not only an interesting one won’t suffice,
or so nearby stars as a as Miles explains:
reference. Return to the test of skill, it can also help “Colour cameras have
eyepiece a few hours the three different
later, or even the next defend the planet” sensors – red, green
(;3(57 INTERVIEW
Richard Miles of the BAA’s Asteroids and Remote Planets Section
Because stars have been know the asteroid will pass in front of it and
mapped to a relatively you can record it with a video camera.
high precision, it’s now As with astrometry, there are opportunities
possible to have to help the scientific community. The beauty
predictions of when an of an occultation is that the star casts a perfect
asteroid will go in front silhouette of the asteroid onto Earth, so if
PETE LAWRENCE X 3, IOTA, JAY TATE X 2
of a star and block its light you have people all over the planet sending
for a few seconds, an event known as an in observations you can track the shape.
occultation. You can find out which ones For that you will need a very precise
will be visible from your location at the clock, such as a video time inserter. This is
International Occultation Timing a piece of kit that goes between the output
Association’s website (http://occultations. camera and the recording device, stamping
Þ Multiple observations of an asteroid org). It’s a good way to get started with the time directly onto the frames so it can
occulting a star can reveal the rock’s outline asteroids, as once you’ve found the star you be read off later.
1($5ƨ($57+2%-(&76 JULY 47
“The header of the image needs to list exactly

where the telescope is pointing,” says Jay Tate,
director of the UK’s Near-Earth Object Information
Centre, also known as Spaceguard. “You can put
that in manually, but it’s a chore. A Go-To
telescope will automatically write the RA and
dec. into the file’s header.”
If possible, your mount should be set up to
write latitude and longitude as well as a precise
time code into the header. This will later be
read by data reduction software. There are
several free programs available, such as
Astrometrica, AstroImageJ or IRIS, as well as
the paid-for MPO Canopus, AstroArt and
MaxIm DL, that can help you to process your
data and find the asteroid positions.
Þ Stacking multiple captures can reveal an asteroid’s path across the sky Imaging decisions
Now comes time to image your asteroid.
While a single exposure can be used, calibrating
it with dark and flat-field frames will help
increase your precision. “If you are targeting
a main belt asteroid you can also take a series
of short exposure images and stack them together.
This will give you a better signal-to-noise ratio
than a single long exposure, and depending
on how many images you take, you can reach
a fainter magnitude than you would otherwise
expect,” says Tate. “A near-Earth object would
probably move in that time though, so it doesn’t
work as well.”
Þ Compare stills and look for a dot that moves – this is your asteroid After taking the first image, it’s a good idea
to run it through your data reduction software
to ensure that you have the asteroid on frame,
and that the telescope’s positional data is
correct. However, creating full astrometry data
will require at least three images, taken with
enough time between them to show that the
asteroid has noticeably moved.
“For an asteroid in the main belt, if you leave
15-20 minutes between exposures you should see
movement,” says Tate. “For a near-Earth object
the time can be much shorter.”
With all the data taken, it’s time to process it using
your data reduction software. It’s a good idea to
Þ Alternatively, stacking your stills on the asteroid causes the background stars to trail
perform dark subtraction, flat-fielding and aligning
and blue – in a matrix on the chip, so you don’t before you load your images into the software.
have a simple method of recording the position, You can visually confirm that you have caught
because the different colours are spread over the asteroid by skipping between images, searching
slightly different parts of the sensor.” for a dot moving across the frame. To create the
astrometry data, the software will use the RA
Choosing your tools and dec. of the centre of the image to locate the
Exactly what camera is best will depend on background stars, the positions of which are
your setup. To get useable positional accuracy, known to a great degree of accuracy. From these it
aim for a pixel scale no greater than 3 arcseconds can then work out exactly where the asteroid is.
per pixel. However, the field of view should be Most data reduction packages will output this
wide enough to include several reference stars data as a file which can then be submitted to the
that can be used later to pinpoint the position MPC. If you catch the bug and start tracking more
of the asteroid. A good Go-To mount is also objects, trying to push the magnitude limits of your
recommended. Not only will this make finding scope, the MPC may choose to assign you an observatory
the asteroid easier, it can be set up to write code, signifying your home as a watchtower keeping
positional information directly into the image file. its ever-vigilant eye on the sky. S
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THE SKY GUIDE JULY 49
THE SKY
GUIDE PLUS
JULY
WRITTEN BY
PETE LAWRENCE Stephen Tonkin’s
BINOCULAR TOUR
Pete Lawrence is an Turn to page 60 for six
expert astronomer of this month’s best
and astrophotographer binocular sights
with a particular
interest in digital
imaging. As well as There is a good opportunity to catch Mercury in the evening sky this
writing The Sky Guide,
PETE LAWRENCE
he appears on The month, visible low in the west after sunset. As it approaches greatest
Sky at Night each eastern elongation towards the end of July, it will have an interesting
month on BBC Four.
meeting with the Moon that results in a challenging occultation.
50 JULY THE SKY GUIDE
JULY HIGHLIGHTS
Your guide to the night sky this month
SUNDAY
Minor planet
2 Juno reaches
opposition today. This
tiny world spends most
of the month in the constellation
of Scutum, the Shield, its mag.
ALL MONTH +9.8 star-like dot moving
Noctilucent cloud season continues through July and across the background stars
into early August. See this month’s Astrophotography of the Milky Way.
section on page 64 and feature on page 32 for tips on
how to see and photograph them.
FRIDAY SATURDAY X
Full Moon occurs in
7 Saturn
appears
just 3º
south of tonight’s
8 the early hours of
9 July, making tonight
a great time to look out
for the Moon illusion, an effect
where the Moon appears oddly
huge. Look for it close to moonrise
95%-lit waxing
at around 21:00 BST (20:00 UT)
gibbous Moon.
near the southeast horizon, or
moonset at 05:00 BST (04:00 UT)
near the southwest horizon.
FRIDAY X SATURDAY
The
14
Brilliant
Venus is
3º north of the
orange, mag. +0.9
Aldebaran (Alpha (_) Tauri) this
morning. It’s also close to mag. +3.5
15 Moon’s
libration favours
the northwest
limb. Caused by a small
rocking-rolling action as the
Epsilon (¡) Tauri, which marks the Moon travels around its orbit, a
northern part of the V-shaped favourable libration moves the
Hyades open cluster. Look for the features near to the limb
alignment from 03:00 BST (02:00 farther towards the centre.
UT), low in the east-northeast.
THURSDAY FRIDAY
Find Saturn The
20 with a
telescope at
around 01:00 BST
(00:00 UT) and it will appear to
have an extra ‘moon’ as it passes
21 next
new Moon occurs
on 23 July and the
nights around this time are ideal
for viewing the core of our Galaxy.
by mag. +8.8 star HIP 85247. From a dark sky site, look low on
A couple of hours later, look east- the southern horizon from around
northeast to catch Venus and a 00:15 BST (23:15 UT on the 20th)
15%-lit waning crescent Moon rising to explore the Milky Way.
close to the Hyades in Taurus.
)$0,/<67$5*$=,1*Ƨ JUL
The period around new Moon presents a great chance to
see the Milky Way. In the hours following midnight, a bright
section of the Milky Way passes overhead and down
towards the south. A classic way to describe it is to explain that
the Sun is in a galaxy along with several hundred billion other stars.
PETE LAWRENCE X 7
The galaxy is shaped like two fried eggs back-to-back. Our Sun is
located two-thirds out from the core, in the egg white. Most other
stars are too far to be seen individually, their light merging to
form the misty path known as the Milky Way. For more family
stargazing visit www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/stargazing
NEED TO
KNOW
The terms and symbols
MONDAY X January July used in The Sky Guide
Earth reaches a
3 point in its orbit

known as aphelion. This
marks the position when
our planet is farthest from the Sun
for the year. Consequently, the
81,9(56$/ 7,0(ƙ87ƚ
AND BRITISH SUMMER
7,0(ƙ%67ƚ
Universal Time (UT) is the
standard time used by
apparent size of the Sun’s disc astronomers around the
is at its smallest. world. British Summer
Time (BST) is one hour
ahead of UT.
5$ƙ5,*+7$6&(16,21ƚ
$1''(&ƙ'(&/,1$7,21ƚ
These coordinates are the
MONDAY night sky’s equivalent of
Dwarf
10
longitude and latitude,
planet
describing where an object
Pluto reaches
lies on the celestial ‘globe’.
opposition. In
theory this should give us the
best views of this amazing FAMILY FRIENDLY
world, but in practice the Objects marked with
change is minimal due to its this icon are perfect for
extreme distance. See the Big showing to children
Three for more details.
NAKED EYE
Allow 20 minutes for
your eyes to become
SUNDAY MONDAY X dark-adapted
Comet
16 17
Dim and
C/2015 distant Uranus PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
ER61 PANSTARRS is 5º northwest of Use a CCD, planetary
is close to mag. the 46%-lit waning camera or standard DSLR
+5.2 Epsilon (¡) Arietis. It’s crescent Moon this morning. Look
also our target in this month’s for the mag. +5.8 planet a little BINOCULARS
Comets and Asteroids section over 1º north of the mag. +4.3 10x50 recommended
(page 59). Omicron (k) Piscium.
SMALL/
MEDIUM SCOPE
Reflector/SCT under 6 inches,
refractor under 4 inches
SATURDAY SUNDAY TUESDAY LARGE SCOPE
This is a great The famous Mag. +0.3
22 23 25
Reflector/SCT over 6
time to look Perseid meteor Mercury
inches, refractor over 4 inches
for the Summer shower normally will be occulted
Triangle starts to show by a 5%-lit waxing
asterism. It is sits due south activity around this date, but rates crescent Moon this morning – see
during the hours of darkness will be very low at first. The peak this month’s Big Three. Later in the
and is formed from three stars: occurs towards the middle of day it may be possible to use the
mag. +1.3 Deneb (Alpha (_) August and will be somewhat Moon to locate both the planet
Cygni), mag. 0.0 Vega (Alpha compromised by the Moon. and mag. +1.4 Regulus (Alpha (_)
(_) Lyrae) and mag. +0.8 Altair Leonis) during daylight.
(Alpha (_) Aquilae).
WEDNESDAY FRIDAY SUNDAY

The Mag. –1.7 This GETTING STARTED
26 evening’s
waxing crescent
Moon shows
a favourable libration for the
eastern limb, bringing features
28 Jupiter will
be 2º south of
this evening’s
33%-lit waxing crescent Moon.
30 evening’s
Moon will show
the lighting
effect which produces a letter ‘X’,
approximately one-third of the
IN ASTRONOMY
If you’re new to astronomy,
you’ll find two essential
reads on our website. Visit
such as the Mare Marginis and Tonight is also the peak of the low way up the terminator from the http://bit.ly/10_Lessons for
the Mare Smythii into view. activity Piscis Austrinid meteor southern end. The effect peaks at our 10-step guide to getting
shower – best seen from more 22:00 BST (21:00 UT). started and http://bit.ly/
southerly latitudes. First_Tel for advice on
choosing a scope.
THE BIG THREE

The three top
sights to observe
or image this month
DON’T MISS
A lunar Line indicates the
occultation maximum occultation

visible from the north
of Scotland
Occultation
of Mercury reappearance
09:01 BST (08:01 UT)
Moon’s altitude 9º
WHEN: Morning of 25 July, three
hours after sunrise
Occultation disappearance
The Moon will pass in front 08:31 BST (07:31 UT)
of the planet Mercury as seen Moon’s altitude 4º
from the UK on the morning
of 25 July. However, before giving details
of this, let’s rewind to a point earlier in
the month to set the scene and describe
what’s happening in respect of the
general pattern of movement of both
the planet and the Moon.
Þ Mercury’s occultation on 25 July occurs in daylight; times are correct for the centre of the UK
On 1 July, Mercury will be an evening
object shining away low in the northwest Mercury’s distance from the Sun They rise on 25 July in daylight,
for approximately one hour after sunset. continues to increase as it heads towards approximately two hours and 30 minutes
At this time its magnitude will be –1.0, greatest eastern elongation on 30 July, after the Sun – around 07:55 BST (06:55
which should make it relatively easy to see when it will be located 27º east of the UT) as seen from the centre of the UK.
with the naked eye despite being low. Sun. On 24 July, a slender, 2%-lit waxing The occultation takes place around 08:30
On the evening of 9 July, it appears west crescent Moon lies 7.3º west of Mercury BST (07:30 UT), the actual time varying
of the Beehive Cluster, M44 in Cancer, in evening twilight. The mag. +0.3 slightly with location. In addition, the
and at mag. –0.4 should still be relatively planet is in the 10 o’clock position farther north you are the greater the
easy to spot. The cluster stars may not relative to the centre of the Moon’s occultation you’ll see.
fare as well in the evening twilight. disc. The Moon will be approaching The best strategy is to grab the Moon
The following evening, 10 July, Mercury Mercury and will continue to do so as soon as you can after it rises and,
lies east of M44. after both objects have set. once you’ve found it, look for Mercury
immediately below the lunar crescent.
At mag. +0.3 it shouldn’t be too hard to
Mercury
pick up but low altitude atmospheric
murk will make things challenging. Stay
with Mercury until it disappears from
view behind the Moon’s dark limb.
Regulus
Mercury will be showing a 53%-lit,
7-arcsecond disc at this time and this will
take approximately 26 seconds to fully
disappear. It emerges behind the thin
sliver of illuminated Moon close to the
crescent’s southern cusp. Again, due to
Moon
the proximity of the planet to the Moon’s
PETE LAWRENCE X 4
southern limb the timings will vary

somewhat with your location. From the
25 July at 10:30 BST (09:30 UT) middle of the UK, reappearance occurs at
around 09:00 BST (08:00 UT), around
Þ The bright star Regulus (Alpha Leonis) will also be close to the lunar crescent’s northern cusp 30 minutes after disappearance.
Opposition of l1
PLUTO
l2
SAGITTARIUS
43
WHEN: All month – Moon interferes
with the view between 3-17 July
Dwarf planet Pluto comes to
opposition this month, reaching
a point when it’s opposite
the Sun in the sky on 10 July. For the
closer outer planets, Mars, Jupiter and Teaspoon
Saturn, opposition is important because /
1 Jul Pluto j1
it presents a planet that looks noticeably
larger and brighter than at other times. 31 Jul
Pluto however, is so far away that j2
opposition makes no real different to
k
its appearance as far as amateur
astronomy is concerned.
However, opposition does mark a time
when an object is well presented and
visible all night long. And despite the Þ The dim dwarf planet Pluto will be in the region of the Teaspoon asterism in Sagittarius
nights being quite short at this time of
year, the period around Pluto’s opposition length camera lens should have no real from Xi1 (j1), Xi2 (j2), Omicron (k), Pi (/),
does present a good opportunity to find it. problem picking it up. The trick is to 43, and Rho1 (l1) Sagittarii.
Visually, you’ll need a telescope with a know where to look, of course. At present Imagine the line between mag. +3.5 Xi2
decent aperture. Despite claims for we have a useful signpost to it, despite and mag. +3.8 Omicron (k) Sagittarii.
spotting the dwarf planet with relatively Pluto slowly passing out of some very Now imagine moving the line so that the
small scopes from locations with excellent rich Milky Way star clouds. end which sits on Xi2 now sits on mag.
dark skies, the low altitude of Pluto as seen First locate the Teapot asterism in +2.9 Pi (/) Sagittarii. Pluto can be found at
from the UK means you will probably Sagittarius, which is due south around the transposed ‘Omicron end’ of the line.
require at least a 12-inch instrument. midnight. Once identified, pick out the Try photographing the area over several
Imagers will fare better and a relatively Teaspoon asterism, which lies to the nights and comparing shots. Pluto will make
small refractor or a 200mm or longer focal northeast of the Teapot. This is formed itself known by virtue of its movement.
through north and then
Noctilucent clouds
WHEN: All month
across towards the northeast.
Following the solstice on
21 June, the slow lengthening
of night during July tends to
work well for NLC viewing as
the period of night at the end
of June is so short that getting
to the correct level of darkness
can be troublesome. This is
especially true if you live in
the northern half of the UK.
As ever, there is no guarantee
that NLCs will appear at all,
but the anticipation is all part
Bright NLC displays can often of the enjoyment. Often
be seen despite light pollution appearing with an electric blue
colour, they typically appear
July marks the start mesosphere. At this height, sunset, low in the northwest, close to the horizon if a display
of the second half of NLCs can be seen reflecting and a similar time before is occurring. They can also be
noctilucent cloud sunlight even though it is sunrise, low in the northeast. relatively bright, making
(NLC) season. These are the below the horizon from the A bright display will track the them ideal targets for
highest clouds on the planet, perspective of the ground. motion of the Sun below the astrophotography. Turn to
occurring in a narrow layer Typically, if present, NLCs can horizon, first appearing in page 60 and page 32 for details
around 82km up in the be seen 90-120 minutes after the northwest, passing of how to photograph NLCs.
THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

IN JULY N
WHEN TO USE THIS CHART O PE
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COMET TRACK
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31 Jul 2017 05:24 BST 21:07 BST
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PLANET MOONRISE TIMES

ring
1 Jul 2017, 13:48 BST 17 Jul 2017, 00:44 BST

W
QUASAR 5 Jul 2017, 18:08 BST 21 Jul 2017, 03:09 BST

heel
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9 Jul 2017, 21:34 BST 25 Jul 2017, 07:49 BST
STAR BRIGHTNESS: 13 Jul 2017, 23:34 BST 29 Jul 2017, 12:41 BST Neptu
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MAG. 0 *Times correct for the centre of the UK
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MAG. +1 LUNAR PHASES IN JULY

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CHART: PETE LAWRENCE
MILKY WAY 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
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THE PLANETS
Venus and the Moon exaggerated for clarity
PICK OF THE
MONTH Venus
Moon
VENUS (20 July)
BEST TIME TO SEE: 20 and 21 July,
from 03:30 BST (02:30 UT)
ALTITUDE: 10º
LOCATION: Taurus Moon
DIRECTION: East-northeast (21 July)
FEATURES: Phase, extremely subtle
cloud markings
EQUIPMENT: 3-inch or larger scope
The start of 2017 was defined by the

beautiful sight of Venus blazing away
in the evening twilight – but it didn’t
last very long. The planet moved into
a position where it lined up with the
Venus has close
Sun at inferior conjunction on encounters with the
25 March and thereafter crescent Moon in the
became a morning object. third week of July
It reached greatest
western elongation orbit, takes a long causes the apparent diameter of Venus
on 3 June, time to complete. to shrink, dropping from 18 arcseconds
appearing 45º The reason for at the start of the month to 14 arcseconds
from the Sun this is that by the end. As the apparent diameter
in the morning Venus’s drops, so the phase increases. On
sky, and is now distance from 1 July Venus shows 63% illumination,
slipping slowly us increases increasing to 74% by 31 July.
but surely as it heads On 5 July, Venus sits 7º south of the
back towards it. towards that Pleiades open cluster, M45 in Taurus,
Unlike the far orbital and moves towards the Hyades cluster
rapid demise position, and as after that – missing the top star of the
from the evening a consequence its V-shaped Hyades, mag. +3.5 Epsilon (¡)
sky in March of apparent motion as Tauri, by 18 arcminutes on the morning
this year, Venus’s seen from Earth slows of 13 July. A lovely waning crescent Moon
PETE LAWRENCE X 3
movement towards down. The next superior can be seen close to the mag. –3.9 planet
superior conjunction, Þ The planet shows a conjunction occurs on on the mornings of 20 and 21 July, when
when it lines up with the gibbous phase that waxes 9 January 2018. The the Moon’s illumination will be 15%
Sun on the far side of its gradually through the month increasing distance also and 7% respectively.
The phase and relative sizes of the planets this month. Each planet is
THE PLANETS IN JULY shown with south at the top, to show its orientation through a telescope
VENUS MARS JUPITER SATURN URANUS NEPTUNE

15 Jul 15 Jul 15 Jul 15 Jul 15 Jul 15 Jul
MERCURY
1 Jul
MERCURY
15 Jul
MERCURY
0” 10” 20” 30” 40” 50” 60”
31 Jul
ARCSECONDS
SATURN’S MOONS MERCURY
BEST TIME TO SEE: 10 July,
SATURN
BEST TIME TO SEE: 2 July,
JULY
Using a small scope you’ll be
22:00 BST (21:00 UT)
ALTITUDE: 4º (low)
LOCATION: Cancer
DIRECTION: West-northwest
00:00 BST (23:00 UT, 1 July)
ALTITUDE: 15º
LOCATION: Ophiuchus
DIRECTION: South
able to spot Saturn’s biggest Mercury is an evening object, Saturn is an evening object,
moons. Their positions change
remaining above the horizon a reaching its highest altitude
dramatically during the month,
as shown on the diagram. The short while after sunset. At the before midnight. It’s in the south
line by each date on the left start of July it is low in the of Ophiuchus, close to his
represents 00:00 UT. northwest and mag. –1.0, eastern leg. If you can visualise
which should help it stand out the Serpent Bearer’s form, it
DATE WEST EAST
in the bright evening twilight. appears as if he’s balancing the
Mercury gets fainter and planet on his knee. On the 1st
1
appears to move west through Saturn shines at mag. +0.1, but
2 the month. On the evening of dims slightly to +0.3 by 31 July.
3
25 July it shines at mag. +0.3 The appearance of the rings
and appears close to mag. +1.4 remains good, with Saturn’s
4 Regulus (Alpha (_) Leonis). At north pole tilted towards Earth
5 this time it’s in the west- by 26.8º by month end. The
northwest, visible approximately planet is 3º from the near-full
6 50 minutes after sunset. A Moon on the night of 6 July.
7 7%-lit waxing crescent Moon
hangs 6º to the east of the URANUS
8 planet on this date. Earlier on BEST TIME TO SEE: 31 July,
9 the 25th, the Moon will occult 20:45 BST (19:45 UT)
Mercury. Greatest eastern ALTITUDE: 27º
10
elongation occurs on 29 July LOCATION: Pisces
11 when Mercury will be separated DIRECTION: East-southeast
from the Sun by 27.2º. Mercury Uranus improves greatly
12
continues to be visible low to throughout July, reaching an
13 the horizon for the rest of the altitude of 25º in true darkness
14 month, dimming to mag. +0.6 by the month end. The mag.
by the 31st. +5.8 planet is in Pisces, 1.1º
15 north of mag. +4.3 Omicron
16 JUPITER (k) Piscium. The last quarter
BEST TIME TO SEE: 1 July, Moon is 5º below Uranus on
17 22:30 BST (21:30 UT) the morning of 17 July.
18 ALTITUDE: 21º
19
LOCATION: Virgo NEPTUNE
DIRECTION: Southwest BEST TIME TO SEE: 31 July,
20 Jupiter’s current period of 02:30 UT (01:30 UT)
observation is coming to an ALTITUDE: 28º
21
end as it drifts into the evening LOCATION: Aquarius
22 twilight. A 58%-lit waxing DIRECTION: South-southeast
23 gibbous Moon is 7º to the west Neptune is a morning object
of the planet on the evening of suffering through lack of true
24 1 July, but makes a second darkness at the start of July.
25 much closer call of 2º on the However, this situation starts
evening of the 28th when it to correct itself and by the end
26 will be a 32%-lit waxing of July it is possible to see mag.
27 crescent; they’ll be low down +7.8 Neptune 28º above the
in the west-southwest on the south-southeast horizon in true
28
second occasion. On the 1st darkness. The planet appears
29 Jupiter shines at mag. –2.0 and to move west amongst the stars,
appears 37 arcseconds across passing 11 arcminutes south
30
when seen through a telescope. of mag. +6.2 star 81 Aquarii
31 By the end of the month its on the morning of 16 July.
brightness will have dropped
1
to mag. –1.9 and it’ll appear NOT VISIBLE THIS MONTH
3 2 1 0 1 2 3 34 arcseconds across. Mars
arcminutes
Tethys Dione Rhea Titan Iapetus Saturn YOUR BONUS CONTENT Planetary observing forms
Three peaks dominate
Pythagoras, and PYTHAGORAS
they’re a useful aid to
identifying the crater B
C
ANAXIMANDER
BABBAGE D
A
SINUS
IRIDUM
PLATO
happens, you should be able to Libration plays a big part in

MOONWATCH see a series of low-altitude hills,
giving the floor some texture.
the crater’s appearance and
here we have one of the most
The central mountains are striking examples of this
N
PYTHAGORAS particularly striking and phenomenon. If you observe
TYPE: Crater extremely useful for quickly Pythagoras under the good
SIZE: Approximately identifying Pythagoras. As is libration prospects that will
129km across often the case with features occur around the start of the
LONGITUDE/LATITUDE: closer to the limb, it’s an area third week of July, it will be
63.0ºW, 63.7ºN in which it is easy to lose your hard to imagine that when in
AGE: 1.1-3.2 billion years way, but those Pythagorean its least favourable position
BEST TIME TO SEE: Five peaks act as solid navigational Pythagoras sits virtually on the
days after first quarter or beacons. There are three peaks Moon’s limb, giving us a
four days after last quarter visible, rising to impressive sideways view. Even when well
(6-8 July and 19-21 July) heights estimated to be around placed, we are presented with a
MINIMUM EQUIPMENT:
3km above the crater floor. good view of its western rim
10x binoculars
Despite providing such terraces, but those to the east
stunning signposting when appear heavily foreshortened
the lighting is right, Pythagoras and difficult to discern.
Pythagoras is a magnificent shadows to appear, enhancing is surprisingly easy to lose The most prominent features
example of a lunar crater. It’s the intricate structures that lie when the Sun is high in the that lie nearby are fairly rugged
129km in diameter and fairly around and within its walls. crater’s sky. At such times, the and irregular in shape. To the
close to the Moon’s northwest The crater’s rim is best way to locate it is to realise south is 144km crater Babbage,
limb, and as a consequence it surrounded by sloping that it forms a right angled the irregular rim of which contains
appears rather foreshortened to ramparts rising gently above triangle with the beautiful the more defined forms of
us on Earth, changing shape due their surroundings. It appears semi-circular feature known Babbage A (26km) and Babbage
to the effects of lunar libration. to terrace its way down to a as Sinus Iridum and the C (14km) the latter lying right
This month, this rocking and relatively flat floor approximately dark floored, circular at the centre of Babbage itself.
rolling effect brings Pythagoras 4.8km below. Apart from the crater Plato. Once you realise To the northeast is the curious
nicely into view. On 20-21 July, obvious central mountain that Sinus Iridum sits at the form of Anaximander (68km).
a favourable libration will complex that lies at the centre of right angle of this triangle, The parent crater here is difficult
coincide with the evening the crater, the floor shows little finding Pythagoras under to see as its floor is conjoined
terminator lying close to the detail until the illumination full illumination is with Anaximander D (92km),
crater. As this occurs the becomes oblique. When that remarkably straightforward. and Anaximander B (78km).
PETE LAWRENCE X 3
oblique lighting of the ever-

lowering Sun (as seen from
Pythagoras) will cause “Pythagoras is surprisingly easy to lose
interesting and detail-defining
when the Sun is high in the crater’s sky”
COMETS AND ASTEROIDS
C/2015 ER61 PANSTARRS – comet, near-Earth asteroid and potential damocloid
h The comet An Amor near-Earth asteroid is
Hamal Sheratan makes a one that periodically must come
PERSEUS beeline for closer to Earth than any other
ARIES _ `
a
the Pleiades major planet, but has an orbit
in Taurus in outside that of the Earth. ER61
41
the coming
was last closest to Earth on 19
months
April 2017, when it was around
k 1.2 AU away. Finally, a damocloid
1 Jul
Atik 6 Jul
is a minor planet that has a long
c ¡ 11 Jul Comet period and a highly eccentric
16 Jul C/2015 ER61 PANSTARRS
21 Jul orbit. If you regard ER61 as a
26 Jul
31 Jul
minor planet, it has the fourth
Pleiades 5 Aug b largest aphelion known for this
TAURUS 15 Aug
class of body, at around 2,456 AU.
30 Aug ER61 showed an outburst at
CETUS
+ the start of April that elevated it
to the threshold of naked eye
visibility. It exhibited a bright,
We have had a good run of During July the comet passes as being a comet, it’s also an well-defined circular coma with
binocular comets so far in 2017 from Aries into Taurus, slowing inner Oort cloud object, an Amor a faint but extensive plasma
and this continues into summer as it heads south of the Pleiades near-Earth asteroid and possibly tail. Images showed the tail to
with C/2015 ER61 PANSTARRS. open cluster. Estimates put the a damocloid. The Oort Cloud is be highly structured. Of course,
Although predicted to be brighter comet at around mag. +11.0 at a hypothetical repository of it could fade just as much as
in June, the short nights around this time, but the comet has been comets thought to occupy a brighten, but its proximity to
solstice did not make for ideal showing some interesting activity spherical shell around the Solar the Pleiades combined with darker
viewing conditions. As we head and been brighter than expected. System, beginning 5,000 AU July and August skies makes it
into July, however, the comet will C/2015 ER61 PANSTARRS has from the Sun and possibly an interesting target to keep an
be better placed in a darker sky. multiple classifications: as well extending out to 100,000 AU. eye on over coming weeks.
STAR OF A
B
¡
1º
THE MONTH
Epsilon Lyrae – the star
you can easily split into N ¡ _
four, a pair of pairs ¡ Vega
Vega (Alpha (_) Lyrae) forms an equilateral E
triangle with two multiple star neighbours.
Southeast is binary star Zeta (c) Lyrae and
northeast is Epsilon (¡) Lyrae. A concentrated
naked eye study of Epsilon should, with good
eyesight, split it in two. With a separation of
¡ C
208 arcseconds (3.5 arcminutes), the split
D
isn’t actually that hard. Zeta requires optical
help, as there are just 43 arcseconds between Þ The Double Double is only a short distance away from Vega, the alpha star of Lyra
the two visible stars of this seven-star system.
Epsilon also has more than two components; The two pairs are separately labelled as The Epsilon1 pair orbit one another with a
a scope reveals each to be a double again. Epsilon1 (¡) and Epsilon2 (¡) Lyrae, Epsilon1 being period estimated to be around 1,800 years.
A well-collimated 6-inch scope will reveal to the north. From the west the four individual The orbits are highly eccentric, changing the
the twin binary nature of this system, which stars are Epsilon1 A, Epsilon1 B, Epsilon2 C and distance between both stars from 73 AU to
unsurprisingly has become known as the Epsilon2 D – they have magnitudes of +5.1, +6.0, 400 AU, with an average of 235 AU. The
Double Double. Although there are other +5.1 and +5.4 respectively. Their combined Epsilon2 pair is separated by a smaller average
such systems visible, Epsilon Lyrae is perhaps light gives Epsilon Lyrae a compound magnitude distance of 145 AU, swinging between
the most striking because its components of +3.9. The Epsilon1 pair are 2.8 arcseconds extremes of 95 AU to 195 AU. Their orbital
are, at first glance, similar in appearance. apart, the Epsilon2 pair tighter at 2.2 arcseconds. period is also much shorter at 724 years.
small compact binoculars will show a few stars
STEPHEN TONKIN’S of the associated open cluster (NGC 6530). A
BINOCULAR TOUR pair of 10×50s will show more than half a

dozen stars and some of the surrounding
‘Lagoon’ nebulosity (NGC 6523) that they
The southern Milky Way is home to a series illuminate, as well as the denser cluster of stars
to the east of the main nebulosity. SEEN IT
of summer stalwarts – plus a cartoon mouse
5 M4

Tick the box when you’ve seen each one the top of the patch. This gives the nebulosity 10x Bright globular M4 is nearly 1.5° west of
the appearance of an inverted tick mark, rather 50 the orange-red, mag. +1.1 Antares (Alpha
1 THE WILD DUCK CLUSTER than a swan. SEEN IT (_) Scorpii), making an obtuse isosceles triangle
10x We start our tour of the southern Milky with mag. +3.1 Alniyat (Sigma (m) Scorpii). It is
50 Way with the densest known open cluster. 3 M25 AND U SAGITTARII only 7,000 lightyears away, which is closer than
Start at mag. +4.2 Beta (`) Scuti. In the same 10x Look 4° southeast of M17 to find another some open clusters, and as a result it appears
field of view (2° to the southeast) you should see 50 fine open cluster, this one twice as large rather loose. It is one of few globulars in which
what appears to be an unresolved globular that as the Wild Duck but much sparser – M25. you can detect some detail with 10×50s; in
spans 0.25°. This is the glow of the nearly 3,000 Small binoculars are more helpful than large particular, see if you can make out a brighter
young blue stars of the Wild Duck Cluster, M11. ones here, as they make it easier to distinguish central bar of light running north to south. M4
While you are here, it’s worth panning around the cluster from the background Milky Way. The seems to be connected, by several chains of
the Scutum Star Cloud, which forms the cluster’s brightest star is the Cepheid variable stars, to a rich star-field that is more pleasing in
backdrop to this cluster. SEEN IT U Sagittarii (mag. +7.2 to +6.5). You could use binoculars than in a scope. SEEN IT
this one to do some cosmology: the period of
2 THE SWAN NEBULA Cepheid variables depends on their luminosity, 6 RHO OPHIUCHI
15x Find mag. +4.7 Gamma ( ) Scuti and so they can be used as standard candles to 10x Mag. +5.0 Rho (l) Ophiuchi is 2.5°
a
70 then pan 2.5° to the southwest to reach establish their distances. SEEN IT 50 northeast of Alniyat. It is one component
our next target, M17 or the Swan Nebula. It was of a triple star, its 7th-magnitude companions
described by Charles Messier as: “A train of 4 THE LAGOON NEBULA 2.5 arcminutes to the north and west respectively,
light without stars, in the shape of a spindle, of 10x You will need a dark, transparent southern making it look like a celestial Mickey Mouse. Use
5 or 6 minutes in extent.” Keep it centred while 50 horizon for our next object. The Lagoon 10×50s to look for the faint nebulosity around the
you look for the mag. +5.3 star 0.5º north of Nebula, M8, is just over 5° west-northwest of star; you will need good conditions and averted
the train, and averted vision should reveal a mag. +2.8 Kaus Borealis (Lambda (h) Sagittarii), vision, which may enable you to detect a slight
small hook-like extension extending south from the ‘peak’ of the lid in the Teapot asterism. Even brightening of the surrounding sky. SEEN IT
5° N
d OPHIUCHUS
Han E W
` c
1 SERPENS S
h M11 CAUDA
_ i k
AQUILA ¡
q
Gum 84-85 Sabik IC 4592
b r
d Graffias
j `
M16 s
SCUTUM
a NGC 6605
t 6
M17 M23 l
IC 4604 b
2 Saturn j
NGC 6590 IC 4605
m Alniyat
M25 Antares
M21 /
U
3 +
M20 e
M19 _ M4
5
l M8 & NGC 6530 o l
/ k j M28 Collinder 302
h 4 M62
M22 Kaus Borealis
SCORPIUS
m q
Teapot
SAGITTARIUS b M6
NGC 6383
a ¡
NGC 6416
SE S
THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE
What’s the tightest stellar pairing you can split with your binoculars
+5.1 pair may challenge 7x
instruments. Any 7x or 8x
binoculars hanging on will
probably run out of steam
with 61 Cygni. Its two stars
of mag. +5.2 and +6.0
are separated by 29 arcseconds.
STF 2372 (HIP 91712) in
Lyra, a mag. +6.5 and +8.1 pair
separated by 25 arcseconds,
will probably prune out a
number of 10x instruments.
If not, try for 61 Ophiuchi, a
well-matched mag. +6.2 and
+6.8 pair separated by 20
arcseconds – a probable
challenge for 11x binoculars.
For larger binoculars have a
go at 100 Herculis. At 14.2
arcseconds, this mag. +5.9
and +6.0 pair will probably
thin the pack quite a bit.
Þ A showpiece of the July night sky, Albireo (Beta Cygni), turns out to be a tough test for smaller binoculars If you’re hanging on in
there, our final challenge is
here everything comes crashing 37 Ceti, a mag. +5.2 and +8.7 the binary star STF 1962
The stars in this challenge
down because 7x50 binoculars pair separated by 50 arcseconds. (HIP 76602) in Libra. This is
are marked on our All-Sky
Chart on pages 54-55, don’t even come close to They are currently visible in another nicely matched pair
except 37 Ceti – you’ll need splitting Epsilon1. The issue is the morning sky, low in the of mag. +6.5 and +6.6 stars,
to get up early during July the magnification. For 7x50 east-southeast. separated by just 11.9 arcseconds.
to catch that one! binoculars, the 7x magnification Hopefully you’re still with It should be possible to see
is not enough to come close to us, so next try Iota (f) Boötis. both with large binoculars,
Binoculars allow you to see revealing the Dawes Limit. Here you have mag. +4.9 and but it certainly won’t be a
fainter objects in the night sky To see how good your +7.5 components 39 arcseconds pushover. To assist you in
than you can with your eyes binoculars are, first try to apart. If your binoculars pass the challenge, we’ve marked
alone. They also offer increased resolve Nu (i) Draconis, two this test, try them on Albireo all except 37 Ceti on our
resolving power over the mag. +4.9 stars separated by (Beta (`) Cygni). With a All-Sky Chart on pages 54-55.
human eye, and this month’s 62 arcseconds. This shouldn’t separation of 34 arcseconds, A separate chart for 37 Ceti
challenge is to test just how prove too difficult. Next try this beautiful mag. +3.1 and is shown on this page.
good this really is. The resolving ¡
power of a lens (measured in
arcseconds) is given by the
Dawes Limit, or 114/D. Here, k PISCES
+
‘D’ is the lens diameter of your
i
binoculars in millimetres. So, j1
a pair of 7x50s should have a j2 f
resolving limit of 2.28 arcseconds + Alrescha _
(114 divided by 50). h 37
Epsilon Lyrae, the Double- CETUS e
d
Double (see Star of the a k
Menkar _
Month), lets you test this. b
The components of the ` Deneb Kaitos
northerly pair, Epsilon1, are c
separated by 2.8 arcseconds,
o
while those belonging to
PETE LAWRENCE X 3
Epsilon2 are 2.2 arcseconds

apart. You might think that
a pair of 7x50s would be able E SE
to split Epsilon1 but not
Epsilon2 – unfortunately, Þ 37 Ceti, part of the constellation of the Whale, is a good early-morning test of binocular resolution in July
2
21
20
2°
h
0h
h
+3
00
40
0m
m
m
¡
20
h
°
+34
30
m
49
48
CYGNUS 0°
+3
°
+34
NGC 6979 Pickering’s

Triangle
20
h
NGC 6974
30
m
4
52
NGC 6960
Network Nebula 1
(Eastern Veil)
NGC 6960 Witch’s Broom
(Western Veil)
NGC 6995
8°
3 6 +2
+32
IC 1340 2 NGC 6940
NGC 6992
Veil Nebula Complex
N
21
h10
W
20
h
m
2º
40
m
5 1º
NGC 7013
E
20
21h
c
h5
°
0m
6°
00m
+30 ° 32 S +2
+28
7+(6.<*8,'( JULY 63
'((3ƨ6.<
6,000 BC. The resulting explosion created
an ever-expanding expanse of ionised gas THIS DEEP-SKY TOUR
that currently measures 3º across, equivalent HAS BEEN AUTOMATED
to six times the apparent diameter of the full
TOUR
ASCOM-enabled Go-To
Moon. Its impressive size merits spending mounts can now take you to
some time to explore the area. The portion to this month’s targets at the
the west, which was our first stop, is relatively touch of a button, with our
faint and somewhat hindered by 52 Cygni. Deep-Sky Tour file for the
However, the arcing portion to the east, EQTOUR app. Find it online.
We peek into the Veil in designated NGC 6992, is somewhat easier,
lacking the distraction of such a relatively
this month’s tour close to bright star and having a brighter appearance a foreground star that sits midway along
the wing of Cygnus though the eyepiece. A 6-inch scope will NGC 6960 and is only 201 lightyears
show as a mottled arc of nebulosity distant. The edges of the bubble are easier

Tick the box when you’ve seen each one approximately 1º in length. SEEN IT to see than the middle because the dim
‘surface’ light is foreshortened here. In the
1 NGC 6960 3 NGC 6995 centre things are a little trickier. NGC 6979
The Veil Nebula nestles The brighter, outer portions of represents a dimmer knot on the northern
under Cygnus’s eastern wing, the Veil Nebula Complex form rim that appears to lead into the centre,
occupying the lower portion of the isosceles a roughly circular structure sometimes becoming NGC 6974 along the way. This
triangle formed by mag. +2.5 Epsilon (¡), referred to as the Cygnus Loop. The edges area requires a large aperture instrument
mag. +3.2 Zeta (c) and mag. +4.2 52 Cygni. of the loop represent the regions where to see properly. Where the nebula tapers
Foreground 52 Cygni is halfway along a shockwaves from the original supernova, in shape as it approaches the centre, it is
tapering wedge of Veil nebulosity known moving outward at around 600,000km/h, known as Pickering’s Triangle or Fleming’s
as NGC 6960, the Western Veil, and its are interacting with surrounding material. Triangular Wisp, an apt name for a very
magnitude can cause visual issues. Use a The brightest arc of the loop, NGC 6992, ephemeral target. SEEN IT
low power and an OIII or UHC filter if you continues south where it becomes NGC 6995,
have them. This steely-grey wisp of nebula a more spread out region that appears to 5 NGC 7013
is fascinating to explore, and responds well hook back in towards the centre of the loop. For our final targets, we step outside
to averted vision. Long exposures show it The faint filigree tendrils of nebulosity that the Cygnus Loop. NGC 7013 is a
resembles a tree-branch, hence its informal occur in this region are best picked up using galaxy with ambiguous classification,
name, the Witch’s Broom Nebula. Just larger apertures. However, as a whole, referred to as both a spiral galaxy with
visible in a 6-inch scope, the thin tapering NGC 6992 and 6995 form relatively easy restricted arms and a lenticular galaxy. It
part of the ‘broomstick’ lies slightly north of targets for smaller scopes. SEEN IT is 2.3º southeast of NGC 6995 and 2º west
52 Cygni. SEEN IT of Zeta Cygni. It is tilted by a reasonable
4 NGC 6974 angle as seen from Earth and appears quite
2 NGC 6992 The expanding shockwave bubble elongated through the eyepiece, measuring
The Veil Nebula represents from the supernova that formed the 4.0x1.4 arcminutes. The mag. +12.1 galaxy
the violent death of a star Veil Nebula is approximately 1,470 lightyears appears to be surrounded by a faint outer
that went supernova between 3,000 and from Earth; 52 Cygni, mentioned earlier, is ring, at the northern end of which is an
orange, mag. +9.9 foreground star
designated HD 335465. This star can cause
some distraction when trying to concentrate
< The Eastern Veil Nebula, on the galaxy. SEEN IT
NGC 6992, has the
appearance of a mottled
arc of nebulosity 6 NGC 6940
NGC 6940 is an open cluster located
3.5º southwest of 52 Cygni. Start at
Epsilon (¡) Cygni and shift your gaze to
52 Cygni, then look southwest from 52 Cygni
for the same distance again to reach NGC
6940. This is an ancient cluster between
600 million and 1.1 billion years old, 2,510
lightyears away. It contains around 170
member stars, including approximately 20
red giants at its centre. NGC 6940 merits low
CHART: PETE LAWRENCE, PHOTO: FRANZ KLAUSER/CCDGUIDE.COM
magnification as it’s quite large at 31

arcminutes across – the same apparent
diameter as the Moon. It has an apparent
magnitude of +6.3 but lacks any really
bright members, appearing more as a patch
of faint stars that is slightly elongated east
to west. There is a 9th-magnitude orange
star but this is an interloper, being a
foreground object. SEEN IT
YOUR BONUS CONTENT

Print out this chart and take an
automated Go-To tour
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY
Noctilucent clouds
but are lost soon after. Just because we are
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT in NLC season doesn’t guarantee you’ll
DSLR and wide-angle lens (28mm or shorter focal length) or smartphone and get a view; it’s more common not to see
smartphone tripod adaptor, sturdy tripod, remote shutter release them than it is to do so. A bright display
one night might be followed by further
displays on subsequent nights, but it’s just
NLCs appear to glow in twilight as likely that they will disappear
skies because they are lit by the completely from view.
Sun from below the horizon The appearance of a bright Moon in the
sky will not help, but any lunar phases
from new to first quarter or last quarter
back to new will not cause problems. The
appearance of a waning Moon behind a
morning display can appear quite odd. As
the NLC layer is so thin, it’s hardly affected
by moonlight and acts more like a thin film.
Consequently, you see little interaction
between the Moon and the NLC layer,
avoiding such halo-brightening effects as
you see when the Moon shines through
high-altitude cirrus cloud, for example.
The waxing crescent Moon does not
encounter the NLC region as seen from
the UK because it is positioned too far to
the south when NLCs may be visible.
NLCs are great fun to try and photograph
during the summer months, offering a bit
of variety for astrophotography and
giving you something to concentrate on
Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) create a bridge northeast. As their appearance is caused during the months when the sky never
between meteorology and astronomy. by reflected sunlight, a major display gets truly dark. Requiring only a camera
They occur within Earth’s atmosphere may appear as described, low in the and a tripod, they are quite undemanding
and are formed when super-cooled water northwest, but persist all the way across in terms of equipment too. A bright
vapour meets tiny particulates, which act the northern horizon and into the display can also stand a bit of light
as a nucleus around which tiny ice northeast, the reflection tracking the pollution, which means that NLCs
crystals form. Forming in a thin layer, the Sun’s position below the horizon. can be seen from urban locations.
crystals are ultimately seen as NLCs. NLCs exhibit a whole range of
It’s now known that one of the primary structures and brightnesses and it’s the
sources for the particulates around which latter that can prove challenging to KEY TECHNIQUE
the ice crystals form is the dust left photographers. A dim display can WORKING OUT YOUR SETTINGS
behind after a meteor vaporises in Earth’s easily become lost against the dusk or Noctilucent clouds are a phenomenon
atmosphere: basically, the aftermath of a dawn summer twilight. The balancing associated with the summer months. If they
meteor trail. NLCs form at a very high act required to compensate for the appear at all they can take many different
altitude in the mesosphere, in a layer dimming of the evening twilight and forms, ranging from being so bright that
smartphones can record them to so tenuous
76-85km up. At this height, the NLCs are the brightening of the morning twilight and dim that some serious effort has to
still able to catch the Sun’s rays when our can be quite difficult – but then go into pulling them out of the background
star is below the horizon for us on the again, this is one of the elements of sky. This month we’re looking at how to
ground. If NLCs are there, they are NLCs that makes them so compelling. recognise what’s going on and to apply
revealed because they reflect sunlight. The earliest northern hemisphere the correct settings to achieve the best
This means they appear to shine at night, displays normally occur at the end of May, results. With practice these techniques can
ALL PIUCTURES: PETE LAWRENCE
not only allow you to photograph these

and this is why they are known as with the season getting into full swing elusive displays, but to turn your camera
noctilucent or ‘night shining’ clouds. during June and July. They can still into a serious tool for helping detect them.
If they are present, they are normally sometimes be seen during early August
seen low down and close to the northwest
horizon 90-120 minutes after sunset and

Send your image to: [email protected]
a similar time before sunrise low in the
STEP BY STEP
✓ ✗
STEP 1 STEP 2
The first thing you need to do to grab an NLC display with a camera is Once you have your locations sorted out, it’s a good idea to visit them
to catch a display happening, something easier said than done. Find a during each clear night 90-120 minutes after sunset or before sunrise as
location that has a flat horizon to the northwest for evening watches and appropriate. If your sites are too far away to do this regularly, look for
northeast for morning ones; a flat view to the north is also useful. Avoid NLCs via third-party camera feeds. Google ‘IAP Leibniz NLC’ and navigate
places where bright lights will spoil the view. to the NLC camera network of the Leibniz-Institute Astrophysics Insitute.
‘Normal’ (tropospheric)
clouds appear dark
NLCs appear
bright
STEP 3 STEP 4
If using a DSLR, fit a wide-field lens. A focal length of 28mm or shorter A shutter release cable will help you to avoid camera shake. Attach the
is ideal. Set the lens to manual and pre-focus at infinity. The best way camera to a tripod and position it centred northwest or northeast as
to do this is to use a live view and focus carefully on a bright star. Your appropriate. Start with a five-second exposure and review. If overexposed,
ISO should reflect the brightness of the scene. Use a low value (400-800) reduce the exposure time. If too dark, increase the exposure. Zoom in
if the twilight is bright, or a higher value (800-1600) if it’s dark. on the preview, looking close to the horizon for any signs of NLCs.
STEP 5 STEP 6
Some smartphones are sensitive enough for NLC photography. We’d NLCs often appear electric-blue or blue white in colour, with fine network,
recommend an inexpensive phone tripod holder and a camera app wave or herringbone detail. If you suspect some are visible, take a number
that gives you control over settings. The settings suggested for DSLRs of shots in quick succession using the same settings. These can be animated
should work, although some phones may not offer the full range. (try using PIPP) to show how the display moves and changes. A bright
Use the delay timer to avoid camera shake. display is easy to see with the naked eye.
66
Portraits of
Jupiter The endeavours of citizen
scientists are helping NASA present the
gas giant in a new light, explains The
Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla
T
he Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter
a year ago this month, and continues
to beam back incredible images of
its turbulent, stormy atmosphere.
Many of these images have been processed by
citizen scientists across the globe, who work
with the raw data captured by its JunoCam
monochromatic camera and made available on
NASA’s public website. Far from being the sole
domain of planetary scientists, now anyone
with a computer and an internet connection
can create beautiful views of Jupiter. Over the
following pages Emily Lakdawalla, senior editor
at The Planetary Society, gives her thoughts on
the artistic and scientific merit of some of the
fascinating planetary portraits that have been
created in this manner.
EMILY LAKDAWALLA: ISABEL LAWRENCE; NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS X 4
ABOUT THE WRITER

U An unfamiliar sight Emily Lakdawalla is an
experienced astro image
Roman Tkachenko processor, an expert in
Emily says: What a difference a change in point of view makes! With only the north pole planetary geology and
senior editor at The
visible, the crescent is not readily recognizable as Jupiter. Roman pushes the contrast in this
Planetary Society.
image, making the north polar storms pop, appearing like a school of jellyfish in a lagoon.
JUNO GALLERY JULY 67
Y Little Red Spot

Gerald Eichstädt and John Rogers
Emily says: Some of Jupiter's storms are colourless. Below and left of centre swirls
a northern hemisphere storm named NN-LRS-1, pointed out by John Rogers in
this global swathe from Juno's third flyby. Compression of the Juno data before
transmission to Earth causes the red and green vertical stripes in this view.
U Stormset
Roman Tkachenko
Emily says: The variations
in colour of Jupiter's
clouds outline the semi-
permanent structures in
the atmosphere. This is
Oval A1, a storm in the
south. The red wash of
colour added here evokes
a sunset – which this is,
as the planet's rotation is
carrying the storm on the
left into night on the right.
Y Two halves
make a pole
Scott Preston
Emily says: An impossible
view of a fully-lit south pole.
The two half-phase photos
that comprise this image
were taken at different
times. In-between, winds
have separated each
band of clouds from its
neighbour. One of the
images has also been
mirror flipped, spinning its
storms the wrong way.
68
Leaning into
the light Z
Roman Tkachenko
Emily says: Crescent phases
evoke sensations of light
coming out of darkness.
Jupiter seems to gaze
skyward, the Great Red
Spot its face, south polar
chin tilted up, supplicating,
offering two of its moons
to the Sun; but all around
it is black. Juno captured
this looking back after a
flyby, as if reaching out to
the receding planet.
Y A new
perspective
Chris Harvey
Emily says: One of the
first amazing north polar
views from Juno. We've
never seen Jupiter's
turbulent poles so clearly
before. Usually we look
at them from the side,
and they're obscured
by high hazes. Because
Juno looks straight
down, it can reveal
myriad swirling storms.
The colour here is
slightly exaggerated
to reveal those storms
in more detail.
Creative
clouds Z
Björn Jónsson
Emily says: This is the
same photo as 'Stormset'
on the previous page but
processed differently, to
different ends. Here, Björn
has processed out the
day-to-night brightness
change and sharpened
the photo to permit
the viewer to focus on
intricate details in the
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS X 5
clouds. The colour is still

exaggerated, although
less so than in the
previous version.
U Which way is up?

Roman Tkachenko
Emily says: A small piece of Jupiter's atmosphere contains
a variety of cloud behaviours. Tipped on its side and
cropped, it's disorienting. Which way is north? Which
way are the clouds moving? Are those great storms
that are visible from Earth, or just tiny whorl-lets riding
on storms whose extent we can't see? What are those
white slashes? In fact, the slashes are a feature called
the 'STB Spectre'.
Retro realism Z
Gerald Eichstädt
Emily says: Gerald has given Jupiter realistic, subtle colours
and left four blemishes uncorrected, making a column of
dots. The image harks back to those from early spacecraft
like the Voyagers, whose cameras were painted with
reseau marks. The red spot at the top is Oval BA.
70
V Painted planet
Fernando García Navarro
Emily says: Enlarging a JPEG-compressed image produces weird patches of pixels of
solid colours bounded by sharper edges, unintentionally giving the resulting product
the feeling of an acrylic painting.
U Approaching darkness
Andrew R Brown
Emily says: A close-up of NN-LRS-1 from slightly
later in Juno's third flyby, as the storm was headed
into sunset, where small bumps in clouds cast shadows
on cloud bands to their east. The view has been
enlarged, but enlarging reveals no more detail than
we enjoyed before. Upon close examination, sharp
cloud boundaries blur.
V An eclipse in motion
Roman Tkachenko
Emily says: A cinematic moment from Juno, which
watched as an interloping moon (Ganymede, sitting
out of the frame) briefly eclipsed the Sun and cast
its shadow across Jupiter's northern belts, as the planet
rotated underneath.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS X 4, ROMAN TKACHENKO/NASA/JPL-CALTECH
Y Glass giant
Iêdo Gualberto
Emily says: Giant Jupiter
looks like a little glass
marble. The colour
is related to Jupiter's
actual hues but has been
exaggerated, making it
seem an alien white, red
and blue planet. An artist
could shift the colours into
different hues entirely, to
create a whole universe of
different marble planets.
Visit NASA’s website to

find out more about Juno,
and download its RAW
images to have a go at
processing them yourself.
www.missionjuno.swri.edu
Watch and listen to clips

from past BBC
programmes about Jupiter
at www.bbc.in/2q4NTVe
PIECING TOGETHER A PLANET

Citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko reveals how he processed raw JunoCam data
I had been for the red, green and blue (RGB) The main point is to not over involved in real science, while
interested colour channels. The data enhance. Then, I submitted my amateur image processors can
in processing I downloaded showed multiple finished image using the ‘Upload’ show off their skills and help
for a long images of Jupiter cut into button on the website and waited NASA study the planet.
time and had unaligned strips 128 pixels high for it to be approved by NASA. Participating in this project is
been working and 1,648 pixels wide, each Working with JunoCam images an opportunity to be involved
on non-astro looking like a distorted jigsaw gives everyone the chance to be in something amazing. S
images for fun. I wondered: “How of the planet [1]. Each strip in
can I apply my image processing the image represents one of the Processors work with
skills to astronomy?” I began taking three RGB channels. Using basic raw data to create
images of the planets. I struggled Photoshop, I cut out the strips magnificent views
to get good results, so turned to and grouped them according
images taken by spacecraft. to their channels, lining up the
I began by going to the edges to create three separate
JunoCam RAW image database black and white images of Jupiter
(www.missionjuno.swri.edu/ [2]. I then allocated each to a
junocam/processing) and logging red, green or blue channel and
in. I selected one of the raw Photoshop generated the finished 1 2 3 4
images, looking for one that colour image [3].
contained interesting features, and The rest of the processing
clicked on the image icon. I then included colour correction, sharpness
clicked ‘Images’ to download the improvement and deconvolution
raw black and white files. [4]. The colours in my images are
JunoCam captures data through just the planet’s actual colours
colour filters attached to its CCD, enhanced, but I corrected and
generating a black and white reduced some noise and fixed
RAW image that contains data some defects like colour banding.
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PLUTO REVISITED JULY 73
For years all we could see of Pluto

and its moons were specks of light;
New Horizons revealed them as
worlds with their own characters
Getting
to the
NASA/JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY/SOUTHWEST RESEARCH CENTER, NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
heartof
Pluto Two years since the New Horizons
Ɔ\E\Paul Abel reveals how its
ABOUT THE WRITER
Paul Abel is an
astronomer at the
University of Leicester.
data is driving new discoveries He co-hosts our
Virtual Planetarium
DERXWWKHGZDUISODQHW every month
Two regions dominate our
new view of dwarf planet
Pluto: the pale, heart-
shaped Tombaugh
Regio and the ruddy
Cthulhu Regio
TOMBAUGH REGIO
Sputnik
Planitia
Hilary Montes
CTHULHU REGIO
Norgay
Montes
Wright Mons
Piccard Mons
O
n 14 July, it will be two years since the existence of cryovolcanism and stunning surface
New Horizons made its historic features in the 2015 feature, and some might have
closest approach of dwarf planet thought the author was – as Patrick might have said
CENTER, NASA/ESA AND M. BUIE (SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE), NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI X 3,
Pluto. Nine years after its launch – letting his imagination run riot, after the flyby it
NASA/JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY/SOUTHWEST RESEARCH
in 2006, the spacecraft became the first robotic seemed that more imagination was needed.
emissary from Earth to survey this frozen enigma, Dominating the surface of Pluto is the bright, heart-
which has spent much of humanity’s existence lost shaped feature known as the Tombaugh Regio, where
in the frozen darkness of the outer Solar System. New Horizons has discovered evidence of some
Back in the summer of 2015 we looked at the spectacular geological activity. The western lobe
history of Pluto and made some predictions is formed by the Sputnik Planitia, a vast, smooth
about what New Horizons might reveal. Now deposit of bright carbon-monoxide ice. It is some
we return to those predictions and look at the 1,050x800km in size, making it the largest glacier
exciting discoveries that have been made about in the Solar System. To the south we have the
this fascinating sentry of the distant Kuiper Belt. mountains Hillary and Norgay Montes. Norgay
CHRIS BUTLER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Montes is about 3.4km high and largely made of

A patchwork surface water-ice. There is evidence of ice flows here, and
In the decades following its discovery Pluto remained hints of structures that resemble frozen lakes. The
little more than a speck of light, even when glimpsed views from the top of these mountains are likely
by the world’s largest telescopes. In 2002-03, the to be quite spectacular.
Hubble Space Telescope produced the first map of Þ Hubble’s glimpse of High-resolution images of the Sputnik Planitia
its surface, which provided tantalising hints of a Pluto showed a tantalising show it to be formed of polygon convection cells. It
patchwork body. While there was speculation about patchwork, but no detail is thought that nitrogen and carbon-monoxide ice
The Hillary Montes

stretch through
the south of the
Tombaugh Regio
This is one of the highest

resolution images from
New Horizons, showing
where the water-ice crust
of the Sputnik Planitia
meets an adjoining
mountain range
is warmed by heat welling up from inside the cells,

The mountains in the Cthulhu Regio,
and that this ice then flows down to lower levels.
capped with a methane snow that sets
The small pits located in the ice could be the result them apart from the ground below
of the sublimation of nitrogen-ice. There are no
surface craters here, and this has led scientists to
conclude that this part of Pluto’s surface must be
younger than 10 million years old. Clearly, Pluto is
still geologically active.
Other areas of interest include ancient dark
terrain like the whale-shaped Cthulhu Regio:
its dark red colouration is due to the presence of
complex hydrocarbons called tholins. The cratering
of this part of the surface would suggest it to be a
few billion years old, certainly much older than the
Sputnik Planitia.
The New Horizons data provides two possible
candidates for cryovolcanism: Wright Mons and
Piccard Mons. These two features are the tallest
objects on the surface of Pluto, reaching a height >
LIFE ON PLUTO
The dwarf planet’s subsurface oceans are a well of possibility
It is currently believed that under the thick have been enough heating to have the surface. As a result of the collision, water
icy surface of Pluto there is a vast layer produced yet-undiscovered subsurface from this subsurface ocean could have welled
of water-ice. Beneath this lies the core of oceans on the dwarf planet. up to produce the vast glacier we see today.
Pluto, containing radioactive elements that Data from New Horizons indicates that One can’t help wondering whether conditions
would release heat as they decay, thawing Sputnik Planitia is probably an impact basin in the subterranean oceans of Pluto were
the water-ice above. Indeed, there may formed when a large object collided with ever right for life to have got started.
What lies in the waters

beneath icy crusts is a
question asked about
many worlds in
our Solar System
76
Over Pluto’s long history, changes in the axial

tilt mean there may have been times when the
atmosphere was much more dense than it is now.
It has been suggested that the atmosphere may
even become dense enough to allow the existence
of lakes of liquid nitrogen on Pluto.
After New Horizons made its closest
approach, its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager
began to observe the dwarf planet and it made
a surprising discovery: surrounding Pluto was
a notable atmospheric haze. Unexpectedly, this
haze seemed to be composed of several different
layers. It is thought to be due to the interaction
of Pluto’s atmosphere with sunlight. Although
the Sun is weak from this far away, it is still
sufficient to break up methane in the upper
atmosphere, allowing more complex hydrocarbons
> of 4km. A series of dark irregular patches on Þ Pluto’s atmosphere may to form. These slowly fall to colder, lower altitudes,
the equator form the Brass Knuckles region. The persist for much longer forming the haze. The Sun’s ultraviolet rays
dark patches are separated by bright ice-covered than realised each year convert them into compounds called tholins, the
mountains, which themselves contain deep canyons þ These two peaks, the compound responsible for the dark colouration on
and valleys. It seems that there is no dull place on tallest on Pluto, are both Pluto’s surface. This is a general picture however;
the surface of Pluto! cryovolcanism candidates the exact details have yet to be determined. No
A lively atmosphere
It had long been thought that Pluto’s atmosphere
would be interesting. Due to its rather elliptical
orbit, the general consensus was that the atmosphere Wright Mons
would freeze to the surface as Pluto moved farther
from the Sun. However, scientists now believe that
Pluto may have an atmosphere for most, if not all, of
its long year. Pluto has a substantial axial tilt of about
120°, so as it orbits the Sun one pole is kept in shadow
while the other remains in direct sunlight. New Horizons Piccard Mons
has revealed that methane and nitrogen are distributed
all over the surface. This means that there is probably
enough ice to sublimate and keep the atmosphere
from completely condensing on the surface.
This does not mean that the atmosphere is static:
indeed it is far more dynamic than we thought.
BROADENING HORIZONS
New Horizons’ journey continues; its next target is an asteroid in the Kuiper Belt
NASA/JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY/SOUTHWEST
New Horizons has a mission extension until to be the home of at least three dwarf surface, hopefully determine its composition
2021, during which NASA plans to take planets. NASA plans to use New Horizons and investigate whether 2014 MU69
advantage of the spacecraft’s passage to study some of these objects and, on possesses a comet-like coma. The spacecraft
RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THINKSTOCK, NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI X 3
through the Kuiper Belt – a leftover relic 28 August 2015, selected asteroid 2014 will study other Kuiper Belt objects and the
from the formation of the Solar System that MU69 (PT1) as a mission target. The spacecraft general environment of the Kuiper Belt,
extends beyond the orbit of Neptune out to will fly by the asteroid on 1 January 2019, providing some much needed data on this
a distance of about 50 AU, and also happens during which it will map the space rock’s region of the Solar System.
We know so little about

the Kuiper Belt; New
Horizons may provide
some answers
Styx Nix Kerberos Hydra
10 miles
Charon
10km
doubt there is a complex interplay between the Þ Pluto’s five moons as seen cratering on this plain, which indicates that some
atmosphere and the surface, creating the dramatic by New Horizons. Charon sort of resurfacing has taken place; the fingerprints
topography we have seen. If anything, New Horizons is clearly the largest, while of cryovolcanism in action. New Horizons was
has revealed the atmosphere of Pluto to be just as the elongated nature of also able to image the other satellites, although
fascinating and complex as the planet it enshrouds. the smaller four is thought Nix was the only other moon close enough to show
to be common among
Kuiper Belt bodies
interesting surface details. The spacecraft showed
Fellow travellers a red patch on the surface similar to the dark
Pluto does not wander alone in space: it is colouration found on Pluto and Charon.
accompanied by five satellites, Charon, Nix,
Kerberos, Hydra and Styx. Charon is around The continuing mission
one-eighth the mass of Pluto, and as a result Although the Pluto flyby has long since passed, New
the pair are tidally locked, which means they þ Charon has a dark Horizons is far from finished. The mission has already
always present the same face to each other red region like Pluto’s, in been a spectacular success and it has transformed
as they move around the Sun. Unlike our this instance covering its an object that was once just a pinprick of light on a
northern polar cap
own Moon, Charon does not rise and set photographic plate into a complex and diverse world.
over the surface of Pluto, it remains fixed The discovery of mountains and apparent ice
in the black sky. floes shows that even out here, in the
New Horizons surveyed Charon and frozen extremities of the Solar
the results once more challenged System, geological activity is
the expectations of planetary quite common. Like the
scientists. Instead of a satellites of Jupiter and
dead, cratered world, the Saturn, Pluto and Charon
spacecraft found a surface remind us that we were
every bit as exciting as wrong to write them off
Pluto’s. Charon has as dead, airless worlds.
a dark red northern No doubt in years to
polar cap, and this come the next
is probably material generation of
that has escaped from planetary scientists
Pluto’s atmosphere. will use data from
Running along its New Horizons to
equator is a vast canyon formulate new
system nearly 1,600km models of these
in length. What distant wanderers. In
could have caused this Vulcan Planum the larger picture they
enormous fracture? will help to provide a
Names from science better understanding of the
fiction are given to features early Solar System. I would
here and the aptly named Vulcan imagine there will be many more
Planum is, as Mr Spock would say, surprises in store as the story of
fascinating. There is surprisingly little Pluto embarks on a new chapter. S
78
SKILLS
78 The Guide
SKILLS
Brush up on your astronomy prowess with our team of experts
81
84
87
How to
Image Processing
Scope Doctor
Not every asteroid within the asteroid belt is the

same, and not just in an aesthetic sense: even in
composition they can differ from one another
The Guide
The science of space rocks
With
Jasmin Fox-Skelly
How we classify asteroids, and why we’re so keen to study them

and wipe out civilisation as we know it, the
sequel to the 10km-wide body that crashed
into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula millions
of years ago and almost certainly contributed
to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Asteroids are surprisingly varied. The
Find out more at http://asteroidday.org smallest ever studied is 2015 TC25, a
2m-wide body that made a close flyby of
A
steroids do not have the Earth in 2015; many are smaller still,
ISTOCK, NASA/JPL/MPS/DLR/IDA/BJÖRN JÓNSSON, NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA, NASA/JPL
most glamourous of reputations. whilst the largest is 578km-wide Vesta.

How can they, when they are Most are irregular in shape because they
commonly known as ‘space lack the gravity needed to make them
rocks’? Rocks, boring and ordinary, which spherical. Some are solid rock, but
just so happen to be in space. Cold, airless, others consist of loose collections of
barren lumps that orbit the Sun, left over rubble bound together by gravity. One Þ Asteroid Vesta (above)
from the formation of the Solar System. How asteroid between Saturn and Uranus has an impact basin that
can they possibly compare to the allure of has its own rings, whilst another has covers 95 per cent of its
Mars, Saturn, or even demoted Pluto? six comet-like tails. Many are cratered surface at its pole, as shown
Although less dynamic than the – Vesta has one impact basin so wide it in the inset false-colour image
planets, space rocks have a charm and a covers 95 per cent of the asteroid’s
usefulness all of their own. Because they diameter. Some have their own moons, the Solar System, including in the stable
are, in fact, the leftovers, they could hold and others orbit each other in pairs. gravitational wells surrounding the major
the key to how the Solar System first planets (asteroids of this type are known
formed and how life on Earth began. Class wars as Trojans) or on orbits that bring them
Not to mention that some are so rich in One simple way to classify asteroids is much closer to Earth – if they come
valuable metals that private companies on the basis of where in the Solar System within 1.3 AU of the Sun, they are
are racing to be the first to mine them. they reside. The majority exist between officially near-Earth asteroids.
But – as Asteroid Day on 30 June reminds Mars and Jupiter, in a disc known as the But even asteroids that coexist in the
us – one could plough into planet Earth asteroid belt, but they can be found across same region of space can be vastly different
SKILLS THE GUIDE JULY 79
in terms of their composition, which

scientists infer from their spectral profile,
colour and albedo (reflectivity). It’s a tricky
business as there are multiple ‘taxonomies’
in use, none of which take precedence, and
they can be quite confusing – one goes so
far as to include 14 classes. Very broadly
speaking, asteroids can be considered in
three major groupings: carbonaceous, or
C type, containing large amounts of carbon;
silicaceous, or S type, which are stony in
composition; and metallic, or M type, which Ida is an S type main belt
are often (but not always) dominated by asteroid, visited by the Jupiter-
iron-nickel. Most (but not all) asteroids bound Galileo probe in 1993
fall into one of these three groups.
There’s a very valuable reason why
astronomers go to such lengths to study
and characterise asteroids. They are the
parts of Solar System that did not become
THE BASIC CLASSES OF
planets, time capsules to the past that
have remained unchanged for billions
of years. They are a window to what the
early Solar System was like.
So far our knowledge of how planets
ASTEROIDS
Carbonaceous asteroids (C type)
formed comes almost entirely from FAMOUS EXAMPLES: PALLAS, HYGIEA, DAVIDA
studying meteorites that have fallen to
The most common space rocks, accounting for 76 per cent of all asteroids. They are
Earth, 99.8 percent of which originated coal-black in colour and are rich in carbon-based compounds, clay and silicate rocks.
from asteroids. Many of these have They contain a lot of water molecules but hardly any metals.
remained unchanged in composition
since they first formed 4.6 billion years Silicaceous asteroids (S type)
ago. These meteorites, which are classed FAMOUS EXAMPLES: GASPRA, IDA
as ‘Primitive’ formed while the planets S types are made of rocky silicate minerals, as well as metals like nickel, iron
themselves were still forming, and so and magnesium, but unlike C types they contain little water. They make up 16 per
provide direct evidence of conditions cent of known asteroids. S types are notably brighter than C types.
at that time.
Metallic asteroids (M type)
Remnant revelations FAMOUS EXAMPLES: PSYCHE, LUTETIA
Models of star and planet formation Five per cent of known asteroids are M types, making them the third most abundant.
They tend to contain more metallic elements than other types – including rare metals
predict that the planets originally formed
such as platinum – but not always. Lutetia, for instance, has some stony characteristics.
from a disc of dust and gas surrounding
the young Sun. As the disc cooled,
different materials began to condense, and Other younger meteorites that have – how life on Earth first started. It’s
then solidify at different distances from fallen to Earth shine a light on the possible that meteors could have brought
the. Eventually these accumulated together processes that go on inside asteroids and some of the key ingredients of life to
to form planets. Studying the composition planets as they form. These ‘Processed’ Earth, such as water and amino acids.
of these oldest primitive meteorites or ‘differentiated’ meteorites resemble This is one of the reasons that astronomers
revealed which materials condensed first igneous rocks found on Earth. They are so keen to study samples acquired
– minerals rich in calcium, aluminium appear to have been part of a larger body directly from asteroids. Two promising
and titanium it turns out, as these were that broke up at some intermediate stage missions are underway right now: JAXA’s
found in one of the oldest meteorites, in the history of the Solar System, after Hayabusa 2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-REX. The
known as ‘Allende’. having gone through a stage of heating Japanese probe is on its way to asteroid
Allende is an example of a carbonaceous and volcanism. Unlike the older 162173 Ryugu, is due to arrive in July 2018
chondrite, the most ancient of all space ‘Primitive’ meteorites that have all their and return to Earth in December 2020.
rocks. These resemble the Sun in ingredients jumbled together, Processed OSIRIS-REX’s target is 101955 Bennu; it
composition, although they contain less space rocks contain concentrated will reach the asteroid in 2018 and return
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and noble elements like iron from a core, or a sample to us in 2023.
gases, as these are too volatile to have volcanic rock from a crust or mantle. > Read more about near-Earth asteroids
condensed in the inner Solar System. The This shows that they became hot enough on page 44 and how space rocks could have
slightly younger rocks reveal that the last to melt and separate into distinct layers brought life to our planet on page 32. S
to condense were the carbonaceous of rock and pure iron-nickel.
compounds and ices made from water, Asteroids could also be the key to Jasmin Fox-Skelly is an astronomy
ammonia, and methane. solving one of science’s biggest mysteries and science writer
SP
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IA
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IO
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SKILLS HOW TO JULY 81
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Download additional images for this
project, as well as a circuit diagram
With
Mark Parrish %XLOG D FOLSRQƅQGHUVFRSH LOOXPLQDWRU
A red light device to help you pick out your crosshairs on bright targets
I
f you have ever tried planetary If you are feeling ingenious you could cable might suffice. Diagrams for both
imaging or high-powered visual adapt this aspect of the design to work variants are available to download from
observing, you will appreciate with any other materials you have this month’s Bonus Content online.
how important it is to be able to in your scrap box. Soldering is the most reliable and
accurately point your telescope so that The 1.8mm LEDs that provide the red neatest joining technique, but you could
your target falls within a very narrow field light are glued to a band of thin plastic use automotive-type crimp connectors
of view. Aligning, say, a planet precisely in around the inside of the finderscope’s as an alternative. The layout is quite
the crosshairs of your finderscope is the dew shield. This doesn’t greatly reduce straightforward but you must be sure to
key, but this can be tricky when the target the aperture, so it is not detrimental orient the LEDs correctly or they won’t
is bright because it is hard to pick out the when locating bright objects. Protective work. The positive leg of each is only
crosshairs. This month we show you how resistors for each LED reduce the current slightly longer than the negative, so
to make an illuminator for a regular to a suitable level, and three LEDs produce identify each before you begin bending
finderscope that makes its background a soft background glow. The light level things around! Solder a resistor to each
glow red, against which the crosshairs could be reduced further if required by positive leg then join the resistors together
and planet will show up clearly. Our adding more resistors. using short pieces of wire. Join one of these
design does not require any permanent wires to the positive wire coming up from
modifications and can be adapted to Easy wiring the battery case. Cover up the exposed
suit finders of different sizes. You glue the resistors to a second band ‘positive parts’ with insulating tape, then >
To avoid the need for sourcing any around the outside of the finderscope
tubing of any specific size, our design with a pair of wires leading back to a
uses a simple rolled-band method and small battery and switch case. You may
TOOLS AND
ALL PICTURES: MARK PARRISH
the judicious use of a hot-melt glue gun. wish to locate your resistors closer to the
In this example we’ll be using strips of battery case to reduce the overall size of
plastic cut from a stationery folder, but you the illuminator. This would require four MATERIALS
could also use any other clean plastic wires between the case and the finder
packaging material – just take care when (one positive wire for each LED and one
cutting it, as you’ll need a sharp knife. common negative), so some old telephone
The completed illuminator,

fitted to a finder and
ready for action
TOOLS
Soldering iron, wire cutters/strippers,
craft knife, steel rule, craft mat,
hot-melt glue gun.
MATERIALS
Three mini LEDs, three resistors
(3301), small quantity of thin wire,
battery case (2x AA with a built-in
on/off switch), flexible plastic sheet
(an A4 stationary wallet or packaging).
SUNDRIES
Solder, electrical tape, hot glue sticks.
FINISH
Spray paint to match finder (optional)
82 HOW TO JULY
SKILLS
STEP BY STEP
DAYTIME,
BRIGHT TARGET
STEP 1 STEP 2
Use a craft knife and a metal rule to cut some Test fit the inner band inside the finder’s dew
strips of thin flexible plastic approximately shield and mark where it overlaps. Space
12-15mm wide to make bands for the inside the LEDs along it equally and use a hot
of your finder’s dew shield and around melt glue gun to stick them in place. Make
20mm wide for the outside. We used red sure the LEDs are all orientated the same
ILLUMINATION OFF,
plastic to show up in the photos. way – the long leg is positive.
BRIGHT TARGET
ILLUMINATION ON
Þ The illuminator creates a soft red sky glow

that shows planets and crosshairs clearly STEP 3 STEP 4
Insert the first band and glue the overlapping Solder short pieces of insulated wire to join
> use short wires to join all the negative join. Make a wider band to fit around the the free ends of the resistors in a chain. Solder
legs in a chain, and finally link this chaing outside of the finder. Fold the positive legs a longer wire to link one end of this chain to
to the negative wire of the battery case. of the LEDs over and solder each to a resistor. the red output from the battery case. Fold over
Glue each resistor to the outer band to the negative LED legs create a chain as above,
We used plastic strips to cover the LEDs on
keep them still while soldering. then join one end to the case’s black output.
the inside of the shield, and the resistors
and wiring on the outside. Use glue to fill
all the gaps between the components and
to provide a diffusing layer over the LED
lenses. Once the glue is set, the whole unit
becomes rigid and robust enough to be
slipped off and on again as required. We
chose to add a ring of stiff card to tidy up
the front and sprayed everything in black
paint to match the finderscope. Velcro
pads can be used to hold the battery case
onto the side of your scope or mount
when you’re not using the illuminator.
Although the design is primarily for
brighter targets, we found it helpful to flick STEP 5 STEP 6
Insert some batteries and check it all works. You can add an optional ring to neaten up
ALL PICTURES: MARK PARRISH
the illumination on and off whilst aiming

Add secondary inner and outer bands to the outer end. We used thick card and painted
at fainter areas of sky for a reassuring
cover all the elements and fill all the spaces the whole accessory with black spray paint
confirmation of the crosshairs’ position. S with hot glue. Take care not to stick it to the to match the finder and offer some
finder. Add a diffusing layer of glue over protection in damp conditions. A Velcro pad
Mark Parrish is a consummate craftsman the lenses of the LEDs. on the battery box holds it on the scope.
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84
SKILLS
Image With
Ainsley Bennett
Top advice from
2016’s Skyscapes
category winner
PROCESSING
Combining local and overall edits in Lightroom
+RZWRWUDQVIRUPDƆDWVN\VFDSH VFHQH LQWR VRPHWKLQJ PHVPHULVLQJ
I
The final scene has a greater n October 2015, I captured an image
range of colour, softer that went on to win the Skyscapes
contrasts and subtler details category in the 2016 Insight
than the starting image Astronomy Photographer of the
Year competition. The image depicted the
Moon and Venus shining brightly in the
night sky through a layer of low lying mist.
I capture all of my images in RAW
format, which enables me to extract as
much information from the file during
post processing. I use Adobe Lightroom
for almost all of this work – it’s a great
piece of software for making basic
adjustments. RAW images tend to be
rather flat and dull, but in post processing
we can give images some depth and contrast,
and bring them to life – here’s how.
Import the RAW file into Lightroom,
open the Develop module and then
enable Lens Profile Correction to rectify
any distortion and vignetting. In the
Lens Correction Panel (it’s among the
panels on the right of the screen) tick the
Lens Profile Correction box. If your lens
The raw, unedited shot is dark
doesn’t automatically register you can
and moody, with dull hues and
a foreground lost in shadow
select it manually by clicking on the lens
profile drop-down menus for your
particular make and model.
First add some style

To add some punch to the image, use the
Tone Curve panel. Increase the Lights
slider to +90 and reduce the Darks slider
to –5. This is a strong adjustment that
immediately adds some contrast by
brightening the light areas of the image.
In my image, the foreground needed
to be brightened to balance it with the
sky, which I achieved by selecting the
Graduated Filter from the Develop
module (it’s the rectangular icon just
below the histogram). Once you are
happy with the position of the filter, use
the adjustment sliders to increase the
Exposure and Shadows slightly. This
effectively brightens the foreground,
SKILLS IMAGE PROCESSING JULY 85
bringing out detail. To further enhance

this area, apply a boost to the Clarity slider.
You can also repeat this tweak on the
sky itself. For this image, I created a new
graduated filter and dragged it in the
opposite direction. To enhance the stars
and make the trees slightly more defined
I applied some Contrast and Clarity,
which darkened the sky a little but made
the stars stand out. The reason behind
using a graduated filter is that you can
make local adjustments that don’t affect
the image as a whole.
After this I turned to making overall
adjustments. The colours seemed a little
muted and rather cool, so to make them a
little more natural I increased the value of Þ Adjusting the Light and Dark sliders delivers an immediate improvement to contrast
the Temperature slider to 3310, edged the
Tint slider up to +4 and, in the Split
Toning panel, upped Highlight Saturation
to +2. These minor adjustments warmed
up the image without drastically changing
the original file, though how far you
take them is down to personal taste. To
enhance the colours further, increase
the Vibrance and Saturation sliders
under the Presence heading in the Basic
adjustment panel. These two sliders must
be used with caution, as overuse can make
an image look garish. The whole idea is to
enhance what is there without creating a
false representation.
Touch up the details

The image should now be moving closer Þ Applying a Graduated Filter allows you to tweak half of an image without affecting the other
to how you want it to look, but often
needs some final adjustments. My image
was still lacking some depth and was a
little on the dark side, so in the Basic
adjustment panel I increased Exposure
and Clarity very slightly. This made the
image pop by defining the fence posts
and trees, and brightening the sky and
foreground. Due to the increase of
exposure, the Moon and Venus then
seemed a little too bright, so to reduce
this I made another local adjustment,
this time using a radial filter.
At the top of the Develop module select
the Radial Filter (it’s the circular icon next
to Graduated Filter). I positioned the filter
over the centre of the image and dragged it
so its edges encompassed the Moon and Þ An inverted Radial Filter is ideal for editing planets and the Moon without affecting the sky
Venus, inverted the mask and set feather to
100. This meant that any adjustments made Detail panel). Select the Luminance slider needs be. Increase the value of the
ALL PICTURES: AINSLEY BENNETT
only affected the centre of the mask and and apply a figure of +10; this should be Sharpening slider until you are happy
were blended out towards the edge of enough to reduce the fine grain caused by with the way the image looks. S
the filtered area. To reduce the brightness, high ISO camera settings. The downside of
I set the filter’s Highlight slider to –45. applying noise reduction is that some fine Ainsley Bennett is a self-taught amateur
To finish the image it’s worth using the detail is smoothed out, but you can apply photographer and IAPY 2016
Noise Reduction sliders (they’re in the some sharpening to counteract this if competition category award winner.
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SKILLS SCOPE DOCTOR JULY 87
When imaging Jupiter with my Astromaster
Scope With
Steve
Richards
130 and web camera with SharpCap,
,ƅQGWKHSODQHWLVWRREULJKWWRJHWDQ\
contrast. What am I doing wrong?
DOCTOR
MAGGIE PARKHURST
Using a webcam is a great way to capture Solar

System objects but their brightness can be an issue
unless you get the camera’s capture settings correct.
There are several settings to adjust, the main
Our equipment specialist cures your ones being exposure, frames per second, backlight
optical ailments and technical maladies compensation, colour enable, gamma, saturation,
contrast and brightness. The higher the frames
per second and shorter the exposure time, the
0\:LOOLDP2SWLFV*7LVWUDFNLQJ easier it is to capture those moments of good
SRRUO\RQDQ+(4PRXQWZKHQ,WU\WR
seeing. If the image is too bright, reduce the
brightness and gain until you can see detail in
DXWRJXLGHZLWKDSLJJ\EDFNHG67 the planet’s disc. High gain increases the noise
in the image, so you want to keep this setting as
JXLGHVFRSHIRUORQJH[SRVXUHV,WKLQN low as possible. Gamma should also be set low
,QHHGWREDODQFHP\FRXQWHUZHLJKW and backlight compensation should be turned off.
When you have achieved a clear image on the
but I am unsure how. Any suggestions? screen, adjust the saturation to ensure that there
HENRY STRAUSS are no colour artefacts in the background sky.
Balancing the payload on an equatorial dec. clutch carefully and rotate

mount is a two-stage process, but the axis until the telescopes are
there is a twist at the end. Start by horizontal, noting which way they
PAUL WHITFIELD, STEVE RICHARDS
installing the counterweights towards ‘fall’. Adjust the position of the

the end of the counterweight bar to dovetail bar away from the side
ensure that there is adequate that is falling until the telescopes
counterbalance for your instruments, remain horizontal. The dec. axis
and then lock the RA clutch. Install is now balanced.
the telescopes and cameras with the Release the RA clutch and rotate
focusers set to the correct focus the RA axis until the counterbalance
positions and clip the bar is horizontal, noting which way Þ Getting a well-contrasted glimpse of Jupiter in SharpCap
cabling up neatly. the axis falls. Adjust the position can be achieved with some judicious setting tweaks
Release the of the counterweights away from
the side that is falling until the bar
STEVE’S TOP TIP

remains horizontal. The RA axis
is now balanced.
Now, here’s the twist: your mount
is gear driven so there will be a :KDWLVD+HUVFKHOSULVP"
chel wedge,
little backlash in the gear mesh that A Herschel prism, also known as a Hers
diag ona l used to observe
can cause small guiding is a specially designed
light . A thin, wed ge-s hap ed prism
errors, however, the Sun in white
45° to the sunl ight pass ing thro ugh
offsetting the that is set at
cent of the
counterweight can the scope, reflects around 4.5 per
light thro ugh 90° and into the eyepiece.
alleviate this. With the incoming
refra cted through
telescope aimed at your The rest of the light and energy is
hous ing. However,
chosen object, note the the prism and exits the prism
light is still far too much
tracking direction. If the 4.5 per cent of the Sun’s
a neut ral dens ity filter
counterweights are on the rising for safe observing so
eyepiece
side, slide them 1-2cm away from placed between the prism and the
the light s’ inten sity to a safe level.
the mount. If the telescope is on the holder reduces
rising side, slide the weights towards
the mount by 1-2cm.
< In some mounts, like the Sky-Watcher Steve Richards is a keen astro imager
HEQ5, you need to factor in gear backlash and an astronomy equipment expert
Email your queries to [email protected]

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REVIEWS JULY 89
HOW WE RATE
Reviews
Each category is given a mark out
RIƅYH VWDUVDFFRUGLQJWRKRZZHOO
it performs. The ratings are:
+++++ Outstanding
+++++Very good
+++++Good
Bringing you the best in equipment and accessories +++++Average
each month, as reviewed by our team of astro experts +++++Poor/Avoid
This month’s
reviews
FIRST LIGHT
Celestron
90 CGEM II
equatorial mount
90
PrimaLuce-
94 Lab AIRY
100ED apo doublet
Celestron’s CGEM II is refractor
a welcome upgrade to
Meade
a deservedly popular
equatorial mount 98 LPI-G
colour video
camera
BOOKS
We
102 rate
four of the latest
astronomy titles
GEAR
104
Including this
92º eyepiece
Find out more about how we

review equipment at
www.skyatnightmagazine.
com/scoring-categories
WWW.THESECRETSTUDIO.NET X 4
SEE INTERACTIVE 360° MODELS OF

ALL OUR FIRST LIGHT REVIEWS AT
WWW.SKYATNIGHTMAGAZINE.COM
90
FIRST LIGHT See an interactive 360° model of this mount at

www.skyatnightmagazine.com/CGEMII
Celestron CGEM II
equatorial mount
A worthy addition to the EQ6 series with welcome upgrades
WORDS: PAUL MONEY
SKY SAYS…
C
elestron has been busy already own a CGEM then
VITAL STATS of late with the introduction Well designed these changes would not
• Price £1,925 of new heavy-duty mounts and engineered, warrant upgrading from one;
• Payload capacity 18kg in the form of the CGX easy to operate however, if you are using
• Mount Equatorial and CGX-L, but it has also taken the a CG-4 or AVX mount, then
Go-To and gives great
time to revamp the CGEM, its flagship the CGEM II is worth
• Tripod Stainless mid-range mount, and relaunched tracking for considering, especially for
steel tripod with both visual and
it as the CGEM II. its 18kg payload. Indeed,
adjustable legs and
accessory tray
It is supplied in two boxes: one imaging purposes the CGEM II sits nicely as
containing the main EQ mount head, a good mid-range mount in
• Saddle Dual fit CG-5/
Vixen and CGE/ the latest NexStar+ hand controller Celestron’s portfolio.
Losmandy dovetail and a power cable for connecting to a The ports on the mount body include
• Controller NexStar+ powertank, along with the counterweight the hand controller, an auxiliary port
hand controller (flash shaft; the other the stainless-steel tripod, for accessories such as the SkyPortal Wi-Fi
upgradable, 40,000 accessories tray and a 7.5kg counterweight. Module or StarSense AutoAlign unit, and an
object database) Assembly involves attaching the mount to ST-4 compatible autoguiding port. There is
• Tracking speeds the tripod, adding the azimuth adjustment also a socket for the power connector (a cable
Sidereal, solar and lunar
knobs, attaching the counterweight shaft is supplied with cigarette-style connector).
• Ports Hand controller,
autoguider, aux, USB
followed by the counterweight and finally
• Power requirement
connecting the hand controller. The process Closing in on Polaris
12V DC, 3.2 amps is quite straightforward. Although there is no polar alignment scope
• Weight Mount 18kg, In terms of differences between the in the package, you don’t need one due to the
tripod 8.7kg original CGEM and the CGEM II, the clever routines incorporated in the NexStar+
• Extras 7.5kg chief ones are longer clutch levers, a dual- hand controller. We set our latitude from the
counterweight fitting mounting saddle for CG-5/Vixen engraved scale and roughly adjusted the mount
• Supplier David Hinds and CGE/Losmandy dovetails, index marks so that Polaris was close to the centre of the
• www.celestron.uk.com on the tripod and a slight refresh of the view through the mount where the polarscope
• Tel 01525 852696
livery. Also included is a newer version would normally be located. Powering up the
of the hand controller, the NexStar+. If you mount, we dud the normal first time set up >
MULTIPLE WAYS TO CONTROL

In today’s smartphone- and laptop- The NexRemote software emulates all
dominated world, it should come as no the features of the NexStar+ hand
surprise that Celestron’s latest mounts controller, including aligning the mount,
WWW.THESECRETSTUDIO.NET X 4, PAUL MONEY X 2
can be controlled with these, as well as and effectively replaces the need for the
the NexStar+ hand controller. This is the handset. This allows you to operate the
de facto standard supplied with all mount remotely. We found that the
mounts, and does indeed do the job with installer wouldn’t work on our Windows
its alignment routines and database of 10 64-bit laptop but, in consultation with
40,000 objects to explore. However, Celestron UK, found a simple solution:
you can also control the mount remotely, run the installer via compatibility options
either via a laptop using Celestron’s for Windows 7. We also borrowed a
free NexRemote PC software or via SkyPortal Wi-Fi Link and used the
Celestron’s optional SkyPortal Wi-Fi Link SkyPortal app for iOS (Android is also Þ The SkyPortal Wi-Fi link interface as it appears on an
which plugs into the mount’s aux port. supported) to control the mount with ease. iPad (left) and the NexRemote emulator for laptops (right)
FIRST LIGHT JULY 91
PORTS
On the RA mount head is the port for
the NexStar+ controller and an auxiliary
port for peripherals such as the optional
ADJUSTMENT SkyPortal Wi-Fi Link or StarSense
AutoAlign accessories. The power cable
KNOBS can be screwed into place to keep it from
The chunky knobs give falling out, and there’s also a standard
good grip for both latitude ST-4 compatible autoguiding port.
and azimuth adjustments.
Combined with the easy
to read engraved latitude
scale, bubble level and QUALITY ENGINEERING
rugged construction, polar
alignment can be achieved All drive cabling is contained inside
much more easily with the the mount head, giving a good clean
CGEM II than some mounts appearance and worry-free remote
we’ve reviewed. operation. The drives are low cog
DC servo motors with integrated
optical encoders, while the larger
clutches give greater control on
locking the axes in place.
NEXSTAR+ CONTROLLER
The NexStar+ hand controller has a database of over
40,000 objects, including the Messier, NGC and
Caldwell catalogues, brightest stars and Solar System
objects. Its firmware can be upgraded via a mini USB
port on its base, and it can be connected to a PC for
telescope control with a suitable cable.
92 FIRST LIGHT JULY
FIRST LIGHT
> for the NexStar+ hand controller – putting in It is the mark of a good manufacturer when we SKY SAYS…
details such as location and time. Once set, the find ourselves often saying how enjoyable it is to use Now add these:
mount can begin the alignment process. When its mounts, and Celestron’s CGEM II is no exception.
completed with a couple of additional calibration Well designed and engineered, easy to operate and 1. SkyPortal
stars it gave good results, placing our target stars with great tracking for both visual and imaging Wi-Fi Link for
close to the centre of the view of a 26mm eyepiece purposes, the CGEM II is highly recommended in iOS & Android
and Sky-Watcher SkyMax 180 Pro Maksutov- its own right, or as an upgrade from a CG-4 or AVX.
Cassegrain. This meant that when we used the 2. PowerTank
Go-To our selection of deep sky and Solar VERDICT 12v lithium
System targets were very close to the centre battery
ASSEMBLY +++++
of the view each time.
BUILD & DESIGN +++++ 3. StarSense
For added polar refinement we used the
handset’s All-Star Polar Alignment routine. EASE OF USE +++++ AutoAlign
This allowed for longer periods of visual *2ƨ72$&&85$&< +++++ accessory
observation and for us to capture several minutes’ STABILITY +++++
worth of imaging data with our Sky-Watcher OVERALL +++++
Equinox 80ED refractor and one-minute exposures
with our SkyMax 180 Pro Maksutov-Cassegrain
without resorting to using an autoguider. DUAL SADDLE
The CGEM II is a good mid-range mount One of the upgrades is a
and tracked very well when we centred on our dual-fit saddle with chunky
targets. These included such diverse objects as adjustment handles, which can
the M81/M82 galaxy pair in Ursa Major, globular take CG-5/Vixen and CGE/
cluster M13 in Hercules, the Moon and Jupiter. Losmandy dovetails. This covers
We did find that it was best to spend a little time most mounting options on the
market. The maximum load
ensuring that the telescope and associated
capacity is 18kg, not including
accessories were properly balanced to get the best counterweights.
out of visual and imaging.
Þ Globular M13, stacked from 18 one-minute exposures

at ISO 1600 taken with a 4-inch refractor and a DSLR
PAUL MONEY X 2, WWW.THESECRETSTUDIO.NET
Þ Single one-minute exposure of M5 at ISO 2000,

captured with a DSLR and a 7-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain
✴
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94
FIRST LIGHT See an interactive 360° model of this scope at

www.skyatnightmagazine.com/pllairy100
PrimaLuceLab AIRY ED100 apo

doublet refractor
A solidly built scope offering plenty for observers and imagers alike
WORDS: TIM JARDINE
SKY SAYS…
R
efracting telescopes adjustment knobs, which seemed out
VITAL STATS with a 4-inch (100mm) Athough the of keeping with the overall quality of
lens offer a desirable AIRY ED100’s the unit. We soon discovered that our
• Price £1,363 compromise between review telescope seemed to be missing
• Optics Apochromatic
optics are very
aperture and portability, and a wide a small grub screw under the focuser
doublet with FPL51
range of them is available. Italian firm
capable, they – perhaps lost during transit – so we
glass seem best
PrimaLuceLab’s AIRY ED100 is the expect it is a one-off problem. The
• Aperture 100mm
(4 inches) latest contender in this crowded arena, suited to pristine whole focuser body is rotatable,
• Focal length 600mm standing out through its aura conditions though you also have the option of
(f/6) of quality and features designed to solely rotating the camera or diagonal
• Focuser 2.7-inch appeal to discerning astronomers. and eyepiece. The telescope is fitted with a 2-inch
Hybrid-Drive focuser Although only weighing 5kg, the tube itself locking ring, which is included in the price.
with 2-inch and is solidly constructed from aluminium and
1.25-inch adaptors, superbly put together. Light texturing and a white Finding focus
1:11 fine focus matt finish with red fittings give the telescope a Presented with a clear sky and new Moon, we took
reduction
distinctive look. The optics are multicoated and the opportunity to mount our own colour CCD
• Extras Carry case,
tube rings, 2-inch
apochromatic, and the scope has a focal length of camera and take some photographs, including of
OnAxisLock 600mm, delivering a focal ratio of f/6. This is a comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak. The scope’s
• Weight 5kg dual-purpose instrument that can offer decent 600mm focal length provides a wide field to
• Supplier 365 views of the night sky and yet be able to produce photograph comets within the context of the
Astronomy good photographs when required. It also possesses surrounding sky, and the same goes for many
• www.365astronomy. a retracting dew shield. of the objects in the Messier Catalogue. We found
com A dependable, solid focuser is a prerequisite for that although the optics were easy to focus, and
• Tel 020 3384 5187 astrophotography. The AIRY ED100 incorporates a delivered sharp and clear images, they were
‘Hybrid-Drive’ model, a hybrid because it offers the easily affected by variable sky conditions.
smooth operation of a Crayford focuser combined The point of perfect focus presents colour
with the rigidity and precision of rack and pinion aberration-free images, but very slight movements
designs. In use we found it performed very well either side of focus resulted in brighter objects and
indeed, although there was a little bit of play in the stars presenting a slight fringe of pink or green. In >
THE COLOUR CHALLENGE

Refracting telescopes have the advantage of double lens arrangement, achieving an
being very easy to use, even for beginners. apochromatic lens of 4 inches without the
Larger lenses offer more impressive views and typical hefty price tag that goes with it.
better resolution than smaller ones, but that’s not FPL51 glass has excellent colour-
the only consideration. Designing an optical handling properties. We noted
system that allows for crisp colour images to be a light amount of residual colour
taken without introducing unwanted artefacts aberration, which will be most
and aberrations normally requires at least two noticeable when using an

things: the use of FPL53 glass elements and eyepiece at high magnification
complicated triple lenses, both of which usually or a colour camera. However,
result in a correspondingly expensive telescope. monochrome camera users,
The larger the lens diameter, the faster the especially those with narrowband
production costs increase. With the AIRY 100ED, filters, should find the scope to be
PrimaLuceLab has opted for FPL51 glass in a very capable indeed.
FIRST LIGHT JULY 95
FOCUSER
The 2.7-inch, dual-speed focuser has 1:11 fine focus reduction and a
graduated millimetre scale for precise and repeatable focusing; it’s also
rotatable through 360°. The large knurled locking knob is easily adjusted
and holds heavy equipment firmly in position. The built-in camera rotator
allows for optimal target framing.
TUBE RINGS
Solid, CNC-machined tube rings offer rigid
support to the telescope and easy attachment
to a dovetail bar of your choice. Large locking
knobs make adjustments straightforward.
A selection of holes and slots on top allow
extra accessories to be fitted, such as
finderscopes or guidescopes.
DEW SHIELD
The sliding dew shield extends 125mm past the end
of the lens cell, reducing issues with dew and stray
light, in turn increasing contrast at the eyepiece. The
tube has internal baffling and a matt finish to further
reduce unwanted reflections. With the
dew shield is retracted, the
tube is 50cm long.
LOCKING RING
The focuser is fitted with PrimaLuceLab’s OnAxisLock system, a locking ring
that allows accessories to be tightly clamped in line with the centre of the
optical axis. Accepting 2-inch nosepieces, the clamp has a chunky design that
we found easy to use even while wearing gloves.
96 FIRST LIGHT JULY
FIRST LIGHT
HARD CARRY CASE
Designed to protect your investment during transport
or storage, this single-handed aluminium carry case is
lockable and internally there are pre-cut sections that
can be removed to allow for extra accessories. The case
is lightweight and compact, measuring 57x34x21cm,
ideal for travelling astronomers.
> practice, the average seeing

conditions on the nights we tested
left us with slightly soft stars in our
images, whereas a telescope with a
slower f/ratio may be more
forgiving. At any rate, the AIRY
100ED produced a quite acceptable
shot and we were able to achieve a
nice record of comet 41P/Tuttle-
Giacobini-Kresak.
Swapping the camera for our diagonal
and eyepieces we returned to the comet (then
around mag. +7.5 and in Ursa Major) and found our photography session became harder
it easily within our 10mm eyepiece at 60x to eliminate by focusing. Our opinion is that
magnification, the view enhanced by the good although the optics seem best suited to pristine
contrast offered by the optical system. Turning to conditions, so there may be limited opportunities
SKY SAYS…
the nearby Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, we could just for viewing at higher magnifications under average Now add these:
discern spiral details in the arms, although they skies, they are nevertheless very capable. S 1. PrimaLuceLab
were very faint, but the higher up grouping of M81,
XP 90° dielectric
M82 and NGC 3077 nestled nicely in the 72° field of
view and proved to be our favourite view of the night. VERDICT mirror diagonal
Slewing over to Jupiter we enjoyed good, clear, BUILD & DESIGN +++++ 2. PrimaLuceLab
aberration-free images in the 10mm eyepiece, with EASE OF USE +++++ [ƅHOGƆDWWHQHU
some banding visible on the planet’s disc. Changing +++++
FEATURES for doublet ED
to our 4.5mm eyepiece increased magnification to
IMAGING QUALITY +++++ refractors
133x, though our views at this scale were much more
OPTICS +++++
obviously affected by the seeing, and the unwelcome 3. PrimaLuceLab
pink and green colour fringes that we noted during OVERALL +++++
1.25-inch
OnAxisLock
eyepiece holder
WWW.THESECRETSTUDIO.NET, TIM JARDINE X 2
< The Whirlpool Galaxy,

Þ A single 10-minute exposure of 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini- comprised of seven 10-
Kresak, in which the mount tracked the comet minute guided exposures
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98
FIRST LIGHT See an interactive 360° model of this camera at

www.skyatnightmagazine.com/meadelpig
Meade LPI-G
colour video camera
A colour camera with a CMOS chip that could also be used for guiding
WORDS: MARTIN LEWIS
SKY SAYS…
T
he Meade LPI-G is a lunar rather long-winded. The SkyCapture
VITAL STATS and planetary video camera It’s capable of software is fairly intuitive and simple
suitable for those wanting detailed images to use, and enabled us to readily
• Price £229 to try their hand at Solar of the Sun, Moon control the camera settings. Although
• Sensor Aptina System imaging. This review covers the
AR0130C CMOS and bright planets, it is stated that the camera can be used
one-shot colour version, which is ideal with the two more feature-rich
• Pixels 1280x960
for anyone starting out as there is but predominantly freeware programs, SharpCap and
pixels with 69 per in steady seeing
cent quantum no need to use separate RGB filters FireCapture, we had major issues with
efficiency in green to produce a full colour image. conditions the speed and stability of both on our
• Frame rate 28fps at A mono version is also available with Windows 7 laptop, so we stuck with
1280x960, 30fps at potentially higher resolution, but it needs SkyCapture for all our testing. We captured in
640x480, up to filters to produce colour images. RAW mode in all cases for maximum resolution.
100fps for small The LPI-G camera is inserted into your telescope
regions of interest in place of the eyepiece and can be combined with a Flips and frame rates
• Length 92mm Barlow lens to enlarge the image to a decent size. We first tried it out on a nine-day-old Moon using a
including 1.25-inch
The image is focussed and short videos of the object 222mm f/6 Newtonian telescope. With the 1/3-inch
barrel extension
(72mm without)
are recorded directly onto a computer hard drive. chip of 1280x960 pixels and with no Barlow lens, we
• Connections USB 2.0
You can process these later using aligning and were able to image larger regions of the Moon at
(USB 3.0 compatible), stacking software, to reduce and average-out the high resolution, revealing good detail and a smooth
ST-4 guide port blurring effects of our constantly moving atmosphere. background. We aligned and stacked in Autostakkert!
• Extras USB 2.0 lead, Such software outputs a single, very low noise, and sharpened and colour balanced the stacked image
ST-4 guide lead, stacked master image, which can then be sharpened in RegiStax. The brightness of the Moon meant we
threaded 1.25-inch to show significantly more detail of our near neighbours could use short exposure times during the imaging
nosepiece in space than any other current imaging method. session and reach speeds very close to the stated 28
• Weight 100g Before first use we needed to install the correct frames per second (fps) for full frame recording.
• Supplier Opticstar
drivers on our laptop. The manual on the CD that One issue we did note from the preview screen,
• www.opticstar.com
• Tel 0161 969 9008
comes with the camera instructs you to install the however, was that the recorded video was mirrored
SkyCapture camera control software, the Direct left to right. Although there is an image flip setting
Show driver, the Ascom platform and the Ascom in SkyCapture, it unfortunately only applies to the
camera driver – all relatively straightforward, if on-screen preview and not the recording. This can >
COMPACT BODY DESIGN

The Meade LPI-G has a nicely The ability to place the imaging
made, compact and sleek chip inside the focuser barrel is
anodised aluminium body. The unusual, but does allow imaging
design of the barrel and chip in difficult setups where the focal
location means that the sensor can plane is close to the telescope,
be placed as far as 10mm deep such as with a Coronado PST
into the barrel of a 1.25-inch solar telescope. Similar difficulties
focuser or Barlow lens, or you with the accessibility of the focal

can screw the supplied 1.25-inch plane often occur with finders,
adaptor on the end and have so this camera might be worth
the chip 38mm behind the nose considering if you are intending
of the camera barrel – a very to use the camera for guiding
versatile arrangement. purposes on a Go-To mount.
FIRST LIGHT JULY 99
GUIDING PORT
Although primarily a Solar System imaging camera, the camera also has an ST-4 style
guide port to allow you to use it to guide a compatible Go-To mount. The connection lead is
provided, but you’ll need suitable software.
REAR LED
The camera has a red LED
on its rear to indicate when the
USB connection is made. A rectangular
sensor in a round camera body often makes
correct orientation difficult, so it would have been
useful if the LED had been aligned at the 12 o’clock
position rather than being offset slightly.
USB 2.0 CONNECTIVITY

The camera uses a USB 2.0 type B to connect
to a computer. At full resolution, this gives up
to 28 frames per second. You can drive the
camera from a USB 3.0 port but it will only
run at USB 2.0 speeds. A lead is provided.
100 FIRST LIGHT JULY
FIRST LIGHT
> be corrected in the
SKY SAYS… final image, but it did
cause some initial
Now add these: confusion. A similarly
1. Meade Series irritating issue arose
4000 #128 3X with the colour balance,
which again only applied
short-focus
to the preview and left the
Barlow lens video with a green cast Þ This 83-millisecond exposure of Jupiter Þ The Sun, imaged for 1.6 milliseconds
2. Opticstar that had to be removed was taken with a 5x Barlow and 10x gain with a 2.5x Barlow and 1x gain
60mm in later processing, but
which might cause some The Mare Imbrium, seen
guidescope as a 1.6-millisecond
areas of a bright recording
with precision exposure at 8x gain
to be unintentionally
micro focuser overexposed.
and collimating A few days later we
rings had a steady night to
image Jupiter, then at an
3. Opticstar altitude of 30° in the
1.25-inch southeast. We did so
photo-visual using the same scope,
focal reducer but with a 5x Barlow lens
to produce a reasonably
sized image on the chip.
Although the stillness of the night
allowed us to capture lots of good
detail and subtle colouration, even at maximum gain
we had to use a long exposure of 83 milliseconds to
record a suitably bright image. Such a long exposure INFRARED/
would be problematic on nights of poorer seeing, as ULTRAVIOLET
the image would be affected by motion blurring from FILTER
any movement of the atmosphere or of the scope.
To reduce the prismatic
Further investigation showed that the issue is not with
effects of the atmosphere
the sensitivity of the Aptina chip – which is good in
it is important to use an
that regard – but with the gain of the camera, which infrared/ultraviolet filter
even at the maximum setting of 10x is significantly when imaging, especially
lower than expected for this type of device. with a one-shot colour
We also tried the camera out on the Sun, this camera. This camera has
time adding a 2.5x Barlow lens and a white light one of its own, held in
filter to our telescope. As with the Moon, the high a removable aluminium
brightness meant that the low maximum gain was C-mount adaptor cell
that screws onto the
not an issue and we were able to image lots of good
front on the housing.
detail in a spot near the limb.
The filter also protects
All in all the LPI-G could be an appealing camera the chip from dust.
for those starting out in Solar System astrophotography,
capable of producing detailed images of the Sun,
Moon and the brighter planets, but predominantly
CMOS CHIP
only in steady seeing conditions. S The Meade LPI-G is
WWW.THESECRETSTUDIO.NET, MARTIN LEWIS X 3
a member of the new

generation of planetary
VERDICT video cameras with a
CMOS imaging chip at
BUILD & DESIGN +++++ its heart. Such chips are
CONNECTIVITY +++++ faster and cheaper than
EASE OF USE +++++ CCD chips, and recent
technological advances
FEATURES +++++
have drastically reduced
IMAGING QUALITY +++++ readout noise and
OVERALL +++++ improved sensitivity.
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102
RATINGS
Books New astronomy and space titles reviewed

★★★★★ Outstanding
★★★★★ Good
★★★★★ Average
★★★★★ Poor
★★★★★ Avoid
We Have BOOK
OF THE
TWO MINUTES WITH
Jorge Cham
No Idea MONTH
How do you illustrate
A Guide to the the unknown?
Unknown Universe It’s actually easier than
illustrating the known,
Jorge Cham & Daniel Whiteson because I can let my
John Murray imagination roam free.
£16.99 z HB I find that it helps to use imagery that
evokes familiar and related concepts, but
Given recent progress, it might seem like then alter it in interesting ways so it feels
the list of things we have no idea about is new. If all else fails, I just put a lot of
rather small, but as We Have No Idea shows, helps with the friendly feel of question marks around it!
that’s definitely not the case. Many of the the book without, for the most part,
topics won’t be unfamiliar to popular interrupting the flow (much of it is in What is PHD Comics?
science readers, but the breadth is impressive. the footnotes or the cartoons). It’s a cartoon strip I started when I was
Of course, explaining what we don’t It’s a shame that ‘English’ is (lazily) getting my PhD in robotics. It chronicles
know requires outlining what we do know used instead of ‘British’ in the UK life (or lack thereof) for a group of
in sufficient detail to at least describe the foreword, particularly when discussing postgrads, postdocs and professors at a
field in question. While it probably James Clerk Maxwell (who was Scottish!), major US University. Some people call it
couldn’t be said that the book goes into and some translations from American the ‘Dilbert of Academia’.
huge depth about any particular English might have been nice.
subject, it does a very good On the plus side the How did you come to work with Daniel?
job of explaining the analogies and thought He contacted me a few years ago to help
many and varied topics experiments are well explain the work at CERN. There was a
it does cover, ranging explained and helpful, lot of hype in the popular press about the
from astronomy and and many involve Large Hadron Collider and Daniel wanted
cosmology to animals of one someone to help explain the subtleties.
subatomic physics type or another. Our writing process was to pass drafts of
and general relativity. Llamas are dissected each chapter back and forth, usually
Some of the themes in an effort to explain started by Daniel, and I think we found a
are to be expected nuclear binding common voice. Then towards the end, I
– dark matter, dark energy, ferrets cause would add the cartoons.
energy, the Big Bang, the havoc while exploring
possibility of life elsewhere the nature of time and What is the one question about the
– but this book also brings How does the common hamsters reach dizzying Universe you would like answered?
into question the very nature hamster help us speeds in an effort to How big is the Universe? If the Universe is
of space, time, mass and unravel relativity? help explain relativity. infinite, that means that anything that can
gravity. While (almost) every chapter This book should give a scientifically happen is happening right now somewhere
heading is a question, only one of them literate reader plenty of material to amaze in the Universe (e.g. there are purple
has a one-word answer! people with at home, in school or maybe dragons reading this interview on another
The cartoons and drawings that even in the pub. planet). If it’s finite, then what happens at
pepper almost every page have a friendly ★★★★★ the edges? Is there a hard stop? Or does
style, which will seem familiar to anyone the Universe loop around on itself?
who has seen PHD Comics online (drawn DR CHRIS NORTH is Ogden Science
by co-author Jorge Cham). There’s also Lecturer and STFC Public Engagement JORGE CHAM is an illustrator, animator,
ISTOCK
heavy use of humour throughout, which Fellow at Cardiff University scientist and the creator of PHD Comics
BOOK REVIEWS JULY 103
Space Oddities Voyager’s

Our Strange Attempts to Explain the Universe
Greatest Hits
S D Tucker In addition to discussing these
Amberley Publishing more outlandish ideas, the book also The Epic Trek to
£14.99 z PB covers ‘proper’ science inspired by Interstellar Space
non-scientific beliefs, for example
Human studies of the Kepler’s conviction that the velocities
Alexandra Siy
Universe seem to have of the planets were related to musical
Charlesbridge Publishing
generated an infinite harmonics, which resulted in his empirical
number of weird and laws of planetary motion. The tone £16.99 z HB
wacky theories. This of the writing is very informal and the
book argues that the author doesn’t hold back from airing Four decades after
night sky is not just a his own thoughts on an array of issues; they launched like
collection of physical reading this book feels like listening a pair of bottles
objects, but is also a to a chatty and opinionated (overly so, cast onto a cosmic
giant psychological Rorschach test onto in places) lecture. ocean, NASA’s
which people throughout history have Overall the coverage of the interplay Voyager spacecraft
projected their own bizarre ideas. between social belief systems and science are still carrying
The range of such ideas is covered here is is easy to read but too much breadth is their most
truly cosmological, but also lively and attempted at the expense of depth, and profound message, which reveals the
readable. For example, there’s the Nazis’ the book often feels like no more than beings who sent them. Alongside the
Cosmic Ice Theory, in which the Milky Way a sketchy introduction to some ideas scientific instruments that brought us
was said to consist of giant ice blocks, and that would have benefitted from a more breathtaking views of the outer planets
Percival Lowell’s comparatively well-known considered discussion. were the Golden Records. As the
claim of artificial canals on the surface of ★★★★★ Voyagers sped off into the uncharted
Mars. As the author shows, many of these Universe, they carried LP-sized
ideas are laughably bad science and were PIPPA GOLDSCHMIDT is an astronomy copper-and-gold discs containing
disproved by contemporary observations. and science writer information and audio tracks that
could illustrate life on Earth for aliens.
The book is aimed at younger readers
Ripples in Spacetime and juxtaposes tales of colourful
personalities across 400 years of
Einstein, Gravitational Waves, and the exploration and discovery. Alexandra
Siy wryly reminds the 40-somethings
Future of Astronomy entertainingly, with clever use of some among us of our advancing years by
Govert Schilling nice analogies, from football crowds to sharing chart-toppers from the 1960s
Harvard University Press the Death Star of Star Wars. It details and 70s, weaving them seamlessly
£23.95 z HB the personalities, rivalries, collaborations, into her stories. She dips periodically
controversies, setbacks and successes into historical events, then jumps to
Two black holes collide, of the century-long quest to test the very recent past to share Gary
releasing nearly 10 times Einstein’s theories. Flandro’s Grand Tour ‘eureka’
the radiation output of Bang up to date, the book describes moment and tales of engineers
all the stars and galaxies science in progress and as a process: overnighting in campervans,
in the observable how ideas are developed and discoveries anxiously awaiting Voyager’s first
Universe; 1.3 billion made and rejected or confirmed. The images of distant worlds.
years later, on Monday best part for me was the detail the book The odd error does stick out. On the
14 September 2015 at goes into about the first detection and first page: 3.7 billion miles doesn’t equal
09:50:45 UT, the detectors at the Laser the meticulous protocols in place to 59.5 billion km, nor did the Voyagers
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave scrutinise and eliminate every possible enter Earth orbit, instead departing on
Observatory (LIGO) register a vibration error. Schilling also looks ahead to interplanetary trajectories. Yet in a
smaller than the diameter of a proton. what we can expect in this whole new book of this type, nitpicking is unfair.
Ripples in Spacetime details the search field of astronomy. Siy’s beautifully crystalline prose is
for gravitational waves first predicted by This is a book for everyone who was as entertaining, authoritative, and properly
Albert Einstein and its final success, excited as I was when the LIGO discovery conveys for children and adults the
already hailed as the greatest scientific first broke, but also for anyone who wants sense of wonder that Voyager brought.
discovery of this young century. It covers to know what all the fuss was about. +++++
the science of general relativity, the nature ★★★★★
of space and time and some of the most BEN EVANS is the author of several
extreme events and objects in the Universe. JENNY WINDER is a freelance science books on human spaceflight
It explains complex ideas clearly and writer, astronomer and broadcaster
104 GEAR JULY
Gear
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Boasting a 92º field of view, these eyepieces
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106 EXPERT INTERVIEW JULY
WHAT I REALLY WANT TO KNOW IS…

How fast is the Universe expanding?
Ariel Goobar EHOLHYHV WKDW VXSHUQRYDH PDJQLƅHG E\JDOD[\
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INTERVIEWED BY PAUL SUTHERLAND
N
early a century ago, Edwin Hubble Transient Factory sky survey. It scans the sky every
revealed that the Universe was clear night, finding supernovae within hours
expanding. He discovered or days of explosion. Usually they are all
that the farther away a relatively nearby because the survey
galaxy is, the faster it is receding uses a small telescope, with a
from us. Since then there has mirror 1.2m wide.
been some debate about just We have collected thousands
what the rate of expansion of such supernovae. But in
is. No one is exactly sure, early October I noticed that
though we do know that it one had a redshift that was
is accelerating. I’ve been way higher than any of the
using Type Ia supernovae, others we had collected,
a standard measure of and high redshifts are an
cosmic distances, to get indicator of great distance.
a better understanding When I looked more
of this expansion and closely, using the Hubble
what is causing it. Space Telescope, I realised
You may ask why people that the galaxy I could see
care about the exact value in the image was not the one
of the expansion rate. It’s in which supernova occurred,
because we are trying to find but a galaxy between us and it.
cracks in the standard model of It was acting as a gravitational
cosmology, and how the Universe lens, magnifying the supernova’s
is affected by a mysterious force light. I’ve been looking for lensed
called dark energy. Strangely, the rate supernovae for the past 15 years and I did
measured using observations constrained to not expect to find one with such a small
nearby galaxies and that using early Universe telescope near light-polluted Los Angeles!
observations give different expansion values. The The gravitationally lensed In this case, the galaxy has bent the supernova’s light
Type Ia supernova spotted
difference is only around eight per cent, which might in four directions, giving us four different images of
by Goobar; the lensing
seem amazingly good. But it bothers cosmologists galaxy is in the centre and
it. These images’ light paths are not equally long, and
because it is perceived as the biggest and possibly four lensed images of the for each one we can measure the time differences
the only discrepancy we have today in our attempt supernova surround it between the images by comparing the supernova’s
to find out what the Universe is made of. There is distinctive light curve, which plots its changing brightness
also the exciting possibility that both measurements against time. That information directly helps
are accurate and that the discrepancy has to do with inform us about the expansion rate of the Universe.
some new physics that we have yet to discover. In this particular case, I think it is going to be a bit
challenging to measure because the time difference
The need for a new way seems to be less than a day. But we are working on
Now of course, you could be skeptical and suggest it! We will go back using the Hubble Space Telescope
ABOUT ARIEL GOOBAR
that one of the two measurements is flawed, but and the Keck Observatory on Hawaii, after the
Prof Ariel Goobar is an
both camps think they measured the expansion rate observational cosmologist
supernova has faded, to measure the brightness
very, very accurately. What would help is to find a at the Oskar Klein Centre of the galaxy alone so we can subtract it to tell us
further way to measure the expansion, and that is for Cosmoparticle Physics just how bright the supernova alone became.
where my work with lensed supernovae comes in. It in Stockholm. He is a We are also looking for other examples of lensed
W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY
is neither based on the very nearby Universe, nor member of the Supernova supernovae which might be more asymmetric. In
the early Universe, but fits nicely in between. Cosmology Project, which principle the time difference could be anything up
discovered that the
I have been trying to understand dark energy by to a year. So we don’t have an answer to how fast the
expansion of the Universe
collecting very large datasets of distances measured was accelerating in 1998. Universe is expanding yet, but we have found a very
using supernovae discovered by the Palomar useful tool to help do so. S
JULY THE SKY GUIDE
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Mercury is making its best evening In the first century Ptolemy created
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return for 2017. It quickly rises his Almagest, which is well-known for
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sus
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30th. Through the month its phase shrinks described the end of the Scorpion’s tail,
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from full to near first quarter, but its one star of which is called Shaula (Lambda
apparent diameter grows from 5.5 to (h) Scorpii), which is Arabic for ‘the sting’.
7.7 arcseconds. An hour after sunset on the Ptolemy also pointed out an object he called Ste
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25th, the planet is in conjunction with ‘the nebulous star to the rear of the sting’. he g
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outshines the star at mag. +0.2. eye, is sometimes called Ptolemy’s Cluster.
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b
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month. Saturn is also well placed for evening passes the Hyades during July. On the
observing, due north around 22:00 EST 13th it becomes a second brilliant ‘eye’
mid-month. Mercury rises out of the Sun’s for Taurus, the Bull, the other being
glare and by month’s end sets around mag. +0.9 Aldebaran (Alpha (_) Tauri).
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b Kait
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constellation of Taurus Poniatovii, or member, 66 Ophiuchi. A farther 0.7°

CHART: PETE LAWRENCE, IMAGE: KONSTANTIN VON POSCHINGER/CCDGUIDE.COM
Poniatowski’s Bull. There is a west-northwest is Barnard’s Star. _

triangle of 4th-magnitude This famous, mag. +9.5 red
stars at the base of the V. dwarf is the fourth closest
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SOUTH skyatnightmagazine.com 2017

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JUNO GALLERY: STUNNING IMAGES OF JUPITER

#146 JULY 2017

DID LIFE COME FROM

Get inspired by Celestron! The ultimate telescope for the novice

Celestron is not only changing the way

asteroids: Editorial enquiries

Sky at Night Lots of ways to enjoy the night sky...

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CONTENTS NEW TO ASTRONOMY?

106 WHAT I REALLY

JULY’S BONUS CONTENT

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S A star is born T Nosy neighbours

S Recapturing the Crab

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Bulletin The latest astronomy and space

Though Titan is the

Titan’s rivers the landscapes may be

It’s destined for use as

CUTTING astronomers. One of the problems they faced was

“The anomaly is bright

He is also the director

Failed star is really a planet NEWS IN

NASA/JPL-CALTECH, UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, NASA/STSCI/WESLEY FRASER/GÁBOR MARTON ET AL, NASA/JPL

LOOKING BACK THE SKY AT NIGHT spacewalk on 12 May,

CUTTING The same researcher, William Sparks of the Space

over Europa? warm spot detected in 1999 by the thermal imaging

“What we don’t know

off 7. The Celestial Sphere

Uncover the Cosmic Clues

to Our Amazing Universe

4XDOLW\&KRLFH([SHUWLVH6HUYLFH The Widescreen Centre

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Today the Cassegrain design and

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