Two of the most prominent astronomers of the 20th century passed away this week.

Alan Sandage was a cosmologist and assistant to Edwin Hubble. Hubble (after whom the Hubble Space Telescope is named) discoved that the universe is expanding. Sandage, an American, worked under him as a grad student and carried on his work after Hubble’s death in 1953. He went on to provide what was at the time the best, and oldest, estimates of the age of the universe. He also studied star and galaxy formation, discovered jets in M82 and created the first 3 dimensional model of the structure of the nearby galaxies.

And just yesterday Brian Marsden passed away. Marsden, originally from England but residing in the United States, ran the Minor Planet Center at Harvard for many years. An expert on asteroids and comets, his was the final word regarding the discovery of new solar system bodies. He also was director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams for 30 years, where all initial reports of new astronomical discoveries were sent. First word of a new supernova, or comet often came from Marsden.

Learning about what’s out there is often enhanced by learning about how thngs are discovered and the stories of thier discoverers. Now would be a great time to read up on the work that these two great astonomers did.

There’s a supernova recently discovered, and brightening.

It’s near UGC 5189A and it’s better than 12th magnitude.

Here’s a link to the page detailing other recent supernovae,

http://www.rochesterastronomy.com/supernova.html

and here’s a photo of it

This is the best place to put some of the links and information i mentioned.

First of all, the name of the mystery comet…

C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami)

and some photos of it, courtesy of Paul Mortfield.

http://www.backyardastronomer.com/comets/2010V1_20101109-1a.jpg

http://www.backyardastronomer.com/comets/2010V1_20101109–FSQ_3a.jpg

and the link to Cartes Du Ciel

http://www.simtel.net/product.download.mirrors.php?id=59452

which will help you download a zip, which when unzipped, contains an exe which installs it all.

And finally, a series of star maps for Auriga.

This is for connect-the-dots. Kudos to anyone with a creative line drawing that uses most of the stars. You don’t have to make a shepherd, but if you draw something else, let us know why the drawing is as it is (your legend to go with the constellation)

From your browser, right-click on an image and choose ‘save picture as’. You should then be able to print it just by double-clicking it and selecting the print toolbar button in your preview program.

A star chart just showing stars in Auriga brighter than Magnitude 4.5

A chart shoing the stars of Auriga brighter than magnitude 5.0

A chart showing the stars of Auriga brighter than Magnitude 5.5

A chart showing the stars of Auriga brighter than Magnitude 6.0

A chart showing the stars of Auriga brighter than magnitude 6.5

The most detailed chart, shows the stars of Auriga brighter than magnitude 7.0

Here is an image of Jupiter taken by my pal Chris Go on 9 November, showing the absent SEB and the Great Red Spot as it appears now (N is up). Watch the SEB for developments:

Jupiter 9 Nov 2010 (our time)(N is up)

Sky & Telescope is reporting news of the possible return of Jupiter’s South Equatorial Band. Christopher Go and Donald Parker have observed a bright round spot in the position normally occupied by the SEB. In the past, such spots have darkened, then spread out to form the usually red-brown “stripe” known as the South Equatorial Band.

The newly observed spot will transit Jupiter’s disk tomorrow night (Nov. 11) at about 12:30 a.m.** according to Donald Parker.

Be sure to watch Jupiter and follow any developments.

Sky & Telescope’s complete article can be found here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/107042728.html

Update 7:45 pm, Nov.11:
** Sky & Telescope have since corrected the transit time for the SEB “spot” to 5:28 UT Nov. 11 – which means LAST night. ( !! ) The spot is located at approximately 150 degrees longitude (system III) on Jupiter. To determine the current CML (central meridian longitude) on Jupiter for any given date or time, you can use the online calculator at: http://www.arksky.org/newcmcalc.htm .

http://www.geocities.jp/toshimi_taki/

I found this by chance. Its a series of charts with a manual and index of objects. It seems to be very well done and has a lot of deep sky detail. See what you think.

M13 my first glob photo

Here is the finished product of my M13 photo. Not bad for a first try even if I do say so my self.
Many thanks to Kerry for all her help in processing. A special thanks to all those who came by last night for my impromptu photo get together.

Two different Waterdown Cub troops joined together for a fun night of astronomy with members of the HAA. After a creating a human solar system and enjoying the opportunity to look at some meteorites up close, we all adjourned to the parking lot of Guy Brown School for some viewing under clear skies. Jim brought his big Schmidt-Cassegrain, Ann had her fine dob, Andrew also had his large dob, Joe had his 5″ Mak, Wayne his large binoculars and I had my small but mighty refractor. Michael ushered the troops to the various instruments, where they enjoyed views of Jupiter, M13 and Alberio. Most of the cubs correctly identified the yellow and blue colours of this lovely binary, and Jupiter showed fine detail on this particularly steady night, with some of the cubs even noting detail within the north equatorial belt.

All of the boys and girls were very keen to look through the scopes, and cub Jonathon was an enthusiastic assistant and helped set up and tear down the instuments.

Well over 30 cubs and many more leaders and parents enjoyed the evening, and so did the seven members of the HAA in attendance. Thanks to all for the great night!

Last night 11 HAA members heeded the call and went out to McQueston Park for a cool evening of sidewalk astronomy. The array of telescopes looked impressive, as visitors had the opportunity to look through any of 2 Schmidt-Cassegrains, 1 Maksutov, 4 Newtonians and 2 refractors.

A slightly gibbous moon offered that “wow” factor with tremendous detail along the terminator and Jupiter received lots of attention due to a Europa shadow transit that was visible in even the smallest scope there (90mm). A meteorite was available for children to hold and examine, and of course there was lots of exchanges of information and sharing of eyepieces between the members. Jackie brought along a new 8″ Dobsonian that was carefully assembled and examined by many members, and deemed to give very fine views! Attempts to set up the Maksutov with a binoviewer and a pair of 13mm Naglers met with success, as there was just enough room to fit in these very large eyepieces. The effort was very worthwhile, as the view of the moon through this set-up was spectacular!

As the night progressed and the visitors dwindled, attention was turned to how well we could see some deep-sky objects from this very light polluted area of the city. Not surprisingly, filters helped tremendously, and merely blocking the light of the closest lamps improved the view a lot. Although I could see only 5 of the Pleiades with the unaided eye (and only that with effort) the younger eyes of Kevin were able to pick out many more, showing once again that your eyes are the best observing tool that you have.

A big thank you to all the members who turned out to share the night sky with the public and were rewarded with a fun evening that included some great views of the sky and some even better company.

There will be several H.A.A. members out at McQuesten Park tonight from about 7:00 pm untill 10:00 pm or so.We will be seting up our scopes to share veiws of the first 1/4 Moon. and jupiter.Please join us. See you there.