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The Sky at Night - July 2008
Published on 2008-07-07 14:31:00
This month's programme was hosted by Chris Lintott from the Mars Phoenix mission control headed by Professor Peter Smith.The Phoenix lander was sent to the northern polar region of Mars and landed in Green Valley of Vastitas Borealis on May 25th. The main mission was to find water ice beneath the Martian soil. On landing, the retrorockets of the lander displaced the top soil to reveal ice beneath.The landing site is similar to the areas of permafrost at Earth's northern latitudes as the land loo
The Sky at Night - June 2008
Published on 2008-06-07 07:50:00
This month's programme had a brief update on the Mars Phoenix landing. The programme then went on to discuss returns to Saturn and Jupiter to look for signs of life amongst their satellites. Professor John Zarnecki of The Open University championed a return to Titan to follow up the findings of Huygens probe and look for the building blocks of life.Professor Michele Dougherty of Imperial College argued a return to Jupiter to look for life on the Galilean satellites. In particular, a visit to Eur
The Sky at Night - May 2008
Published on 2008-05-05 04:13:00
The May edition of The Sky at Night was titled "You Just Don't Know" and was a round table discussion about the limits of human knowledge. Around the table sat Sir Patrick Moore as "Devil's Advocate" due to it being the 666th edition of the programme, Dr Chris Lintott, Dr Kate Land, and Professor Gerry Gilmore.The assembled brain's trust of astronomers discussed the known universe and attempted to guess what was left to be understood. The viewer was reminded of the current theory of the Big Bang
Choosing a telescope or binoculars
Published on 2008-04-29 04:11:00
Amateur astronomy has made great technological advances in the last few years that amateur astronomy can claim to be the only science that can assist the professionals. Just try getting a synchrotron into your bedroom for some particle physics experiments!Don't go rushing out to buy a telescope, especially not those little plastic 2-inch refractors and 4-inch reflectors promising you 500X magnification. They are usually of very poor build quality and though cheap will disappoint you and turn you
Messenger from Mercury
Published on 2008-01-16 11:43:00
NASA's MESSENGER probe has sent back its first image of Mercury. It shows a planet pocked with craters, much like the Moon.Another similarity with the Moon is the lack of atmosphere. There is a tenuous atmosphere replenished from places like the solar wind but nothing like Venus, the next planet closest to the Sun after Mercury.The planet gives us a foretaste as to the fate of the Earth when the Sun swells to become a red giant. Mercury's surface temperature ranges between 90 and 700K.The MESSEN
Mars rovers still working
Published on 2008-01-03 07:34:00
Four years after starting their 90 day missions on Mars, rovers Spirit and Opportunity are still going strong. Together they have ranged over 10 miles and have taken over 200,000 images of the Martian surface.They have done a lot of good science, including supporting theories about water having once been on the surface Mars. With the onset of the Martian winter the rovers are now parked and awaiting spring before continuing their record breaking activities. Let's wish them a long life so they ma
Cassiopeia, C14 and Perseus
Published on 2008-01-02 10:25:00
[click to enlarge]20:24:10 UTC 1st December 2004Canon EOS 300D with 18mm lens at F3.5120 sec exposure at ISO 1600It is very enjoyable taking wide-field images of whole constellations. This image is of two constellations, Cassiopeia and Perseus. It is not hard to take this kind of image and doesn't require much equipment. A Canon EOS 300D SLR camera with the supplied 18-55mm zoom lens was used.The camera had the benefit of sitting on a motorized equatorial mount, which allowed the camera to follo
Paint Shop Pro
Published on 2007-12-29 04:04:00
For processing images Paint Shop Pro graphics editing software is used. It is a much cheaper alternative to Photoshop and for astrophotography it does everything you need of it.There are many useful functions in Paint Shop Pro. One such function is "image arithmetic" whereby one image can be subtracted from another. This is particularly useful when cleaning up an original image by removing the errors in a dark image from the original.Other useful functions in Paint Shop Pro are the cropping, re
SLR imaging camera
Published on 2007-12-27 09:44:00
Many of the images on this website were taken with a Canon EOS 300D. As is usual for an early adopter a lot more was paid for the camera than it can be had for now.The camera comes with a Canon EF 18-55mm zoom lens, which is good for wide angle shots of star fields, constellations and comets. In addition a Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens was purchased as an intermediate between the zoom lens and imaging through the telescope.The camera is used for imaging in two ways. For wide field imaging th
Comet Machholz - C/2004 Q2
Published on 2007-12-26 12:11:00
[Click to enlarge]18:51:04 UTC 12th January 2005Canon EOS 300D with 200mm lens at F2.860 sec exposure at ISO 1600Comet Machholz was discovered by Donald Machholz on August 27, 2004. It has an orbital period of 113,465 years, which is why it was only recently discovered.This comet was my first attempt at performing observations. The first comet I saw was Comet Halley in 1986 through a cheap pair of binoculars. I then photographed Hale-Bopp in 1997 with a film SLR camera on a fixed tripod.The imag