Voice Conference, 17th of July

I set a voice conference event for some Astro discussions. The time I chose was 10 PM. Amjad said he might not be available for the conference because 10-11 PM is loadshedding time. He got angry on me because I had set the event without anyone’s consent.

In the evening, Amjad asked me to come to his home with EVO Broadband. I was ready to go but unexpected guests showed up at his place right before the conference. So he came to my place with his laptop.

He parked the car in my street, we sat on the backseat of his car and started the conference near around 10:15. Sir Umair (Vice President, Lahore Astronomical Society) joined us at 10:25. Mudassir Ibrahim and Ebrahim Haq joined the conference from Karachi.

Sir Umair first told us about a website arxiv.org He said that this website provides all research papers on Astronomy with full content. Later he told us about new telescopic mounts without gears.

I asked Sir Umair about time travel and whether it was possible that a person can go in past and kill himself. Sir Umair said that it wasn’t possible and that it was just a hypothesis because killing oneself in past would cancel his presence in the future. If time travel is possible, the history/past would be read-only and one wouldn’t be able to change any event.

I had a question about black holes in my mind and Sir Umair answered it. I had asked whether it was possible to observe the surroundings of blackholes or not. Since light can not escape a black hole, a black hole isn’t visible optically. Sir Umair said that with the help of spectrograph, we can detect black holes.

Mudassir asked Sir Umair about Astrology and the effect of stars and planets over human beings according to Science. Sir Umair said that Astronomers totally reject the concept of any effect of planets and stars on the lives because its an unscientific thing. He told that the movement of planets from constellation to constellation is studied by Astrologers in a different perspective while Astronomers study it according to Physics.

The inductance of Pluto in the list of planets was also discussed. The question was raised by Amjad. Sir Umair agreed with the kicking out of Pluto from the list of planets and he explained a number of reasons for it. He said that Pluto has an orbit which is different from the orbits of other planets, its composition is more like that of a comet rather than planets and moreover, the moon Charon of Pluto keeps destabilizing the orbit of Pluto with its gravitational pull. So it was a good decision to keep Pluto out.

Extra-solar planets and their discovery was discussed. It was told by Sir Umair that more than 440 extra-solar planets have been discovered so far and more are being discovered almost every week.

Sir Umair told us that Obsession 18 inch telescope can easily attain the magnification of 900x. He told that multiplying the diameter of a telescope’s mirror with 50 gives the highest possible magnification. So Obsession can go till 900x with a smile.

Ebrahim’s mic was not working so he kept listening to all these points but never spoke. I had expected to hear from him about Cosmology.

And the screen of Amjad’s laptop went black due to low battery power. I rushed to my home and brought my own laptop but Sir Umair had already left due to some important work.

Mudassir was given the link of Karachi Astronomers’s Group.

Inside the car was soooooo warm but I say “Anything for Astronomy”.

It was a really nice conference. Everyone who joined enjoyed it alot.

Highlights of the July sky

IC1396 – The Galactic Elephant

Here it is, another great shot by Saad. The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula is one of the largest regions of nebulosity in our planet’s sky.

IC1396 - The Elephant's Trunk Nebula

One thing to be noted is the exposure time and the result. Its basically a 50 minute exposure and the outcome is great. Saad says he got more than expected stars in the image. This image is just a smaller portion of Elephant’s Trunk nebula and the entire region is not photographed.

NASA Image of IC1396

The Elephant’s trunk nebula is a concentration of gas and dust. It is now known to be a star formation region. It is located 2400 Light Years away from the Earth in the Constellation Cepheus (The King). It contains several young stars which are less than 100,000 years old.

Location of IC1396 in the Constellation Cepheus

 

Meeting Report

By Ali Khan

I was busy grinding when Umair called and reminded about meeting. Asked which topic would I speak on. I suggested “atm” but as it had already been used, I selected “scale of the universe”.

I wouldnt have to prepare anything. It was all there and more. Perfect I thought. Continued grinding.

 Around 4 I set off towards Omer’s office. Buses were on strike and so took mini vans. Reached Thokkar. On the way I found that Maroof would come and Irfan and M. Ali were somewhat agreed to come also. Meeting place was changed from Omer’s office to his home. Kept everyone informed about the meeting. Forgot to inform Ahsan Khursheed. Regretted later. Got off at Jinnah Hospital and walked towards the place. Hassaan also had plans to come. It was getting dark as I was nearing Omer’s home. Then saw him coming in his car and hopped in. He was going to bakery to collect some stuff.
Back home Umair was wating in his car. He had brought his Multimedia projector and Laptop. We set about assembling it. Took off a large map of mars from the wall after studying it a little. Downloaded the presentation from the net. Got it on wall in no time.Irfan joined us. Soon came Maroof and M. Ali, the new member and Bank Manager.The presentation went very well. During it, we had various items to eat and tea, followed with ice cream which was the climax.
Umair, Maroof and others had useful information to add at each step. This livened up the meeting. Learned about rapid inflation after big bang and dark energy and its gravitational effect in accelerating the expansion. Maroof pointed out a few numerical errors in the time scale part of the presentation. At the end Umair started Starry Night and showed present constellations and Mars. There was a beautiful star cluster on Orion’s left (East) and in level with Betelgeux and the other shoulder star. There was talk that Betelgeux was from Arabic “Ib Tul Joza” or armpit of Joza.Umair pushed me to use my 20×100 binos more often. As it was cloudy season again, Umair said that he would invite us for Mars once it clears up. Mars would only shrink by one second by then, to 13 from 14 arc seconds. There was talk of location selection for Messier Marathon in March. Hassaan called in and said that next meeting would be at his place in Cantt. Umair decided to prepare a presentation for next meeting.

All of us enjoyed and Maroof said that even if we dont do any observation under a cloudless sky, we should have such meetings to increase our knowledge.

Observing the Double Stars with Amjad

Evening at 7 PM, I went to bed due to a bit of fever and body pain. And at the same time, electrons stopped flowing. I kept sleeping even in the hotness. When I woke up nearly at 9:15. I checked my mobile phone and there were 4 missed calls and some angry messages by Amjad. I asked him that I was sleeping and now whats the program. He said ok I am coming to you. And at 10:26 he came to my home.

As soon as Amjad entered my street, electrons again stopped flowing. I thought it was perfect for Astronomy. But just when we stepped up to the terrace, electrons started to flow and the sky was filled with light pollution immediately.

I turned on Stellarium on my pc and went out with Amjad at my terrace. We first observed the double star Omega Scorpii in Constellation Scorpius.

Map of Constellation Scorpius

Scorpius is a constellation which is full of celestial wonders. We observed another double star Acrab (Beta 1 Scorpii) out there.

Tried really hard to find the Constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs) near the Bootes. Also took the help of Stellarium and the star Arcturus (Alpha Bootes) but the Constellation couldn’t be located. The brightest star of this constellation is named as Cor Caroli. If one zooms in to Cor Caroli, he find that its actually a double star.

Canes Venatici as drawn by Johannes Hevelius

Canes Venatici is a small constellation but has much deep sky objects.

Map of Constellation Canes Venatici the Hunting Dogs

We moved on to observe the Coathanger, a famous group of stars forming a shape as that of a Coat Hanger. It is near to the star Altair (Alpha Aquila). One can easily locate the CoatHanger by drawing a straight imaginary line from Vega (Alpha Lyrae) to Altair (Alpha Aquila) and then moving from A to V and itself it is located in the Constellation Vulpecula (The Fox).

The CoatHanger

It was the first ever time Amjad had observed the Coat Hanger, though I have already observed it pretty much times before but its joyful to watch it again and again.

With the help of Stellarium, I located few more double stars. This time I wanted to observe the double star in Constellation Draco (The Dragon). Easily located that one.

Constellation Draco

The amazing fact about Constellation Draco is that it never sets for the people in Northern Hemisphere. It is always up. The star Thuban (Alpha Draconis) was the pole star around 2700 BC. Near around 21000 AC, it will again become pole star.

Map of Constellation Draco

We then decided to hunt a double star in the Constellation Cygnus. Albireo (Beta Cygni) is a double star at the tail of Cygnus the Swan.

Double Star Albireo in Constellation Cygnus the Swan

Cygnus is also known as the Summer Cross since its shape is that of a cross.

Map of Constellation Cygnus the Swan

By that time, my favorite kind of tea was prepared, we enjoyed it at my terrace. There was cool breeze and the tea was really good. Amjad left my home at 11:36 PM but didn’t leave for his home until 1:30 AM as we kept discussing different topics in the street.

Except the Scorpio, almost all the objects were so high that we needed to lie on the Chaarpai (traditional Pakistani bed) for observing them.

I really enjoyed observing all these objects. Though there was much light pollution which ruined my plan of observing even more double stars, but still we made to many of them.

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Amazing Facts

1 When you look at the Andromeda galaxy (which is 2.3 million light years away), the light you are seeing took 2.3 million years to reach you. Thus you are seeing the galaxy as it was 2.3 million years ago.

2 Light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach you, thus you see the sun as it was 8 minutes ago. It might have blown up 4 minutes ago and you wouldn’t know about it!

3 The Earth is not a sphere! It actually is an oblate spheroid, it is squashed slightly at the poles and bulges out at the equator due to its rotation.

4 If you could put Saturn in an enormous bathtub, it would float. The planet is less dense than water.

5 A teaspoon-full of Neutron star would weigh about 112 million tonnes.

6 Jupiter is heavier than all the other planets put together.

7 Even on the clearest night, the human eye can only see about 3,000 stars. There are an estimated 100,000,000,000 in our galaxy alone!

8 The tallest mountain in the solar system is Olympus Mons, on Mars at a height of about 15 miles, three times the height of Mount Everest. It covers an area about half the size of Spain.

9 If the sun were the size of a dot on an ordinary-sized letter ‘i’, then the nearest star would be 10 miles away.

10 Half-a-billionth of the energy released by the sun reaches the Earth

11 Temperatures on Venus are hot enough to melt lead.

12 If you could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) it would take 100,000 years to cross our galaxy!

13 Only one side of the moon ever faces Earth. The moons period of rotation is exactly the same as it’s period of orbit.

14 Betelgeuse, the bright star on Orion’s top-left shoulder, is so big that if it was placed where the sun is, it would swallow up Earth, Mars and Jupiter!

15 If you stand on the equator, you are spinning at about 1,000 mph in as the Earth turns, as well as charging along at 67,000 mph round the sun.

16 On the equator you are about 3% lighter than at the poles, due to the centrifugal* force of the Earth spinning.

17 The atmosphere on Earth is proportionately thinner than the skin on an apple.

18 On Mercury a day (the time it takes for it to spin round once) is 59 Earth-days. Its year (the time it takes to orbit the sun) is 88 days- that means there are fewer than 2 days in a year!

19 If a piece of the sun the size of a pinhead were to be placed on Earth, you could not safely stand within 90 miles of it!

20 Its estimated that the number of stars in the universe is greater than the number of grains of sand on all the beaches in the world! On a clear night, we can see the equivalent of a handful of sand.

21 Every year the sun evaporates 100,000 cubic miles of water from Earth (that weighs 400 trillion tonnes!)

22 Jupiter acts as a huge vacuum cleaner, attracting and absorbing comets and meteors. Some estimates say that without Jupiters gravitational influence the number of massive projectiles hitting Earth would be 10,000 times greater.

23 Astronomers believe that space is not a complete vacuum- there are three atoms per cubic metre.

24 Saturn is not the only planet with rings- Neptune has it’s own ring system.

Clear Sky, Lack of Preparation

I had planned an observing session with my friend Amjad at 10:30 PM at my place. But by 8:00 PM, clouds started to run over Hyderabad and then rain. Amjad said he could see intense lightning in the North East. I was in my room. I went out to check the sky and was disappointed to see such cloudy sky. The program was cancelled.

Near about 12:30 when there was no electricity, I moved to the terrace with a cup of Kadak Doodh Patti in my hand and boy I was amazed to see millions of stars shining over my head. Thanks to the rainfall for amazingly clear sky.

Since my binoculars were in Karachi for repair, I thought to do some Naked Eye Astronomy this time. I started with Jupiter, the largest planet of our Solar System had just risen and was shining in the East.

I turned my eyes towards Constellation Scorpius and saw Shaula (λ Scorpii) which is the 25th brightest star in the night sky and is a double star.

The Constellation Cygnus (The Swan) was so bright and at 90 degrees angle, I could easily make out all the main stars of this constellation. Moving some left from Cygnus, was the Constellation Lyra (The Harp) and its brightest star Vega (5th brightest star). I tried hard to resolve Epsilon Lyrae (The Double Double) out there but that wasn’t an easy task, so I left it.

Cygnus the Swan

Aquila (The Eagle) was also flying over the horizon. It was for the first time I had seen this constellation.

Aquila - The Eagle

I now moved my head towards the South and scanned the sky from South to North and I noticed a cloudy appearance there. I figured out that it was the Milky Way. Milky Way galaxy appears to pass through Constellation Sagittarius in summer skies.

The Milky Way Galaxy

There wasn’t electricity and I was tired, so I decided to sleep at terrace. I put off my spectacles to sleep but I was amazed by the sight. The sky was so clear that I could see thousands of stars even without my spectacles. It amazed me a lot.

By 4:00 AM, electrons had again started to flow in the wires and the Moon was rising from the North East. I took out my 40x Refractor to take a look at it. The Moon was looking very awesome in that.

I thought I should now pack up and take a look at my blog because I was receiving some complains about its functionality. So I kept working on it and finally at 4:56 AM in morning, I was able to fix it.

Went to bed nearly at 5:45.

I wish I had my binoculars with me at that time, if I had, I would have scanned whole sky without tiring because we seldom get such clear skies.

M16 – The Eagle Nebula by Saad Abbasi

This time, Saad Abbasi takes us to the Eagle’s Nest. M16 or the Eagle Nebula is a star formation region in the Constellation Serpens (The Serpent).

The Eagle Nebula by Saad Abbasi

 View the full resolution version here

Its a rather long exposure of 2 hours and 10 minutes shot from the middle of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. The specialty of this image is that its shot in Hydrogen Alpha wavelength of light.

The Eagle Nebula was discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745. Its name is because of its shape that resembles to an Eagle. It is 7000 Light years away from the earth.

Star Birth Clouds in the Eagle Nebula

Hubble Space Telescope took the following image of the Eagle Nebula which is one of the most famous Astro Photos in the world and shows active creation of stars.

Pillars of Creation by Hubble Space Telescope

Map of Constellation Serpens and Location of M16

An activity for you readers. Try to locate the Pillars of Creation in the photograph by Saad.

An advice for Amjad: Under extremely dark and clear skies, Eagle Nebula is a good target for binoculars.

Wish you clear and dark skies.

Observation Time

By Amjad Nizamani

Saturday, 3^rd July 2010

After figuring it out that my Binoculars require the observer to wear spectacles, I went out and bought one. Then I went to Bilal to take my Binoculars from him.

After I took my Binoculars from him and reached home, I saw there wasn’t electricity out here. It was about 10:37 pm and thinking that it was great time for Astronomy session, I took my Binoculars and laptop with me on the roof.

I also called my brother and sister up on the roof to observe some objects.

I dropped a text to Bilal and Sir Ali khan to tell me about some objects to observe. Sir Ali khan dint reply as he might be sleeping at that time.

Bilal told me to go for Stellarium. I turned on my laptop and turned on  Stellarium.

As electrons started to flow in wires so there was a lot of light pollution and I could only see two stars with the un-aided eye, Arcturus and Vega.

As Arcturus was at nice angle, so I started with this target. I had no problem locating Arcturus with Binoculars. It was a great view.

Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes. It’s a red giant and many times bigger than Sun. A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.5–10 solar masses) in a late phase of stellar evolution.

After Arcturus I decided to check out the main stars in constellation Bootes.

I went for Muphrid (Eta Boo) and Upsilon Boo (υ Boo). I found them with Binoculars very easily, and their view was very crisp and great. I just loved viewing them.

I showed these stars to my sister and then decided to go for Zeta Boo (ζ Boo). I tried very hard to locate this star but I couldn’t. But I was able to locate Pi Boo (π Boo), Omicron Boo (ο Boo) and HIP 72659 A. As I was using my binoculars at 10x (10 times magnification) so I could not resolve double star Pi Boo. A double star is a pair of stars that appear close to each other in the sky as seen from Earth when viewed through an optical telescope.

 

 

Constellation Bootes

 

 

Then my sister told me that she could see three stars with the un-aided eye and she pointed towards them. I could not see any of those with the un-aided eye. But the way she told me, it sounded to me like they were Alkaid, Mizar and Alioth from the constellation Ursa Major.

I guessed the location of the double star Mizar and Alcor. I started to look for this double star through my binoculars. I was able to locate and resolve this double star within few seconds. Then I showed this double star to my sister. She was very happy to see this double star.

 

Double Star in Constellation Ursa Major

 

 

Then while I was talking to Bilal, my sister was looking at the stars near Vega. Then she said happily “Amjad, I see another double star”. I thought it was great. I tried to locate this double star in Stellarium, it was Epsilon lyr (ε Lyr), a double star in constellation Lyra. This double star is also known as the Double Double. Then I tried to locate and resolve that double double but I could not.

 

Epsilon Lyrae - A quadruple star system in Constellation Lyra

 

 

The date had already changed and I was constantly being told to come down and have Ice-cream, but I told my brother to wait until the moon shows up.

I could observe the moon at about 00:35 am. I was very disappointed to see that it was very dim and I could not enjoy observing it. So I stepped down the roof at about 00:40 am, and had Ice-cream. I loved observing all those objects for the first time with my Binoculars.

Build A Simple Galilean Refracting Telescope In 500 Rupees

Today I am going tell you the way how can you build a simple Galilean Refractor Telescope in just about 500 Pakistani Rupees. I think building this telescope must not take more than half hour of your’s and after this, you will be able to observe the moon and its craters and few double stars too.

So,

First, a little briefing about the design might help.

This telescope design was introduced by Galileo. Basically it works on the principle of refraction of light rays.

Light rays bend as they enter from one medium to another. In this way the light rays are brought to focus in the Galilean Refractor model.

 

 

Refracting Telescope Illustrated

 

Light from the primary convex lens is brought to focus at a certain point. At that point an eyepiece is placed to view the image.

 

 

Refracting Telescope Illustrated

 

 

 

Refracting Telescope from Cincinnati Observatory in 1848

 

Now I will move on to the parts list and some mathematics.

I am not sure about the cost of the parts but it shall be near to the ones I mention here.

Parts:

• A plano-convex lens of +2 diopters with diameter of 2 inches. (Rs. 100)
• A microscopic eyepiece of 10x power. (Rs. 320)
• A PVC pipe of 2 inches diameter and of half meter length. (Rs. 50)
• A PVC pipe of 1 inch diameter and of 6 inches length. (Rs. 20)

Total = 490 (Prices subject to change from city to city)

Additional Supplies Needed:

• Black Electrical Tape.
• Old Newspapers.
• Scissors.
• A powerful glue.

Calculations:

Lets calculate the Focal Length of the convex lens.

Since,

Focal Length = 1 / diopter

Focal Length = 1 / 2

Focal Length = 0.5 Meters.

This means that the plano-convex lens you just purchased has a focal length of 0.5 Meters (500 millimeters)

The 10x microscopic eyepiece has a focal length of 25 millimeters.

Now we will calculate the magnification of this telescope.

Since,

Magnification = Focal Length of Objective / Focal Length of Eyepiece.

Magnification = 500 / 25

Magnification = 20x

Construction:

• From that half meter PVC pipe, cut 3 inch piece away.
• Join the Plano-Convex lens at one side of the tube opening with the help of glue (the convex side should be facing outside).

•  

   

  

  Fixed Lens at one end of the tube.

• Let it dry and make sure its firmly attached.
• Wrap the 1 inch diameter PVC pipe with newspapers well, so it can slide inside and outside the main tube also known as Objective Tube.

•  

   

  

  PVC pipe wrapped in magazine.

• Fix the eyepiece in one side of that little tube also known as the Draw Tube.

•  

   

  

  Eyepiece in Draw Tube

• Your telescope is ready.

•  

   

  

  My 40x Telescope

Enjoy the moon viewing, or other terrestrial objects.

Be Advised:

NEVER EVER TRY TO LOOK AT THE SUN WITH ANY LENS AND ESPECIALLY A TELESCOPE. IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE TO YOUR EYES WILL OCCUR WITHIN MICROSECONDS.

Notes:

• The Refractor Model shows erect images only when you have a negative power eyepiece (Galilean Mode). In this telescope you are using a positive eyepiece. So this design is called Keplerian Mode. You will see everything upside down.
• This isn’t a Solar Telescope, avoid sun viewing.
• This telescope has a magnification of 20x. You will see everything 20 times bigger than its original size.
• While viewing moon and other distant objects, you will have to move the draw tube inside the main tube until the image is sharp and clear.
• If you are viewing nearer objects, you will have to pull out the draw tube a little or more until the image is focused.

Troubleshooting and Help:

If you are having any problem in the construction of this telescope or have any other questions, feel free to ask. I am always ready to help.

Acknowledgements:

If today I am able to write this tutorial, its just because of the great help offered to me by Mr. Tom Pope, Mr. Jim Mosher and Mr. Ali Khan. Without their help, I would have never been able to build a telescope and write this simplified tutorial for beginners. Thank You All.

Wish You Clear and Dark Skies.