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BULLETIN

Journal of the Ballaarat Astronomical Society Inc., P.O. Box 284, BALLARAT Vic. 3353

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VOL. 37 No. 3 JUL/SEP 2015

O.B.B. 2 Jul 2015

Ballaarat Astronomical Society

THE ODDIE - BAKER BULLETIN

Editor: Phil Greenbank

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Office-bearers for 2014/2015

President: Saeed Salimpour 0422 408 889 Vice-President Phil Greenbank 03 5345 2335 Secretary: Phil Greenbank Treasurer: Judith Bailey 0419103213 Committee: Doug Stenhouse 03 5331 3572 Sravan Pingali 0438 341 527 Ted Doyle 0429 999 704 Barry Coverdale 0439 340 631

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CONTENTS Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page

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REGULAR MEETINGS General Meeting 7:00pm - Astronomical Talks Feb, Apr, June, Aug (AGM), Oct Committee Meeting 6:00pm Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov Junior Group –Contact Judith 0419103213 3rd Friday of the month 6pm- 7pm Telescope Making Group -Contact Ted 0429999704 - 2nd Saturday of the month 1pm – 5pm

Viewing any Friday night except General Meeting night

Every Friday except General Meeting nights - Training in telescope use, discussions etc. Viewing whenever possible, in addition to scheduled viewing nights.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visitors are welcome on any Friday night. If a meeting is in progress, a member will be available to show visitors around the Observatory. The Ballarat Municipal Observatory is situated on the corner

of Magpie and Cobden Streets, Mount Pleasant, with the entrance in Magpie Street. Ph. 03 53327526.

O.B.B. 3 Jul 2015

Ballarat Municipal Observatory. Cnr. Cobden & Magpie St. Mt. Pleasant. BALLARAT Latitude: 37.34S Longitude: 143.51E Elevation 468m

B.A.S. Website - http://observatory.ballarat.net E-mail address - bas@cbl.com.au

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NOTE: Contributions for the next edition can be sent to the editor’s E-mail address: psckfamily@gmail.com.

Deadline for the next edition 18 September 2015 ***************************************

August Annual General Meeting

BAS AGM – Friday 14th August, 7:00pm At the AGM: -

• Officers and group leaders are required to present a report. • Executive Positions – President, Secretary, Treasurer plus four Committee members

Election of members of the executive and committee will be considered. Remember written nominations are considered first before any nominations are called for from the floor (if required). Please consider seriously those whom you which to see fill these positions or if you’re interested yourself, please make it known to another member for nomination. Confirmation of Appointments – Business Manager, Minute Secretary, Membership Secretary, Library Officer plus assistant/s (if required), Gardening Officer plus assistant/s (if required), OBB/Newsletter Editor, Groups Leader/s, Training Officer/s, Business Affairs Public Officer, Telescope Making, Fire Officer, BMO Representatives, Cosmology Leader, Computer Manager, Webpage Coordinator/s, OH&S Representative, Property Officer.

• Election of Life Members • Fixing of annual membership fees • Approving constitutional changes. • General Business

If you wish to renew your membership, you can pay in person at or after the AGM or by post (address on cover). Fees are due by the end of September. NOTE: This will be your last edition if you are not financial as at the 30th September.

O.B.B. 4 Jul 2015

The equipment in Northern Arizona University’s ice lab simulates the extremely cold environment and the near vacuum of space. Credit: Image courtesy of Northern Arizona University

Preparing for Pluto By Saeed Salimpour Taken from an article published by Northern Arizona University

As New Horizons gets closer to Pluto, scientists are growing ice samples the simulate the probable surface Pluto, in order to be able to compare them to the data provided by New Horizons. You don't get to see a planet for the first time very often," said Stephen Tegler, professor and chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department. Tegler also oversees Northern Arizona University’s ice lab, where ice samples are grown, analyzed and added to the expanding library of data. "We grow lots of different kinds of ices with different temperatures, mixtures and at different phases. The fingerprint

patterns of the samples ultimately will be used to match up images from the New Horizons spacecraft," Tegler said. Scientists know Pluto's surface is made up of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide but they want to learn more about how the materials behave at the frigid sub-zero temperatures of Pluto. "That's why we're making samples in the Northern Arizona University’s lab where we can study their properties, probing them with a variety of analytical instruments," said Will Grundy, a New Horizons co-investigator and head of the mission's surface composition science team. "Our goal is to understand how the alien landscapes that will soon be revealed by New Horizons were created via the physical and chemical interactions of these exotic ices," said Grundy, a Lowell Observatory astronomer and collaborator on Northern Arizona University’s ice lab. The New Horizons spacecraft's spectrometer uses light to provide information about a planet's physical and chemical composition, because every atom and molecule has a unique imprint The upcoming visual exploration of Pluto will fill in knowledge gaps, possibly revealing craters or ice volcanoes on the dwarf planet. That information will require interpretation and raise new questions. "When the data comes back, you will answer one question and the information will inspire many more questions, things for us to follow up on here on Earth," Tegler said.

O.B.B. 5 Jul 2015

Stellar Events

DATE TIME

TIME Friday is Members Night

30th June – 14th July

School Holiday Program Tuesday – Thursday

Come on an exciting adventure and discover Pluto.

As the New Horizons satellite travels on the last few days of its journey, before reaching its closest point to Pluto, come along and learn about this very distant object. Cost for activity and viewing only $20 Adults, $15 Conc, $8 children, $45 family of 4, $50 family of 5+

3.00-4.30pm Build your own Pluto System activity for children. What do you think Pluto looks like? 4.30-5.00pm Break for dinner – order with booking, see special Café menu. 5.00 – 6.00pm Viewing at the telescopes if clear, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn plus other objects or The little Things 3D movie if cloudy. Friday – Saturday 5.00pm onwards – Viewing at the telescopes.

14th July Tuesday

6.30pm 7.30pm 9.49.59pm

80th Birthday Party for Karenza Burk, members and friends only. HELLO! PLUTO SPECIAL LECTURE : New Horizons reveals Pluto free for members. After travelling for 10 years New Horizons reaches it’s closest approach to Pluto tonight. Come along for this historic event.

14th August

6pm 7pm 7.30pm

Astronomical Conversations Dinner AGM Talk - Radio Telescope

Friday 21st August

7pm-9pm GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS - WORLD RECORD STARGAZING THROUGH A TELESCOPE An attempt on the current world record of the number of people looking through a telescope at different sites in the one Country , at the same time, is to be supported here at the Ballarat Observatory. Cost $10 includes small telescope and Certificate of participation. Members ½ price. Bookings essential on 0429

O.B.B. 6 Jul 2015

199 312 or email bas@cbl.com.au Event information: http://observatory.ballarat.net/events/event/guiness-book-of-world-records-stargazing/

Saturday 22nd August & overnight into morning of 23rd August

SPACE IS THE PLACE - AUG 22 Dusk to Dawn

Festival of Slow Music (FoSM) at the Ballarat Observatory. First event for Festival of Slow Music 2015 will be an all-night event of music and star-gazing at the Ballarat Observatory.

Two particular events will be - Space is the Place - a tribute to iconic jazz artist and interstellar traveller, Sun Ra - a 15 or so piece ensemble led by Adam Simmons in the style of his infamous Toy Band, strongly influenced by Sun Ra's music.

- The Quiddity Concert - featuring Steve Falk, Elissa Goodrich, Martin Martini and Adam Simmons, who were each commissioned in 2014 to compose a piece for the Federation Handbells (managed to Museum Victoria on behalf of Creative Victoria).

Then there will be numerous performances between dusk and dawn by Deborah Kayser, Amie Brûlée, Martin Martini, Hue Blanes, Diokno Pasilan, Leah Scholes, Miranda Hill, Jeremy Dullard, Samuel James Boon and more - including our mystery drummer! Elissa Goodrich and Caerwen Martin will introduce the dusk and then bring us into the dawn.

For members helping on the evening of the 22nd and throughout the night and help with breakfast, cost is free. Contact Judith on 0419 103 213 Space is the Place is ticketed through Majestix.

Tickets available from Majestix $40 – one ticket price Space is the Place only http://www.hermaj.com/

$20 – 50% discount for Festival Ticket holders main weekend 28-30 Aug Early Bird Special http://www.hermaj.com/what-s-on/community/festival-of-slow-music/

Add-ons $10 - Telescope viewing $10 - Camping fee (on Observatory grounds – BYO tent, etc) $5 - Breakfast – includes bacon & eggs or cereal, and fruit, tea, coffee, milo - cheap! Call 0429 199 312 for more information and more information on Observatory website.

O.B.B. 7 Jul 2015

Articles from the Past Space News 23rd December, 1981 The Sky is Falling Chicken Little was right ager all – the sky is indeed falling. If yo don't believe it, as Anthony Sarkis Jr., an eight-grade amateur astronomer in North Adams, Massachusetts. He lived out every meteor-watchers fantasy – while setting up his telescope in his front yard on Halloween nights, he watched a red fireball shoot across the sky, and then watched it drop a baseball-sized meteorite in his vegetable garden. Incredible. Figure out the chances of an amateur astronomer having a meteorite plop sown in his yard – it's a pretty small number. Tony's meteorite created a sonic boom comparable to a shotgun blast, and left a crater a foot wide and four inches deep. He reported that it was glowing red immediately after impact. On December 9, another piece of the sky fell, though it burned up before crunching into any vegetable gardens. Police from all over the central United States receiver calls about crashing airplanes and flying saucers, but the fireball that flashed across the sky at 5:30pm was harmless. The meteor was apparently bright white with an orange tail and took about ten seconds to zip across the sky. The meteor travelled in a south-westerly direction, and seems to have begun over Arkansas and ended possibly over Oklahoma.

22nd Aug – 20th Sept

Ballarat International Foto Biennale - Fringe Event

Opening Hours - Opening Launch Tuesday 25th August 4.oopm. Tuesday 4.00 – 7.00pm Thursday 4.00 – 7.00pm Friday 4.00pm – 8.00pm Saturday 12.00 -8.00pm Sunday 12.00 – 5.00pm Exhibition - Celestial Kaleidoscope The Ballarat Observatory and Ballaarat Astronomical Society invite all astrophotographers to participate in the Celestial Kaleidoscope exhibition as part of the 2015 Ballarat International Foto Biennale fringe events. This year, in celebration of the International Year of Light, the theme of our exhibition is “Celebrating Light, Unlocking its Secrets”. Photographs can explore & highlight any aspect of light and the night sky, whether from an aesthetic or scientific perspective.

Events information regularly updated on website. 3rd Rock Café Menu http://observatory.ballarat.net/features/3rd-rock-cafe/

Meals can be booked for groups from Tues-Sat Contact 0429 199 312 to make a booking. Members half price

O.B.B. 8 Jul 2015

Ceres – Up close and personal By Saeed Salimpour Taken from articles published by University of California - Los Angeles The first images of Ceres from the Dawn mission reveal a surface filled with craters of many shapes and sizes. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

These past couple years, has been the time of flybys, landings and close approaches of some of the smallest bodies in our Solar System – the so called Little Things. These missions are giving us unprecedented views of the variety and similarity of objects that the formation of the Solar System produced. New images have been released of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. The photos were produced by the spacecraft Dawn, which is now observing Ceres from about 4345 km above its surface. “Everything we learn from Ceres will be absolutely new,” said Christopher Russell, a UCLA professor of space physics and planetary science, and the Dawn mission's principal investigator. “We approach it in awe and almost total ignorance.” Dawn's visit to Ceres, which is scheduled to last more than a year, began on March 6. From July 2011 to September 2012, it observed Vesta, a 'minor planet' that is the second most massive body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Over the years, scientists have learned about the conditions at the beginning of the solar system by studying meteorites from Vesta that have fallen to Earth. There have been no such meteorites produced by Ceres, an indication that the two bodies are likely very different. For example, Dawn

O.B.B. 9 Jul 2015

found little evidence to indicate there is water on Vesta. But Russell said Ceres could have a substantial amount of water or ice beneath its rocky crust. The presence of water, he said, could “affect the time for relaxation of craters and mountains on Ceres and reduce the height of the topography compared to Vesta, and will affect minerals on the surface.” Russell also said Ceres, unlike Vesta, might have a weak atmosphere and perhaps even life. Dawn, which launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2007, is the first NASA spacecraft to visit a minor planet and the first to orbit two celestial bodies beyond the moon. Scientists expect the mission to provide insights about Ceres' shape, size, composition, internal structure, and tectonic and thermal evolution. The findings also should provide new understanding about the conditions under which Ceres and Vesta were formed. Dawn is powered by an advanced NASA technology known as ion propulsion that enables it to use fuel more than 10 times more efficiently than standard rockets. It is outfitted with two high-resolution cameras (including one backup), a visible and near-infrared mapping spectrometer to identify minerals on the surface, and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, which will be used to reveal the presence of elements such as iron and hydrogen in the soil. “The Dawn flight team and the Dawn science team are high achievers, but the spacecraft itself is the highest achiever,” Russell said.

Articles from the Past OBB July 1980 Awards This year the "Oddie-Baker" presents the first "Golden Telescope" award. This award goes to the person who in the view of the Editor has contributed most to the BAS. This year the Awards goes to the person who: 1. conducted a BRACE viewing programme, 2. conducted many group tours through the observatory, 3. has conducted training, 4. has conducted a very successful mirror grinding group, 5. has been a regular contributor to the "Oddie-Baker", 6. was the AS representative to the NACAA. This year the award toes to Ina Thompson, who will be given the award as soon as gold is discovered at the observatory. And while we're at it, here's a few more; Muckraker of the Year – Bruce Allen, for levelling the area near the toilets, Tightwad of the Year – Glenn Bridgart. If you've ever tried to get money from him you'll know why. Latecomer of the Year – Leo Lindorff, but it's not his fault. Painter of the Year – Mike Watson. Mug of the Year – MurrayMcKean for calling mike Watson "Paul" for three hours. Tolerant Person of the Year – Mike Watson. He just didn't have the heart to tell Murray he was wrong.

O.B.B. 10 Jul 2015

Bioluminescence Photography – Phil Hart Bioluminescence in the Gippsland Lakes (Front cover) Bioluminescence in the Gippsland Lakes with star trails and the Milky Way. Caused by waves disturbing the Dinoflagellate Noctiluca Scintillans present in the water after a combination of fires and floods in the catchment for the lakes over the previous two years. Date: 16th January 2013 Location: Gippsland Lakes (Banksia Peninsula), Victoria, Australia Camera: Canon 5D Mark II Lens: Canon 24mm f1.4L Exposure Details: HDR Composite of 20 exposures for foreground (4 secs, f1.4, ISO6400) plus a single long exposure for the sky (15 mins, f4, ISO200) Processing: Star StaX (maximum combine foreground sub-exposures) and Photoshop.

Lake Victoria Bioluminescence (Above) Bioluminescence in Lake Victoria, Gippsland Lakes, Victoria, Australia. Caused by small waves at the edge of the lake disturbing the Dinoflagellate Noctiluca Scintillans present in the water after a combination of fires and floods in the catchment for the lakes over the previous two years. Date: 11th January 2013 Location: Gippsland Lakes (Banksia Peninsula), Victoria, Australia Camera: Canon 5D Mark II Lens: Canon 24mm f1.4L 100 exposures each 30 secs, f2.0, ISO1600 combined with a maximum blending mode using StarStax.

O.B.B. 11 Jul 2015

Stellar Collisions By Saeed Salimpour Taken from an article published by Gemini Observatory

We have read about galaxies colliding and seen images. However, individual stars within these galaxies do not collide, given the vast distances between the stars. Scientists have found that within a cluster of stars, this may not be the case! Near-infrared images of a star cluster Liller 1 shows that stars are so densely packed that it provides a unique environment where the stars can collide. "It's a bit like a stellar billiards table; where the probability of collisions

depends on the size of the table and on the number of billiard balls on it,"

said Francesco R. Ferraro of the University of Bologna (Italy), one of the team members who used the Gemini Observatory to make the observations. The cluster of stars, is a difficult target to study due to its distance and also because it is located close to the center of the Milky Way (about 3,200 light-years away from it), where the obscuration by dust is very high. The unprecedented ultra-sharp view of the cluster reveals a vast city of stars estimated by the team to contain a total mass of at least 1.5 million suns, very similar to the most massive globular clusters in our galaxy: Omega Centauri and Terzan 5. "Although our galaxy has upwards of 200 billion stars, there is so much vacancy between stars that there are very few places where suns actually collide," said Douglas Geisler, Principal Investigator of the original observing proposal, from University of Concepcion (Chile). "The congested overcrowded central regions of globular clusters are one of these places. Our observations confirmed that, among globular clusters, Liller 1 is one of the best environments in our galaxy for stellar collisions." Globular clusters orbit in a large halo around the center, or nucleus, of our galaxy and many of the closer globular clusters are spectacular showpieces, even in small telescopes or binoculars. "This isn't one of these showpieces, it is so obscured by material in the central bulge of our galaxy that is almost completely invisible in visual light," observed Sara Saracino, lead author on the paper, from the University of Bologna.

Gemini Observatory near-infrared image of the globular cluster Liller 1 obtained with the GeMS adaptive optics system on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. Credit: Courtesy of Gemini Observatory/AURA

O.B.B. 12 Jul 2015

Stellar collisions are important because they can provide the key to understand the origin of exotic objects that cannot be interpreted in terms of the passive evolution of single stars. Nearly head-on collisions in which the stars actually merge, mixing their nuclear fuel and re-stoking the fire of the nuclear fusion are suggested to be the origin of (at least part) of the so-called Blue Straggler Stars. But collisions can also involve binary systems, with the effect of shrinking the initial size of the system and thus promoting the two components to interact and producing a variety of objects like Low mass X-ray binaries, Millisecond pulsars etc. In particular Millisecond pulsars are old neutron stars reaccelerated to millisecond rotation period by mass accretion from a companion in a binary system. Indeed Liller 1 is suspected to have a large population of such exotic objects. Although no millisecond pulsar has been directly observed up to now, a large hidden population has been suggested because of the detection of an intense γ-ray emission (the most intense detected so far from a globular cluster). "Indeed our observations confirm Liller 1 as one of the best "laboratories" where the impact of star cluster dynamics on stellar evolution can be studied: it opens the window to a sort of stellar sociology study, aimed at measuring the impact of the reciprocal influence of stars when they are forced to live in conditions of extreme crowding and stress." concludes Ferraro.

Members photos

Eta Carinae Nebula NGC3372. Taken with narrow band filters, H-alpha, O-III and S-II. SBIG STF8300M camera, 5 Inch APO refractor and NEQ6 Mount. Approximately 2 hours exposure time. Location was Canadian Ballarat. Wes Thomson

O.B.B. 13 Jul 2015

Lost in space By Saeed Salimpour Taken from an article published by ESA

The Universe is big, or so we think! And objects (e.g: galaxies) usually tend to “clump” together into groups, clusters and superclusters. However, there is one galaxy that seems to have lost its way! NGC 6504 lies at the edge of an empty patch of space called the Local Void. NGC 6503 is around 18 million light-years away from us in the constellation of Draco (The Dragon), making it one of the closest neighbors from our Local Group of galaxies. It spans some 30,000 light-years, about a third of the size of the Milky Way. This galaxy does not just offer poetic inspiration; it is also the subject of ongoing research. The Hubble Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS) is exploring a

sample of nearby galaxies, including NGC 6503, to study their shape, internal structure, and the properties and behaviour of their stars. This survey uses 154 orbits of time on Hubble; by contrast, a typical Hubble observing program lasts from a few to a few tens of orbits. The Local Void is a patch of space thought to be about 150 million light-years across that seems to be curiously devoid of galaxies. Astronomers using Hubble discovered that the emptiness of this region has quite an effect on the space around us – the Milky Way is being strongly pulled away from it by a gentle relentless tug of other nearby galaxies. NGC 6503 lies right on the edge of this void. It has an almost non-existent central bulge surrounded by a massive halo of gas. Emission from NGC 6503's heart is believed to be the result of a starved black hole that is only just being kept active, receiving a very small amount of infalling gas to keep its large appetite at bay. A previous image of NGC 6503 was released as a Hubble Picture of the Week back in 2010, taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. However, this new image, taken using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), shows NGC 6503 in striking detail and with a richer set of colours. Bright red patches of gas can be seen scattered through its swirling spiral arms, mixed with bright blue regions that contain newly-forming stars. Dark brown dust lanes snake across the galaxy's bright arms and centre, giving it a mottled appearance. Installed in 2009 during the final Hubble servicing mission, SM4, WFC3 covers a wide range of the spectrum, from the ultraviolet all the way through to the near-infrared. Compared with its predecessor, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), it offers improved resolution and a wider field of view.

This image shows galaxy NGC 6503. The galaxy is at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void. Credit: NASA, ESA

O.B.B. 14 Jul 2015

Party of Four By Saeed Salimpour Taken from an article published by ESA

A galaxy group bursting known as the Hickson Compact Group 16, or HCG 16, shows a host of various phenomena and exotic objects – dramatic star formation, tidal tails, galactic mergers and black holes. This quartet is composed of (from left to right) NGC 839, NGC 838, NGC 835, and NGC 833 – four of the seven galaxies that make up the entire group. They shine brightly with their glowing golden centres and wispy tails of gas, set against a background dotted with much more distant galaxies. Compact groups represent some of the densest concentrations of galaxies known in the Universe, making them perfect laboratories for studying weird and wonderful phenomena. Hickson Compact Groups in particular, as classified by astronomer Paul Hickson in the 1980s, are surprisingly numerous, and are thought to contain an unusually high number of galaxies with strange properties and behaviours. HCG 16 is certainly no exception. The galaxies within it are bursting with dramatic knots of star formation and intensely bright central regions. Within this single group, astronomers have found a range of different galaxies, each providing us insights into the Universe. NGC 835 and NGC 833, have incredibly luminous cores when observed at other wavelengths than in the visible light, and are home to active supermassive black holes. The X-ray emission emanating from the black hole within NGC 833 (far right) is so high that it suggests the galaxy has been stripped of gas and dust by past interactions with other galaxies. It is not alone in having a violent history -- the morphology of NGC 839 (far left) is likely due to a galactic merger in the recent past, and long tails of glowing gas can be seen stretching away from the galaxies on the right of the image.

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows four of the seven members of galaxy group HCG 16. This quartet is composed of (from left to right) NGC 839, NGC 838, NGC 835, and NGC 833 -- four of the seven galaxies that make up the entire group. They shine brightly with their glowing golden centers and wispy tails of gas, set against a background dotted with much more distant galaxies. Credit: NASA, ESA, ESO Acknowledgement: Jane Charlton (Pennsylvania State University, USA)