Slashdot Mirror

This tool will tell you about the nearest dark skies: The Dark Sky Finder. The tough part is finding a place to park. This tool will just drop you in the middle of nowhere. It might be easier just to find a star party near where you live.

The Tunguska meteor happened in the year 1908, which means those logs in the blast pattern probably are long gone by now.

A. Ol'khovatov (olkhov.narod.ru) comments on the Italian researcher: " 97. June 23, 2007 News story just appeared ( http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/8134097.html ) that Italian researchers published an article where they proposed that Lake Cheko (about 8 km form the epicenter of the Tunguska event) was formed by an impact of a fragment of 'Tunguska meteorite'! The article is here: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/ j.1365-3121.2007.00742.x Let me make some comments.
The idea was already checked by Soviet/Russian researchers in the year ~ 1960.
Their initial idea to research the lake was that a lot of local surface waters (headwaters) pass through the lake, so the lake's bottom should accumulate substance of the 'Tunguska meteorite' fallen over large area.
They discovered the funnel shape of the lake's bottom, but failed to find any evidences that it was a meteorite crater.
Arguments were the following:
a) there is no any rim around the lake:
b) Forest/trees around the lake is older than ~50 years old in general;
c) a local resident (Evenk who huntered in the area) said that on the place of the lake there was a 'zabolochennaya luzha ' (swampy pool).

So the idea was rejected by Sovet/Rissian researchers. Now the Italians are trying to recover it.
And of course neither Soviet/Russian researchers nor the Italians discovered any fragments/microparticles of the hypothetical 'Tunguska meteorite' despite large-scale digging of the bottom and the lake surroundings. I can add that interrogations of local residents conducted in the early 1960s show that a path from Vanavara settlement to the area of Strelka-Chunya (which later became a settlement too) went through Lake Cheko. So there is practically no chance of the 'sudden appearence' of the lake from a meteorite impact.

But what can't be ruled out is flooding of the lake, as local residents said about fountains of water from the ground and some flooding near the Tunguska epicenter in association the Tunguska event. By the way, for the 'geophysical Tunguska' interpretation the phenomena are explained as being due to tectonic activity (and are known in association with earthquakes).

Anyway, I hope that the article (which possibly will be promoted in mass-media) will help the Italian researchers to get finance/funds to come to Russia next summer and to celebrate 100th Anniversary of Tunguska! :) "

Public Viewing Session

The observatory will be open to the public on Friday, October 28th at 8:00pm weather permitting.
Venus shines brightly in the west-southwest just before sunset. It's second in brightness only to the moon after sunset. After night falls, you'll find Mars rising in the east. Mars is closest to Earth this week and next! It's shining brilliantly at magnitude -2.2 in Aries near the Taurus border. It rises fiery yellow-orange in the east-northeast in twilight, blazes high in the eastern sky by 10 p.m., and moves over to the west by dawn. And it's rising earlier every day. In a telescope Mars is 20 arcseconds wide. For a couple of weeks it remains essentially as large as when at its very closest on the night of October 29th. Check out recent amateur images of the planet including its dust storm here: http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/plane ts/article_1612_1.asp

SFA OBSERVATORY NOTES http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/observatory/obs.htm

The SFA Observatory's viewing sessions are intended for visitors of all ages and are free of charge. Since these are outdoor events, poor weather conditions may force a cancellation. The current weather report can be found here. To reach the SFA Observatory dial 936-569-0102 and for maps and directions http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/observatory/tour_form .html. We have free SFA Star Charts that you can download and print http://members.cox.net/astro7/SFAStarCharts.html. To see what's up in the sky see this Week's Sky at a Glance.

For larger groups please email me in advance so that I can have additional help available.
In addition to our public viewing session at the SFA Observatory you may also want to attend a planetarium show on a Friday night. Here's the planetarium schedule: http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/planetarium/index.htm

I don't know why Cowboy Neal linked to CNN, while quoting Sky and Telescope--a very good mag. Maybe he didn't want to slashdot them?

From the S&T site: "From now through mid-November, Mars is closer, brighter, and appears larger in a telescope than it will again until 2018! The so-called Red Planet (actually bright yellow-orange) is a real eye-catcher blazing high in the east by late evening, as it awaits your telescope. It's 20 arcseconds wide, larger than it almost ever appears. A full guide to this Mars apparition, including a surface-feature map, is in the September Sky & Telescope, page 67."

Most US libraries have S&T, if you don't subscribe. Peel yourself away from the monitor and go have a look.

See http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/art icle_110_1.asp for this info and a neat shot of Mars taken through a 7" catadioptric telescope. Note that the photo was taken by a S&T editor--very probably an expert astrophotographer. Also, 7" cats of this type (Maksutov-Newtonian) do not grow on trees.

This close approach is mainly of interest to amateur astronomers. It's an opportunity to see and photograph detail that's completely invisible in unfavorable approaches.

Note that you don't need much in the way of dark skies to see Mars. It's bright, and dark skies are only vital when you're trying to see faint stars and anything nebulous. Comets, the Milky Way, etc. That said, dark skies do add to the beauty. Plus, if you can see that background of fainter stars, it's a chance to easily see the planets' relative motion over several nights.

Overall, a very cool naked-eye astronomy thing. So get your geek on, and have fun.

Many scientists now believe that Pluto should be more properly classified as the largest Kuiper Belt Object ever found.

Even that is debatable, if the figures on 2003 UB313 are anywhere near correct. If it's as shiny as white snow, it's bigger than Pluto. If it's darker, it's bigger still.

...laura

This theory also directly contradicts another theory I saw this month in Sky and Telescope, which referred to this article. This one is for the formation of the outer gaseous planets and the kuiper belt. The basis of the theory is that the orbits of all the gas giants should have been closer to the sun, as they would have required a much denser gas-and-dust cloud than would have existed as far out as they are now. As well, the kuiper belt would have formed closer to the sun.

Due to gravitational interactions between the gas planets and the kuiper belt objects, Jupiter's orbit shrinks and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune expand, with the latter two actually changing place and moving into much more elliptical orbits before settling down into their current orbits. These larger orbits put both planets squarely into the primordial kuiper belt and, well, cause the Late Heavy Bombardment.

From the post: "but a solar flare damaged the solar panels causing a reduction in power."

And now that it's so very close to its target, we have another one coming.

Those images don't look like satellite images, and they certainly don't look anything like the images Google has.

Caption from the image:

This one-meter resolution satellite image of Manhattan, New York was taken on June 8, 2002 by the IKONOS satellite.

But even with these photos, the angle doesn't seem to have been chosen for any particular artistic purpose.

And this has exactly what to do with copyright?

By your logic, it would impossible for any astronomical image to be copyrighted. I tend to think that these guys would disagree with that.

Quite neat.

Quite neat.

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/article_1534_ 1.asp

The above URL will take you to the Sky and Telescope web page that covers this event.

I almost fell out of my chair when I RTFA. "Mercury is a planet few people, even astrologers, have ever seen." WTF? Is this Slashdot or the Nancy Reagan hotline? There's a better article at Sky and Telescope without any of the mumbo jumbo.

http://skyandtelescope.com/AuthFiles/NoCookie.asp

I need cookies just to look at index.htm? Sorry, but if you're so poorly skilled that you need cookies for that; I have no interest in your website.

Knowing how far away the blazar was would let one infer the speed of the blobs in the direction normal to us, while measuring the doppler shift would tell is the speed toward or away from us (compared to the blazar's doppler shift). Use some basic trig to get the speed relative to the blazar.

Interesting article as far as it goes, but they do not even mention how far away the blazar is from us. Is this thing next door or billions of light years away? Guess I'll have to wait for the real science report in Sky and Telescope.

What a bogus statement! The comet does not thake a few days off, it's going to be just as visable on January 3rd and 4th as on January 2nd and January 5th. There's a nice chart here that shows where in the sky to expect it each night.

It is these types of comets that frustrate people who are interested in astronomy but don't know where to look.

You will not see it with the naked eye unless you are under very dark skies away from city lights. You will have more luck with binoculars and even then it will only appear as a dim smudge of light.

Finding it in the sky will be an exercise in frustration unless you are already comfortable orienteering the night sky. Your best bet will be on January 8th, when the comet will be just to the right of the Pleiades, an easily locatable star cluster in Taurus.

This page at Sky & Telescope has a decent finder map. Happy hunting and even if you don't see it, enjoy the night air. It's good for you...

Here's a link with more information for those who are interested in the event.

For those who aren't, it may not be visible to you anyway.

Ottawa will be in totality. Sky & Telescope have an article with a map of when it rises and sets.

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/ecl ip ses/article_1340_1.asp

Ottawa will be in totality. Sky & Telescope have an article with a map of when it rises and sets.

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/ecl ip ses/article_1340_1.asp

Jay McNeil discovered McNeil's Nebula http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1179_1.asp with a 3-inch refractor. Granted, he had a CCD attached, but it's more evidence that size matters less than the technology using it.
-aiabx

Sky and Telescope has published an article more recently, explaining what happened and their role in it. It is available online.

The definition of two full moons in a month is now "correct" due to common usage. The urban legend has now become fact.

Apparently the earlier definition has to due with the oocurance of two full moons in a season. This ties in with the supposed American indian names from the colonial era. (note that the several thousand indian tribes would likely have a variety of names, IF they bothered to name them) This is actually more closely related to the European system of moon names, from which we get things like "harvest moon", or the Pascal moon (before Easter) (More on which below)

There is this Folklore of the "Blue Moon" article An informative acticle is the Nasa Science Article on the subject, which traces the current usage to an old article in a 1946 Sky and Telescope Magazine.

Sky And Telescope has their own article on the subject, including their own mea culpa here: What's a Blue Moon? -- from Sky & Telescope. Describes how a 53-yr old mistake by Sky and Telescope propagated the modern definition of "Blue Moon."

In an article "Once in a Blue Moon", folklorist Philip Hiscock traced the calendrical meaning of the term "Blue Moon" to the Maine Farmers' Almanac for 1937. But a page from that almanac belies the second-full-Moon-in-a-month interpretation. With help from Margaret Vaverek (Southwest Texas State University) and several other librarians, we have now obtained more than 40 editions of the Maine Farmers' Almanac from the period 1819 to 1962. These refer to more than a dozen Blue Moons, and not one of them is the second full Moon in a month. What's going on here? [...]

The almanac also follows certain rules laid down as part of the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582. The ecclesiastical vernal (spring) equinox always falls on March 21st, regardless of the position of the Sun. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 46 days before Easter, and must contain the Lenten Moon, considered to be the last full Moon of winter. The first full Moon of spring is called the Egg Moon (or Easter Moon, or Paschal Moon) and must fall within the week before Easter.

At last we have the "Maine rule" for Blue Moons: Seasonal Moon names are assigned near the spring equinox in accordance with the ecclesiastical rules for determining the dates of Easter and Lent. The beginnings of summer, fall, and winter are determined by the dynamical mean Sun. When a season contains four full Moons, the third is called a Blue Moon.

Why is the third full Moon identified as the extra one in a season with four? Because only then will the names of the other full Moons, such as the Moon Before Yule and the Moon After Yule, fall at the proper times relative to the solstices and equinoxes.

The definition of two full moons in a month is now "correct" due to common usage. The urban legend has now become fact.

Apparently the earlier definition has to due with the oocurance of two full moons in a season. This ties in with the supposed American indian names from the colonial era. (note that the several thousand indian tribes would likely have a variety of names, IF they bothered to name them) This is actually more closely related to the European system of moon names, from which we get things like "harvest moon", or the Pascal moon (before Easter) (More on which below)

There is this Folklore of the "Blue Moon" article An informative acticle is the Nasa Science Article on the subject, which traces the current usage to an old article in a 1946 Sky and Telescope Magazine.

Sky And Telescope has their own article on the subject, including their own mea culpa here: What's a Blue Moon? -- from Sky & Telescope. Describes how a 53-yr old mistake by Sky and Telescope propagated the modern definition of "Blue Moon."

In an article "Once in a Blue Moon", folklorist Philip Hiscock traced the calendrical meaning of the term "Blue Moon" to the Maine Farmers' Almanac for 1937. But a page from that almanac belies the second-full-Moon-in-a-month interpretation. With help from Margaret Vaverek (Southwest Texas State University) and several other librarians, we have now obtained more than 40 editions of the Maine Farmers' Almanac from the period 1819 to 1962. These refer to more than a dozen Blue Moons, and not one of them is the second full Moon in a month. What's going on here? [...]

The almanac also follows certain rules laid down as part of the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582. The ecclesiastical vernal (spring) equinox always falls on March 21st, regardless of the position of the Sun. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 46 days before Easter, and must contain the Lenten Moon, considered to be the last full Moon of winter. The first full Moon of spring is called the Egg Moon (or Easter Moon, or Paschal Moon) and must fall within the week before Easter.

At last we have the "Maine rule" for Blue Moons: Seasonal Moon names are assigned near the spring equinox in accordance with the ecclesiastical rules for determining the dates of Easter and Lent. The beginnings of summer, fall, and winter are determined by the dynamical mean Sun. When a season contains four full Moons, the third is called a Blue Moon.

Why is the third full Moon identified as the extra one in a season with four? Because only then will the names of the other full Moons, such as the Moon Before Yule and the Moon After Yule, fall at the proper times relative to the solstices and equinoxes.

The definition of two full moons in a month is now "correct" due to common usage. The urban legend has now become fact.

Apparently the earlier definition has to due with the oocurance of two full moons in a season. This ties in with the supposed American indian names from the colonial era. (note that the several thousand indian tribes would likely have a variety of names, IF they bothered to name them) This is actually more closely related to the European system of moon names, from which we get things like "harvest moon", or the Pascal moon (before Easter) (More on which below)

There is this Folklore of the "Blue Moon" article An informative acticle is the Nasa Science Article on the subject, which traces the current usage to an old article in a 1946 Sky and Telescope Magazine.

Sky And Telescope has their own article on the subject, including their own mea culpa here: What's a Blue Moon? -- from Sky & Telescope. Describes how a 53-yr old mistake by Sky and Telescope propagated the modern definition of "Blue Moon."

In an article "Once in a Blue Moon", folklorist Philip Hiscock traced the calendrical meaning of the term "Blue Moon" to the Maine Farmers' Almanac for 1937. But a page from that almanac belies the second-full-Moon-in-a-month interpretation. With help from Margaret Vaverek (Southwest Texas State University) and several other librarians, we have now obtained more than 40 editions of the Maine Farmers' Almanac from the period 1819 to 1962. These refer to more than a dozen Blue Moons, and not one of them is the second full Moon in a month. What's going on here? [...]

The almanac also follows certain rules laid down as part of the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582. The ecclesiastical vernal (spring) equinox always falls on March 21st, regardless of the position of the Sun. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 46 days before Easter, and must contain the Lenten Moon, considered to be the last full Moon of winter. The first full Moon of spring is called the Egg Moon (or Easter Moon, or Paschal Moon) and must fall within the week before Easter.

At last we have the "Maine rule" for Blue Moons: Seasonal Moon names are assigned near the spring equinox in accordance with the ecclesiastical rules for determining the dates of Easter and Lent. The beginnings of summer, fall, and winter are determined by the dynamical mean Sun. When a season contains four full Moons, the third is called a Blue Moon.

Why is the third full Moon identified as the extra one in a season with four? Because only then will the names of the other full Moons, such as the Moon Before Yule and the Moon After Yule, fall at the proper times relative to the solstices and equinoxes.

According to Canadian folklorist Philip Hiscock, the term "blue Moon" has been around for more than 400 years, but its modern calendrical meaning has become widespread only in the last 25. And as discovered five years ago, it can be traced to a mistake published in Sky & Telescope in the 1940s!

I read both Sky & Telescope and Game Developer regularly cover-to-cover and occasionally 2600 (when I am somewheres that sells it). All three are informative and interesting. As for accurate, the first two seem to be pretty good - although I am reading them to learn the stuff so I wouldn't necessarily know if they were incorrect but I hope they aren't, and I haven't read a 2600 in a while so I can't remember.

Ok, let's get a list of public viewings together.

Here's a list of web casts.

Anyone else have information on live viewings?

Thanks.

It may be possible to have a universe that is expanding and contracting at different times based on variables we have no ability to measure, hence never be able to know which way we are going to go, only where we seem to have gone.

For some great educational sources for the non-astro-physicist, see The Elegant Universe excellent program (my six and ten year olds understood most of it). A few other articales are at Sky and Telescope and Scientific American

InnerWeb

From 1882? I don't think so.


Think again. We do have photos of it. A movie has even been made.

Good info here about the two that will likely reach naked eye magnitude or better.

If ClearChannel is going to insist pushing these digital billboards with "time of day" related messages, then I hope they will turn down the brightness of their billboards at night as well.

Reanimating the 1882 Transit of Venus
By Anthony Misch


In late 1882, Massachusetts astronomer David Peck Todd traveled to California to photograph the transit of Venus from the summit of Mount Hamilton, where a solar photographic telescope made by the renowned optical firm Alvan Clark & Sons waited among the stacks of bricks and timbers from which Lick Observatory was rising. As the transit unfolded on December 6th, Todd obtained a superb series of plates under perfect skies. His 147 glass negatives were carefully stored in the mountain vault, but as astronomers turned to other techniques for determining the scale of the solar system (see "The Transit of Venus: Tales from the 19th Century," by William Sheehan, Sky & Telescope: May 2004, page 32), the plates lay untouched and were eventually forgotten.

Fast-forward 120 years. Spurred by a reference in one of Todd's letters in Lick's Mary Lea Shane Archives, Bill Sheehan and I found all 147 negatives, still in good condition, at the observatory. To our knowledge, this collection of photos constitutes the most complete surviving record of a historical transit of Venus.

As we looked at Todd's extensive sequence of images, we realized we could turn them into a movie. A similar thought may have occurred to Todd himself, for a number of his contemporaries were already making the first forays into chronophotography -- the recording of sequential motion and the forerunner of cinematography. Indeed, Pierre Jules Janssen invented his famous photographic revolver to capture the 1874 transit of Venus.

Digital imaging technology made reanimating Todd's transit images a comparatively simple undertaking. The result, which premiered at the International Astronomical Union's general assembly in Sydney in July 2003, shows Venus's silhouette flickering strangely as it marches across the Sun's face. It's the shadow-show of an astronomical event that occurred when Queen Victoria sat on the throne of Great Britain and Chester Arthur was president of the United States -- a moving record of an event seen by no one now living, and a preview of what millions will see for the first time on June 8, 2004.

Figures:
http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/6469.jpg
Amherst College astronomer David Peck Todd (1855-1939). Courtesy the Mary Lea Shane Archives of Lick Observatory / University of California, Santa Cruz.

http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/6465.jpg
The December 6, 1882, transit of Venus was already under way when the Sun rose over Lick Observatory in California and David Peck Todd began photographing the planet's march across the solar disk. Todd's 147 surviving photos, of which these are numbered 11, 88, and 151 (left to right), have been turned into a movie. You can download QuickTime versions in two sizes: 640 x 480 pixels (4.0 megabytes) or 320 x 240 pixels (1.2 megabytes). © 2003 University of California Observatories / Lick Observatory.


Movies:
640x480 (4.0MB)
320x240 (1.2MB)

Reanimating the 1882 Transit of Venus
By Anthony Misch


In late 1882, Massachusetts astronomer David Peck Todd traveled to California to photograph the transit of Venus from the summit of Mount Hamilton, where a solar photographic telescope made by the renowned optical firm Alvan Clark & Sons waited among the stacks of bricks and timbers from which Lick Observatory was rising. As the transit unfolded on December 6th, Todd obtained a superb series of plates under perfect skies. His 147 glass negatives were carefully stored in the mountain vault, but as astronomers turned to other techniques for determining the scale of the solar system (see "The Transit of Venus: Tales from the 19th Century," by William Sheehan, Sky & Telescope: May 2004, page 32), the plates lay untouched and were eventually forgotten.

Fast-forward 120 years. Spurred by a reference in one of Todd's letters in Lick's Mary Lea Shane Archives, Bill Sheehan and I found all 147 negatives, still in good condition, at the observatory. To our knowledge, this collection of photos constitutes the most complete surviving record of a historical transit of Venus.

As we looked at Todd's extensive sequence of images, we realized we could turn them into a movie. A similar thought may have occurred to Todd himself, for a number of his contemporaries were already making the first forays into chronophotography -- the recording of sequential motion and the forerunner of cinematography. Indeed, Pierre Jules Janssen invented his famous photographic revolver to capture the 1874 transit of Venus.

Digital imaging technology made reanimating Todd's transit images a comparatively simple undertaking. The result, which premiered at the International Astronomical Union's general assembly in Sydney in July 2003, shows Venus's silhouette flickering strangely as it marches across the Sun's face. It's the shadow-show of an astronomical event that occurred when Queen Victoria sat on the throne of Great Britain and Chester Arthur was president of the United States -- a moving record of an event seen by no one now living, and a preview of what millions will see for the first time on June 8, 2004.

Figures:
http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/6469.jpg
Amherst College astronomer David Peck Todd (1855-1939). Courtesy the Mary Lea Shane Archives of Lick Observatory / University of California, Santa Cruz.

http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/6465.jpg
The December 6, 1882, transit of Venus was already under way when the Sun rose over Lick Observatory in California and David Peck Todd began photographing the planet's march across the solar disk. Todd's 147 surviving photos, of which these are numbered 11, 88, and 151 (left to right), have been turned into a movie. You can download QuickTime versions in two sizes: 640 x 480 pixels (4.0 megabytes) or 320 x 240 pixels (1.2 megabytes). © 2003 University of California Observatories / Lick Observatory.


Movies:
640x480 (4.0MB)
320x240 (1.2MB)

Reanimating the 1882 Transit of Venus
By Anthony Misch


In late 1882, Massachusetts astronomer David Peck Todd traveled to California to photograph the transit of Venus from the summit of Mount Hamilton, where a solar photographic telescope made by the renowned optical firm Alvan Clark & Sons waited among the stacks of bricks and timbers from which Lick Observatory was rising. As the transit unfolded on December 6th, Todd obtained a superb series of plates under perfect skies. His 147 glass negatives were carefully stored in the mountain vault, but as astronomers turned to other techniques for determining the scale of the solar system (see "The Transit of Venus: Tales from the 19th Century," by William Sheehan, Sky & Telescope: May 2004, page 32), the plates lay untouched and were eventually forgotten.

Fast-forward 120 years. Spurred by a reference in one of Todd's letters in Lick's Mary Lea Shane Archives, Bill Sheehan and I found all 147 negatives, still in good condition, at the observatory. To our knowledge, this collection of photos constitutes the most complete surviving record of a historical transit of Venus.

As we looked at Todd's extensive sequence of images, we realized we could turn them into a movie. A similar thought may have occurred to Todd himself, for a number of his contemporaries were already making the first forays into chronophotography -- the recording of sequential motion and the forerunner of cinematography. Indeed, Pierre Jules Janssen invented his famous photographic revolver to capture the 1874 transit of Venus.

Digital imaging technology made reanimating Todd's transit images a comparatively simple undertaking. The result, which premiered at the International Astronomical Union's general assembly in Sydney in July 2003, shows Venus's silhouette flickering strangely as it marches across the Sun's face. It's the shadow-show of an astronomical event that occurred when Queen Victoria sat on the throne of Great Britain and Chester Arthur was president of the United States -- a moving record of an event seen by no one now living, and a preview of what millions will see for the first time on June 8, 2004.

Figures:
http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/6469.jpg
Amherst College astronomer David Peck Todd (1855-1939). Courtesy the Mary Lea Shane Archives of Lick Observatory / University of California, Santa Cruz.

http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/6465.jpg
The December 6, 1882, transit of Venus was already under way when the Sun rose over Lick Observatory in California and David Peck Todd began photographing the planet's march across the solar disk. Todd's 147 surviving photos, of which these are numbered 11, 88, and 151 (left to right), have been turned into a movie. You can download QuickTime versions in two sizes: 640 x 480 pixels (4.0 megabytes) or 320 x 240 pixels (1.2 megabytes). © 2003 University of California Observatories / Lick Observatory.


Movies:
640x480 (4.0MB)
320x240 (1.2MB)

Reanimating the 1882 Transit of Venus
By Anthony Misch


In late 1882, Massachusetts astronomer David Peck Todd traveled to California to photograph the transit of Venus from the summit of Mount Hamilton, where a solar photographic telescope made by the renowned optical firm Alvan Clark & Sons waited among the stacks of bricks and timbers from which Lick Observatory was rising. As the transit unfolded on December 6th, Todd obtained a superb series of plates under perfect skies. His 147 glass negatives were carefully stored in the mountain vault, but as astronomers turned to other techniques for determining the scale of the solar system (see "The Transit of Venus: Tales from the 19th Century," by William Sheehan, Sky & Telescope: May 2004, page 32), the plates lay untouched and were eventually forgotten.

Fast-forward 120 years. Spurred by a reference in one of Todd's letters in Lick's Mary Lea Shane Archives, Bill Sheehan and I found all 147 negatives, still in good condition, at the observatory. To our knowledge, this collection of photos constitutes the most complete surviving record of a historical transit of Venus.

As we looked at Todd's extensive sequence of images, we realized we could turn them into a movie. A similar thought may have occurred to Todd himself, for a number of his contemporaries were already making the first forays into chronophotography -- the recording of sequential motion and the forerunner of cinematography. Indeed, Pierre Jules Janssen invented his famous photographic revolver to capture the 1874 transit of Venus.

Digital imaging technology made reanimating Todd's transit images a comparatively simple undertaking. The result, which premiered at the International Astronomical Union's general assembly in Sydney in July 2003, shows Venus's silhouette flickering strangely as it marches across the Sun's face. It's the shadow-show of an astronomical event that occurred when Queen Victoria sat on the throne of Great Britain and Chester Arthur was president of the United States -- a moving record of an event seen by no one now living, and a preview of what millions will see for the first time on June 8, 2004.

Figures:
http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/6469.jpg
Amherst College astronomer David Peck Todd (1855-1939). Courtesy the Mary Lea Shane Archives of Lick Observatory / University of California, Santa Cruz.

http://skyandtelescope.com/mm_images/6465.jpg
The December 6, 1882, transit of Venus was already under way when the Sun rose over Lick Observatory in California and David Peck Todd began photographing the planet's march across the solar disk. Todd's 147 surviving photos, of which these are numbered 11, 88, and 151 (left to right), have been turned into a movie. You can download QuickTime versions in two sizes: 640 x 480 pixels (4.0 megabytes) or 320 x 240 pixels (1.2 megabytes). © 2003 University of California Observatories / Lick Observatory.


Movies:
640x480 (4.0MB)
320x240 (1.2MB)

640 x 480 pixels (4.0 megabytes)
320 x 240 pixels (1.2 megabytes)

640 x 480 pixels (4.0 megabytes)
320 x 240 pixels (1.2 megabytes)

Sky and Telescope has had an estimated brightness chart posted since the beginning of February. The article has already been updated to say one of the comets is falling behind the initial estimated brightness. Basically - expect a good show if you have a telescope or a good set of binoculars - don't expect a spector of doom hanging in the sky...

Solar activity is normal. No reports of supernovae on any astronomy related sites (and believe me, there would be because they're sooooooo cool). Pulsars, quasars and most other radiative phenomena are around all the time and therefore could not cause new interference.

The only unusual astronomical activity lately has been the sudden appearance (and disappearance) of a new nebula in Orion.

I'd pretty much rule out astronomical sources.

Solar activity is normal. No reports of supernovae on any astronomy related sites (and believe me, there would be because they're sooooooo cool). Pulsars, quasars and most other radiative phenomena are around all the time and therefore could not cause new interference.

The only unusual astronomical activity lately has been the sudden appearance (and disappearance) of a new nebula in Orion.

I'd pretty much rule out astronomical sources.

Here are a coulpe links to articles:

From today's NY Times:

NASA Chief Affirms Stand on Canceling Hubble Mission

Also,
O'Keefe has sent a second letter (dated Jan. 28) to Senator Mikulski.

Build the scope yourself, don't spend all that much money on the focuser (better yet make your own focuser) and spend the saved dough on additional eyepieces. You can get a "better" focuser later.

A 6-inch f/8 scope is a wonderful starter - much better then the junk you find in stores. Hundreds of deep sky objects, craters on the moon, moons of Jupiter and rings are Saturn are all easy to see.

Final advise. Locate and join your local astronomy club, go to a regional star party (can you find both here and get out under dark skies.. sorry, this requires getting out of the city.

If you run linux, Kstars is an excellent and free choice. If you don't, there's a web based sky chart available from Sky and Telescope magazine's website.

for more, see Discover on tweaking the theory of gravity, and Sky & Telescope on evidence against it.

It's a good idea to nip outside to see this one as it's unlikely we'll get much (if any) of a November leonids show this year.
Easy to find too, just look for the Pleiades if you can't find the proper radiant in Perseus. Mind you, if you live somewhere without a rainy season, just looking up should do fine.

While watching educational video's with the kiddo's has its place, how about you ditch the boob-toob and keep them up well past their bed-time?

Pick up a decent telescope and a few eyepieces, head out to the country (away from all the damn city lights) and, I don't know, look at Mars!

Here and here are sites with a little more info...

Couple of quick links.

Mars in 2003: Which Side Is Visible?
http://skyandtelescope.com/

Mars at Its All-Time Finest
http://skyandtelescope.com/

Couple of quick links.

Mars in 2003: Which Side Is Visible?
http://skyandtelescope.com/

Mars at Its All-Time Finest
http://skyandtelescope.com/

For those intending to use welder's glass for phototaking/viewing of such events, please get the proper grade of welder's glass, grade #14 and above is good enough.

Reference: -1-
-2-

Try the store at Sky and Telescope. They sell LED flashlights with red leds. They are really restfull on the eyes when reading in bed and will not keep your partner awake. They are also small enough to prop-up somewhere to illuminate your book.