Astronomy Club 2013 Navigating The Night Sky

Website Review:

Telescopes for your use locally: Teleview 72mm GoTo Scope w/ Manual Alignment Newtonian 8” All Manual Control (Kept at ANA) Meade 10” GoTo w/ Auto-Alignment (Being delivered) Lunt 60mm Solar Scope on LX75 Mount w/ motor drive

Images tend to reverse and flip based on the type of scope you are using and whether you are using a diagonal.

E.g. The Andromeda galaxy seen by a small telescope……… The larger a scope is DOES NOT mean that objects will appear bigger. It ONLY means there is greater light gathering capability and thus images look brighter, more detailed, and you will be able to see fainter objects. E.g. The Andromeda galaxy seen by a small telescope……… ……vs the Andromeda galaxy seen by a telescope with a larger aperture.

Star’s brightness are measured in the Magnitude Scale: The scale is counter-intuitive: Faint objects are on the positive end of the scale Bright objects are on the negative end of the scale 58 Magnitudes separate the brightest object from the faintest. This is equivalent to a brightness ration of 200 billion trillion times.

How the sky moves: Rotates around the North Celestial Pole (NCP) Polaris is the North Star, but is 1 degree from the NCP NCP rotates around the sky every 26,000yrs 1 revolution in 24hrs (ish) Stars appear to rise 4 mins earlier each night Celestial Coordinates similar to Lat/Long Lines of Latitude and Longitude balloon out from the earth and onto the night sky: Latitude = Declination (+ above the equator. – below the equator) Longitude = Radial Ascension (360 degrees divided by a 24 hour scale) Your latitude equals your declination in the sky. Examples: Earth’s equator 0 latitude is 0 declination 33 Latitude at San Diego is +33 declination

Understanding The Sky Around Us: Celestial Coordinates Zenith: Point in the sky directly above your head Meridian: Imaginary circle perpendicular to local horizon up through the Zenith and back through the south pole Ecliptic: Path that the sun and planets trace along the celestial sphere

Here’s a Handy Tool to use… How do we measure things in the sky? Through a telescope, you see a field of view (FOV) of 1 degree or less Less than 1 degree are arcminutes, or “minutes of arc”. 60 arcminutes in one degree 1 arcminute is 1/60 degree The symbol for arcminutes is ‘ The full Moon is about 30′ (thirty arcminutes) across. Coincidentally, so is the Sun. Therefore we have an eclipse. An arcminute is divided into 60 arcseconds, or “seconds of arc” 1 arcsecond is 1/60 arcminute or 1/3600 degree The symbol for arcseconds is “ The face of Jupiter is about 50″ across A good optical telescope in steady skies can resolve down to about 1″ (one arcsecond). Here’s a Handy Tool to use…

The Autumn Sky

The Winter Sky

The Spring Sky

The Summer Sky

The Moon…In a Nutshell Maria: dark lava seas on the Moon’s surface.  The newest parts of the Moon.  How do we know? Craters: Created by asteroid/meteor impacts. Some show high ridges and others show debris fields. Mountain ranges: Mons that tower thousands of feet above the lunar surface Cracks and fault lines: Much like earth. Geology is not just a field of study for Earth.

The Phases of Venus:

On the website: Excellent Starting guide

Let’s Go Oberving!!!!!!!!