Practical Astronomy

Herstmonceux Astronomy Festival

ISSN 2042-2687

October 2009 Fly By Wire Orion Imaging Herstmonceux Astronomy Festival Observers Delights Sky View

Practical Astronomy
In this issue..
2 FIRST LIGHT AND CONTENTS Welcome to the rst issue

October 2009

First Light
Welcome to the rst issue of Practical Astronomy. My name is Kevin Brown and Im a keen amateur astronomer from Kent in the UK. My intention here is to publish a regular magazine to help you do more practical astronomy (just like the title says!) So its going to be all about amateur topics such as observing, imaging, astronomy events, clubs, societies and equipment. Each issue will contain a mix of review articles (to inform and hopefully entertain), plus maps and notes on forthcoming events in the Night Sky or on Earth. This rst issue is fairly short - I hope to add more pages to future issues. Please let me know what you would like to see here. Send me an email... my address is below.

HERSTMONCEUX ASTRONOMY FESTIVAL Clear, dark skies and history

FLY-BY-WIRE ORION IMAGING Remote imaging with a digital SLR

6 8

SKY VIEW - OCTOBER Maps of the Night Sky - looking East, South, North and West OBSERVERS DELIGHTS Special observing sights not-to-miss this month

Practical Astronomy October 2009 Editor: Kevin Brown editor@practicalastronomy.com Advertising: ads@practicalastronomy.com Website: www.PracticalAstronomy.com Publisher: Structure Ltd Telephone: +44 (0)1622 891151

Practical Astronomy magazine is published monthly online. ISSN 2042-2687 Views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. May include errors and omissions. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The publisher is not responsible for the content of advertisements. 2009 All contents copyright. No reproduction without express permission.

Practical Astronomy October 2009

Herstmonceux Astronomy Festival

Photography and text: Kevin Brown

The annual Astronomy Festival took place at Herstmonceux Observatory, over the weekend of 12-13 September. As usual, it was a large gathering of presenters, visitors, speakers, trade stands and astro societies, set amongst this historic astronomical site. If you have never been before, I recommend it. The event is large enough to be interesting, while still feeling compact and friendly for visitors. As well as informative talks, modern displays and trade stands selling the latest telescopes and gadgets, theres also so much history to see on the observatory site. Herstmonceux Observatory was established after the Second World War, when the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO) moved from Greenwich in London, to the relatively cleaner, clearer skies of Sussex. Built as a world-class astronomy facility, it was equipped with a collection of large telescopes, mostly housed in the domes you can visit today.

Herstmonceux Observatory Main Building And Domes A and B

Adjoining Camping Ground Had A Dark Clear Night

Plenty Of Telescopes To Inspect

Herstmonceux was also home to the newly-made, giant 98-inch, Isaac Newton telescope, although this was moved to La Palma in the Canary Islands, in 1984. Most of the other telescopes remain today, including historic instruments moved from Greenwich, such as the 26-inch Thompson refractor made in 1897. At least three of the telescopes have been fully restored and are regularly used on open viewing occasions, such as this Festival.

So as well as looking AT the old instruments, you can actually look through them too! Many visitors chose to make a weekend of the event by pitching tent and motorhome, on the adjoining camping area. Those that stayed over, were rewarded with a very dark, very clear night. People reported excellent observing and imaging experiences. Jupiter, with its moon Io transiting and casting a shadow on its surface, was a particular favourite.

Astronomical Society Stand

Practical Astronomy October 2009

Fly By Wire Orion Imaging

Photography and text: Kevin Brown

Having recently purchased a Canon 1000D digital SLR camera, I was keen to try out the Remote Live View facility. This is a wonderful facility of the camera and the supplied software. You load the software onto your PC, then you can connect camera and computer using a USB wire. This lets you display on the computer screen, the image the camera is actually seeing, in real-time. Of course, because its live, the exposure time is short and you cant immediately see faint astronomical objects. Nevertheless, you can see the brighter stars and this helps you line-up on the area of the sky you want to image. You can also control the camera settings Skywatcher 80ED refractor with Canon DSLR attached remotely, such as exposure time and sensitivity, using the computer. When you want to start capturing an image, you just click the computer mouse and it opens the shutter. This obviously opens-up all sort of possibilities for remote operation. I attached the camera to my refractor as usual, but also connected it with the USB wire to my laptop PC in the sitting room. The wire passed through a slightly open window (it was cold outside), to the garden where the telescope was set-up. I was using two extension USB wires, making the total length around 10 feet (3+ meters)... ample to stretch from the table in the sitting-room, to the telescope on its mount outside. So what images did I capture? Well this was a new experiment, so I went back to my old favorite constellation of Orion.

Laptop showing live view, connected Canon (see usb wire)

Practical Astronomy October 2009

Fly By Wire Orion Imaging (cont.)

At the time of year in the Northern hemisphere, Orion was excellently positioned for observing. To the right is a wide eld image of Alnitak, the left-most star of Orions belt, showing the Flame nebula at its side. I am very pleased with this image, given it was captured in a single frame. You can even see a suggestion of the Horsehead nebula, to the South of Alnitak. To the lower right of the image, is the multiple star Sigma Orionis. Through binoculars it looks like a double star, but with a decent telescope (or this wonderful DSLR camera) you can clearly see the star, moon and planets appearance. I also went to the great Orion nebula M42/43 and did a quick image All these images are single frames, captured in one exposure, without the use of lters. They have lightly processed using the free image manipulation software GIMP, so as to bring out details present within the capture. Hope you nd this inspiring... seeing what can be achieved using relatively modest equipment almost straight out-of-thebox, from the comfort of your home indoors!!

Alnitak, Flame Nebula And Sigma Orionis

Orion Nebula M42/43 Using Remote Camera Control

Practical Astronomy October 2009

Sky View

Mid-October (lat. 51N)

Looking East

Looking South

Practical Astronomy October 2009

Sky View

Mid-October (lat. 51N)

Looking West

Looking North

Practical Astronomy October 2009

Observers Delights
MOON Full 4th Oct (Harvest Moon) New 18th Oct

October/November 2009

Full 2nd Nov

ORIONIDS METEORS

Peak 20th Oct

16-26th Oct

Very Favourable

JUPITER Very bright in the South evening sky (Capricornus) Close to Neptune.

SATURN Possible before dawn. 0.3 deg north of MERCURY 8th Oct

VENUS Bright before dawn, but becoming lost in dawn twilight

MARS Rises around midnight. Brightening throughout the rest of 2009

DEEP SKY WINDOW

Starts ~ 10 Oct 2009

Ends ~ 23 Oct 2009 Make the most of it!

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Practical Astronomy October 2009