Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i BBC Sky at Night

Visit www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonus-content/GHSYREX/ to access this month’s selection of exclusive Bonus Content JUNE HIGHLIGHTS Interview: Searching for dark energy The Universe’s expansion is accelerating. Dr Eva-Maria Mueller reveals how we might understand why. Audiobook preview: Never Panic Early Download and listen to the first chapter of a new autobiography written by the Apollo 13 Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise. Plan your observing for the month ahead Access charts to record your observations of the planets and take this month’s binocular and deep-sky tours. The Virtual Planetarium Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel guide us through the best sights to see in the night sky this month.…

Back in July 2021, my wife and two kids dropped me off at work so I could pick up the LunaH-Map orbiter, pack it up into a case, board a plane and deliver it to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to be loaded onto the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. My special delivery, the LunaH-Map (Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper), is actually about the size of a large breakfast cereal box. It is a lunar orbiter that will be launched on the same rocket as the Artemis mission and will make maps of the water-ice across the Moon’s south pole. The LunaH-Map is unique. It has a body made primarily of a light aluminium alloy, with lots of holes to reduce its mass. While its eyes are made of neutron sensitive crystals…

Live Space flight photography Rook Lane Chapel, Frome, Somerset, 25 June, 7:30pm Photographer John Angerson, who had unprecedented access to NASA’s 1996 Space Shuttle STS-72 mission, talks about his work photographing the intense training and documenting the close friendships of the six astronauts. Tickets are £10. photofrome.org/talks Live & Online Life in the Universe Museum of London, 1 June, 6pm Gresham Professor of Astronomy Katherine Blundell’s lecture explores what ingredients are needed to sustain life on planets beyond Earth. Book to see live or watch online: sciencelive.net/event/1314 Live STEMTots Cambridge Science Centre, 10 June, 9:15am A special session for accompanied preschoolers to learn about the Solar System, including making a mobile, designing a planet and building a rocket. Costs £3.28 per adult with a child. bit.ly/3vxG9wN Online High Energy Astrophysics…

Hortensius Type: Crater Size: 15km Longitude/Latitude: 28˚ W, 6.5˚ N Age: Less than 1.1 billion years Best time to see: Two days after first quarter (9 June) or one day after last quarter (22-24 June) Minimum equipment: 100mm refractor Hortensius is a small round crater in Mare Insularum, the Sea of Islands. It sits to the south of the mid-point between two dramatic ray craters; 31km Kepler (not shown) and 93km Copernicus. Another way to locate it, which will be more phase-friendly, is to first identify the circular form of 34km T.Mayer, a crater at the western end of the Montes Carpatus range which borders the southern shores of Mare Imbrium. Hortensius lies 280km to the south of T.Mayer, just south of the midpoint between T. Mayer and 40km Lansberg.…

1. The Coathanger Let’s begin with a summer star party piece. Put mag. +4.4 Alpha (a) Vulpeculae at the north of the field of view, and the Coathanger (or Collinder 399), will be near the southern edge. It lies in a darker part of the Milky Way, so even small binoculars will reveal the 10 brightest stars that give this asterism its name. It was first recorded by Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi in his AD 964 Book of Fixed Stars. □ SEEN IT 2. The Dumbbell Nebula Next is the easiest planetary nebula for binoculars. Identify Gamma (γ) Sagittae and pan over 3° in the direction of 15 Vulpeculae where, even in suburban skies, you will find a small glowing cloud. This distant object, the Dumbbell Nebula, is 1,360…

Pete Lawrence is an expert astro imager and a presenter on The Sky at Night Computers and astronomy have always been well matched partners. While the huge amount of data available in astronomy today and repetitive calculations would be taxing for humans to manipulate manually, they present no such difficulty for modern computers. That’s why there is a great selection of astronomy software, covering everything from trivial tasks like calculating the positions of Jupiter’s four main moons, up to taxing simulations of the whole Universe. Amateur astronomers have a rich library of applications to choose from - some are commercial, costing anything from a few to several hundred pounds, but many options are free. In this article we will look at a few of these ‘freeware’ applications, many of which…

Astronomers are pretty confident of the Sun’s fate because the Universe is littered with similar cosmic tombstones. The Cat’s Eye Nebula, in Draco, is perhaps the most famous example of these so-called ‘planetary nebulae’. They are about a lightyear across (a quarter of the distance from the Sun to the next nearest star). It’s worth saying that the name planetary nebulae is a terrible one. When early astronomers, armed with primitive telescopes, first stumbled upon them they thought they looked like planets. Today we know better, but the unhelpful name has stuck around. Planetary nebulae themselves, however, do not stick around for long. They are initially bright because they are lit up by intense ultraviolet light from the dying star. Yet this is only enough to sustain a planetary nebula…

Practical astronomy projects for every level of expertise Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars other than the Sun. It’s incredible to think that before 1992 it was still uncertain whether exoplanets existed. Today, the number of known exoplanets is just over 5,000 and this total is increasing each day. Here, I will show you that even amateurs can detect these faraway worlds from their back gardens. There are several indirect ways by which exoplanets are found, as only a handful have been directly observed by very large telescopes. By far the most productive method is known as the ‘transit’ method, which works as follows. If there is a planet orbiting a star in such a way that the planet passes in front of the star as seen from Earth, the…

The Dark Shark Nebula, LDN1235 Catalin Cosar, Henlow, Bedfordshire, 22-28 February 2022 Catalin says: “Along with the dark Shark Nebula, LDN 1235, two reflection nebulae are visible here, vdB 149 and vdB 150, as well as the distant spiral galaxy PGC 67671, behind the shark’s ‘fin’. Gathering the data was easy – the moonless nights helped – but processing it was a different story. It took a few weeks until I was satisfied with the final image.” Equipment: QHY 268C and QHY 268M cameras, Takahashi FSQ-85EDX refractor, Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro mount Exposure: RGB 165x 180”, L 198x 180” Software: StarNet++, Pixlnsight Catalin’s top tips: “For faint, dusty objects like this, there’s no substitute for dark skies, fast optics and lots of integration time (l had over 18 hours). To bring…

Melissa Brobby interviews Joanna Piotrowska How are supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies preventing the birth of new stars? When gas falls onto a supermassive black hole, it settles into an accretion disc due to the angular momentum present in the system. Matter in these accretion discs becomes hot, reaching temperatures of above one million degrees Centigrade. This hot gas emits high-energy radiation, which can launch ‘winds’ from the accretion disc that move at high speeds away from the black hole. These winds can potentially push gas out of galaxies - causing galactic ‘outflows’. In this way black holes with accretion discs, known together as Active Galactic Nuclei, can potentially remove the fuel needed for future star formation. What other effects can Active Galactic Nuclei have on a…

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 19 APRIL 2022 Thirty-two years since its launch atop Space Shuttle Discovery on 24 April 1990, countless extraordinary insights and well over a million mind-blowing images later, the Hubble Space Telescope is still delivering the goods. This photo shows the Hickson Compact Group 40, with five prominent galaxies – three spirals, an elliptical and a lenticular – in the constellation of Hydra, squashed together in an area less than twice the width of our galaxy (hence the name ‘compact’). Released to mark Hubble’s 32nd birthday, it’s a perfect example of the kind of beauty the venerable telescope still routinely reveals from its unobstructed vantage point 547km above Earth. It may be ailing now, spending several weeks offline recently and physically unrepairable since the end of the Space…

Infant gas giant Astronomers have discovered evidence of a gas giant planet in its earliest stages of formation. Intriguingly, it appears to be forming ‘top-down’ – where the disc of dust surrounding a planet breaks apart – rather than by the dominant ‘bottom-up’ theory of planet creation, when material gathers slowly over time. Amateur astronomers’ awarded accolades Two amateur astronomy projects have received an award from the Astronomical Society of Australia for their scientific merit: The Backyard Observatory Supernova Search, which has found 200 confirmed supernovae; and Trevor Barry, who tracked an electrical storm on Saturn for seven months. SKA will have a British brain The government has awarded £15m to several UK institutions to build the software that will control the Square Kilometre Array. The recipients include the Universities…

6 June 1981 On the 6 June 1981 episode of The Sky at Night, Patrick Moore was joined by planetary scientist Garry Hunt to discuss an event that wasn’t to happen for another eight years - Voyager 2’s encounter with Neptune. At the time, Voyager 1 had already flown past Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 was due to encounter Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. Back then, Neptune was an unknown: just a distant dot in the sky barely visible to the naked eye, which had never had close-up analysis. It was so faint that it wasn’t discovered until 1781, when astronomer William Herschel mistook it for a comet, only realising he had found a new member of the Solar System two years later. It wasn’t until 25…

Jodrell Bank’s £21.1m First Light Pavilion opens this month, a brand-new interactive exhibition space telling the human stories behind the birthplace of British radio astronomy. The striking grass-covered building also features a state-of-the-art immersive Space Dome planetarium, guided tours of the groundbreaking UNESCO World Heritage Site and a large new café alongside the existing displays, famous clockwork orrery and, of course, the 76m-wide Lovell Telescope. Watch out for details of a summer of public events planned for the new pavilion. Adults £12, children £8. www.jodrellbank.net/visit…

Dr Ezzy Pearson is BBC Sky at Night Magazine’s news editor Back in the days of Galileo and Newton, an astronomer was a lone figure at a telescope eyepiece they had created themselves. They would go through the stars and planets one by one, taking handwritten notes and creating sketches, to build up a wealth of information over nights, years and decades. As time moved on, bigger telescopes were built in prime locations on remote mountaintops and deserts. Astronomers would travel to use them, bringing specialist instruments and newly invented photographic equipment. This enabled them to capture the light of dozens of distant objects that were too faint to be seen with the naked eye. They could then carry these photographic plates home to analyse the objects. With so much…

PICK OF THE MONTH Venus Best time to see: 30 June, 30 minutes before sunrise Altitude: 10˚ Location: Taurus Direction: East-northeast Features: Phase, subtle markings on the planet’s disc Recommended equipment: 75mm, or larger Whether you’ve been out all night looking for noctilucent clouds (NLCs), or perhaps have got up early to catch the June solstice sunrise on the morning of 21 June, don’t forget to keep a lookout for the bright planet Venus. As you might guess from that last statement, Venus is currently a morning object. Located within Taurus, the Bull, the planet rises 80 minutes before the Sun at the start of June, increasing to 100 minutes by the month’s end. It remains a fraction below mag. -4.0 during June and, despite a low morning altitude, this…

Comet C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS is predicted to continue brightening through June and remains well placed for UK observation. If it follows predictions, it will begin the month with an integrated magnitude of +8.8, making it binocular-friendly. By the month’s end, it should have brightened to mag. +8.1. The June solstice occurs on 21 June, representing the period when the night skies are brightest for the year. For those in the UK’s far north the eternal twilight is obvious, while those in the south fare better in the middle of the night. This means that although the comet will be brightening over June, so will the sky, only starting to darken subtly by the time the end of the month arrives. The good news here is that the comet’s brightening will…

June’s challenge is to locate the planet Venus. You may think this is easy, after all Venus is the brightest of the planets and at present is located approximately 30° to the west of the Sun in the morning sky. Not much of a challenge then... However, we want you to locate it in the day, which is not quite as straightforward. Before we continue, it’s important to mention that although the Sun is 30° to the east of the planet, it’s still a potential danger. A good way to protect yourself from its harmful rays is to stand in the shadow of a fence or building so you can’t see the Sun, but just the area of sky to the right of it. So how do you go about…

All good things must come to an end, even stars. Eventually, all stars - including the Sun - will die and the Universe will fade to black forever. For now, our star is able to persist by constantly churning hydrogen into helium. This process, called nuclear fusion, creates enough outwards pressure to resist the relentless force of gravity trying to collapse the Sun into oblivion. Currently, the Sun is getting through 600 million tonnes of hydrogen every single second and there will come a time when there is no hydrogen left to burn. Despite its voracious appetite for this abundant element, astronomers estimate that the Sun has about 5 billion years’ worth of fuel left. Once the hydrogen is exhausted, gravity will win and the Sun’s core will begin to…

The fundamentals of astronomy for beginners We all need some help when we’re new to the skies. Fortunately, we have an incredibly handy tool to guide us on our way: the Moon. As it orbits and its phase changes, we can use it to hop off to the amazing objects it passes on its way. So use this article as inspiration this month, as you head outside and let the Moon guide you through the night. Most of what we will talk about here are objects we can see with the unaided eye, but we’ll visit some deep-sky objects too. Before you start, however, remember to give your eyes time to adjust to the dark and preserve your night vision with a red filter on a torch, or by using…

Take the perfect astrophoto with our step-by-step guide Over recent years, the low-light imaging capabilities of smartphones have improved greatly. It’s also encouraging to see manufacturers actively promoting phones based on their performance under low-light conditions. Not all smartphones are created equal of course, and older models may still struggle to grab anything out of the darkness. This is also true of current models, not all of which put a priority on low-light capability. For those brands which offer good night-time sensitivity, the cameras found on their phones are quite capable of imaging atmospheric phenomena such as the aurora or our ‘Capture’ subject for this month, noctilucent clouds (NLCs). If present, NLCs can vary in brightness from just about visible to making you wonder how anyone can ever miss them.…

Drones used to hunt for meteorites Using drones could improve our odds of finding ‘fresh’ meteorites Studying the composition of meteorites provides vital clues about what was happening in the early Solar System and how the planets in it formed. By far the greatest insights are provided by meteorites, particularly the fallen space rocks that can be collected immediately, before they have a chance to become weathered and contaminated by lying on Earth’s surface. Over recent years, automated networks of sky-watching cameras have enormously increased the rate at which meteors can be detected while they’re still fireballs falling through Earth’s atmosphere. In some cases, the fireball’s trajectory can be extrapolated forwards to predict roughly where the meteorite fragments will land, as well as backwards to determine the orbit of the…

The Astronomer Royal at 80 Professor Martin Rees has held the position of the UK’s Astronomer Royal since 1995. Today, he is known as a worldwide authority on the subjects of cosmology, the future of spaceflight and the prospect of finding life beyond Earth. To celebrate his 80th birthday, in this episode he looks back over the biggest discoveries and achievements over 50 years of astronomy. BBC Four, 13 June, 10pm (first repeat BBC Four, 16 June, time tbc) Check www.bbc.co.uk/skyatnight for more up-to-date information…

The amateur astronomer’s forum Back in March 1991, I had the good fortune to travel with The Sky at Night team to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to see its rocket assembly and view a launch of a supply ship to the Mir Space Station. Sky at Night producer Pieter Morpurgo had the idea of visiting Baikonur and got approval from the Soviet space authorities for the trip. To spread the cost, the trip was organised in collaboration with Explorers Tours - a specialist in astronomy trips - and a dozen space enthusiasts were offered the chance to go on this unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was among the lucky 12 to be selected for the trip, which also included Dr John Mason, a regular guest on The Sky at Night, as…

On 9 February 2021, the Hope Emirates Mars mission - the first interplanetary mission from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - arrived at the Red Planet. “The objective of the mission is to study the atmosphere’s variability for a full Martian year - two Earth years, ” says Hessa Al Matroushi, science lead on Hope. “The maps we have from other missions to Mars have gaps in them. There would be measurements of the planet, say, two times a day and you’d have to predict what’s happening in between - that’s not accurate. Hope looks at the whole planet, surveying different layers of the atmosphere at different times of day, so we get full coverage. This is something that hasn’t been done before with such accuracy.” Hope began science observations…

Hercules, the Hero is a faint and sprawling constellation. It lacks any bright stars, but is saved by a faint asterism known as the Keystone. It’s remarkable how identifiable this shape is, considering its brightest star is mag. +2.8 Zeta (ζ) Herculis. Heading south and a bit west from Zeta Herculis brings you to Kornephoros (Beta (β) Herculis), which shares its mag. +2.8 brightness with Rasalgethi (Alpha (α) Herculis), 13˚ to Kornephoros’s east-southeast. Kornephoros means ‘club bearer’, and it was previously named Rutilicus, a corruption of the Greek word for ‘armpit’. It’s a spectroscopic binary system with a period of 410 days. The primary is 2.9 times more massive than our own Sun and has a diameter 17 times larger. Its spectral type is G7 IIIa, a yellow giant star…

1 IC 4665 Ophiuchus is a large ill-defined patch of the early summer sky. Its main form appears as a box with a ‘roof’, the apex marked by Rasalgethi (Alpha (a) Ophiuchui) representing Ophiuchus’s head. The eastern vertex of the roof connects with the box at (Cebalrai (Beta (β) Ophiuchi) and you’ll find our first tour target, the large open cluster IC 4665, 1.3° to the north of this star. IC 4665 is a young and close cluster, estimated to be 40 million years old and only 1,400 lightyears away. Best viewed with a low-power eyepiece, it appears 45 arcminutes across. □ SEEN IT 2NGC 6426 Our next target lies 1.6° to the south of mag. +2.8 Cebalrai. Here you’ll find the mag. +11.1 globular cluster NGC 6426. It’s more…

1. Burning hydrogen A Sun-like star is powered by nuclear fusion, which turns hydrogen into helium with the release of energy. This can go on for around 10 billion years. During this time it is said to be a ‘main sequence’ star. 2. Shell burning A star is said to move off the main sequence when it transitions from burning hydrogen to fusing helium. This often happens in layers surrounding the dead core and so astronomers refer to it as ‘shell burning’. 3. Red giant The star gets through its helium one hundred times faster than it did its hydrogen. This creates huge amounts of outwards pressure and it surges out into its planetary system. Its surface would reach out to about where Earth is now. 4. Planetary Nebula Helium…

Expert processing tips to enhance your astrophotos The juxtaposition of objects in an astrophoto can make an enticing composition. I used this idea as the basis for my image of the dark molecular cloud NGC 6729 in Corona Australis and globular cluster NGC 6723, just 15 arcminutes distant in Sagittarius, which was shortlisted in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2021 competition. Here, I’ll explain the steps that helped me create this image. If you are planning an image like this, the free sky atlas Aladin (bit.ly/3x5ekhN) allows you to simulate your main and guide camera’s field of view and apply these to provide the desired layout and optimal guide star placement. This is the first step in understanding how your image will look, plus it provides you with the…

Our experts review the latest kit The Photron RC6 is the smallest telescope in iOptron’s Photron RC range, and this review looks at how it performs when used with eyepieces and a camera. When the Photron RC6 arrived, we immediately inspected the alignment of the mirrors. These are initially collimated at the factory, and then Rother Valley Optics (the supplier of the review model) re-checks each telescope on an optical test bench. Our initial check was conducted during the day with a Cheshire eyepiece, and then we re-tested the alignment using a suitable star once darkness had fallen. The tests confirmed the review model was in good condition and the collimation was near perfect. Any adjustments to the alignment of the primary and secondary mirrors can be made with an…