Tag Archives: deep-sky observing

Posted on by July 20, 2021

CAROL BOTHA’S LYNGA 7 (in Norma)

Nightfall contributing writer Carol Botha has been opening new vistas for her ASSA colleagues. Foresaking the joys of South Africa’s ever present tremulousness thanks to Jet Stream, our subtropical humidity, the frigid winds and practically inescapable light pollution, Carol now sits in her comfy office surrounded by panoramic computer monitors, and a web link to the Slooh network of robotic telescopes located in Chile and the Canary Islands

In the process she captures spectacular star fields that hide objects very few observers have ever seen or photographed. One of them is this faint but distinct snap of the old Galactic thick-disc Globular Cluster Lynga 7

This Cluster’s location and colour spectrum suggests that it originated in a dwarf galaxy that the Milky Way shredded multiple billions of years ago. Spot it? (it lies at x_-5.y=0 on the grid) At 26,000 light years from the Sun, it is a faint fuzzy indeed

Written en published by Nightfall Editor, Douglas Bullis – https://assa.saao.ac.za/sections/deep-sky/nightfall/

The Caldwell Challenge

Posted on by September 6, 2021

One fine day I received a note from Ilze Swart, who was Chief Librarian of Bellville Central Library for as long as I can remember. Ilze is still heavily involved with charity bookshops and many other interesting ventures. She knew about my passion for astronomy and when sourcing books she was always on the look-out for anything to do with astronomy.

The note read: I have some books at reception that you might be interested in. As always I did not let the grass grow under my feet. It was like going on a treasure hunt. There at reception was a box with my name on it. As usual I took the whole box, left my donation in an envelope, rushed home to see what Ilze had found.

Sometimes there were books that I already had.Those were most appreciated too, as I could share them with my friends. Sometimes there were wonderful children’s books. In the end I think I could officially claim that I had the most astronomy books in the Western Cape.

Anybody into Astronomy would know how I felt when at the bottom of this heap I saw The Caldwell Objects by Stephen James O’Meara – a book in such perfect condition, as if I had just purchased it from an exclusive book store. Ilze had discovered a great treasure.

Some may have seen me carting my 12″Dobsonian on its barrow wheels. For years this telescope has taken me on night sky adventures while becoming aquainted with the night sky. I have observed the most amazing objects but as you become more experienced there is a limitation to what you can observe through a standard newtonion without tracking.

Observing all the objects in a catalogue is a challenge but the major sense of achievement on completion always makes the effort worthwhile. At the very least I would have to complete the Messier catalogue to earn the badge of serious amateur astronomer. Charles Messier never observed the far-southern skies and so many beautiful objects never made it onto the list of 110 best objects.

Sir Patrick Moore came up with a catalogue of 109 objects, some visually stunning, some quite obscure but astro-physically intriguing (as James O’Meara put it). So I was quite happy to observe the stunning and read and see images about the obscure in my book until hey, wait…I’m a Slooh member now. I can set up missions to any object. One of the quests on Slooh’s website is: The Caldwell Challenge!

After completing my Messier Challenge Quest and quite a few more (22!!), writing an article for ASSA’s NightFall, pruning the garden, washing windows and preparing enough frozen meals to last for a while, I can now procede with the Caldwell Challenge.

Durbanville Children’s Home is one of the oldest children’s homes in South Africa, dating back to 1883. As a registered institution of care, they are currently tasked with looking after 144 children who were placed here by court orders
Their motto: All children have wings, we teach them how to fly.
https://www.durbanvillekinderhuis.org.za/

Centaurus A

Posted on by November 2, 2022

Long long ago, before internet, computerised telescopes and dslr cameras sketching at the eyepiece was a bit tougher than today but for me, no reason to throw away all pencils and blending stumps. I still believe that if I want to get up really close and personal, I have to sketch the objects that I observe.

To stay in practice I sketch the first mission that catches my attention in the live feeds on Slooh, preferably not my own mission. Each mission is 5 minutes and I have to pay close attention. The process of reducing my rough sketch is much easier now with the added bonus of an image and imaging software. The coolest is the ‘invert’ tool in photoshop!

Some may argue that sketching while observing online is crooking. Then maybe doing astro photography using specialised cameras and software falls in that category too 😛

I say as long as you enjoy doing astronomy to the full, any which way is more than ok.

The Flying Star

Posted on by July 20, 2021

Night after night I get to observe the most beautiful objects. I was encouraged to take a walk through Cygnus and came across a beautiful double star.

The system was named ‘The Flying Star’ because of its high proper motionIn 1753 James Bradley noticed that 61 Cygni was a double star.

The Flying star was christened as such when Giuseppi Piazzi demonstrated the sideways motion of the system. The star attracted the attention of astronomers. They realised that the star had to be atronomically close to the Sun.

The distance to 61 Cygni was measured by F W Bessel in 1838. It was the first distance measurement to a star by observation. He came quite close to the actual value of 11.4 light years away.The star also goes by the name of ‘Bessel’s Star’

Although The Flying Star was outranked by Kapteyn’s Star, Barnard’s Star and other into seventh place on the list of stars with high proper motion, it remains number one when filtered to those with naked eye visibilty.