Author: Andrew

An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.

Keck Week is Coming

W. M. Keck Observatory press release…

This Spring, the W. M. Keck Observatory is throwing a weeklong party called Keck Week 2013, to celebrate the observatory’s first twenty years of high-impact, game-changing astronomical discoveries from the venerable twin-domes on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The festivities will take place in several Kohala Coast resort venues as well as in the town of Kamuela and will mark a distinctive confluence of the brightest minds in astronomy alongside our country’s most significant scientific philanthropists. Early registration lasts until December 20th, offering a 30 percent discount off all events.

Keck 1 Laser
The Keck 1 Laser undergoing engineering tests, Subaru telescope in background
“We are very excited and honored to host Keck Week 2013,” said Taft Armandroff, Director of the W. M. Keck Observatory. “We look forward to showcasing the unprecedented discoveries made by our powerful telescopes and our ambitious community of dedicated scientists. With this event, we want to celebrate Keck’s first twenty years of achievements and unveil a vibrant course for our future.”

Keck Week 2013 will open March 14th at The Fairmont Orchid, with the Keck Observatory 20th Anniversary Science Meeting – a rare, two-day binge of astronomy discourse and finely honed presentations describing Keck’s legacy discoveries. On March 16th, Keck Week will peak with a Star Struck Fundraising Gala, a grand evening at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai and feature a live auction of spectacular items, a gourmet dinner, live music and dancing, and remarks by special guests. Other events planned for Keck Week 2013 include:

  • “Astronomy Live! Tonight” – Enjoy a hosted reception under the stars with Keck’s most popular astronomers, star gazing, a live feed from the summit and much more;
  • “Welcome to Our Universe – Keck Observatory’s Open House” – Explore and discover the science and engineering of the Keck Observatory with exhibits and hands-on activities developed by the professional staff at Keck;
  • Keck Tennis Match – Watch Keck astronomers out-parallax their Friends of Keck competitors on the court;
  • Contact! – A free showing of the feature film on the big screen; and
  • Hawai’i Astronomy – Visit Hawai’i’s other astronomical centers.

Continue reading “Keck Week is Coming”

Looking Ahead to a Starry 2013

I am a bit behind in entry of all the significant astronomical events for 2013. Never fear! Everything important has been entered for January, so I am still ahead of the posting schedule! A few more evenings of blogging and I will have the whole year done.

Comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoy
Comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoy photographed by space station commander Dan Burbank
The year promises to be a great one for astronomy. While the highlight of 2012 was the Transit of Venus, for 2013 it will be comets! We have two comets of interest coming into the inner solar system. The first will show up in mid-spring, comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS will most likely be a naked eye object in the spring, with a predicted peak of 0 magnitude around March.

While C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS is a good comet, comet C/2012 S1 ISON is likely to be a great comet. This comet will pass incredibly close to the Sun and reasonably close to the Earth. If we get lucky, and luck is a significant factor with comets, this could be the comet of a lifetime. Predictions for this comet indicate a possible magnitude well into the negative numbers during November and December. These sort of numbers indicate the comet may be visible in the daytime, and spectacular after sunset. Unlike comet C2006 P1 McNaught in early 2007, this comet will favor viewers in the northern hemisphere!

e Moon, Venus and Aldebaran
The Moon, Venus and Aldebaran join up for an evening conjunction
There is a great conjunction of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter to take place just above the sunset in May and June. Take the three brightest planets and put them within a few degrees of each other, sometimes closer as the dance progresses. It should be a very photogenic event with the backdrop of sunset color.

No great eclipses this year. There are no total lunar eclipses to be seen anywhere, just a partial and two minor penumbrals. An annular solar eclipse visible in the South Pacific that will be visible as a modest partial solar eclipse here in Hawai’i. A hybrid solar eclipse will be visible across the Atlantic and central Africa.

Meteor showers are a mixed situation for the year, some good news, some bad. We will be able to observe the Persieds in a dark sky after the setting of a waxing crescent Moon. The Leonids will occur during full Moon, but are not predicted to be great this year. The Geminids also occur during a full Moon, damping this reliable shower.

2013 will be a great year for watching the sky. Stay tuned to Darker View for alerts on any significant event occurring overhead.

A Vast Rotating Disk of Dwarf Galaxies Surrounding the Andromeda Galaxy

W. M. Keck Observatory press release…

Astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaii and W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii have been amazed to find a group of dwarf galaxies moving in unison in the vicinity of the Andromeda Galaxy. The structure of these small galaxies lies in a plane, analogous to the planets of the Solar System. Unexpectedly, they orbit the much larger Andromeda galaxy en masse, presenting a serious challenge to our ideas for the formation and evolution of all galaxies.

The findings are being reported on the cover the upcoming issue of the journal, Nature.

While Persian astronomers were the first to catalogue the Andromeda galaxy, only in the last five years that we have studied in exquisite detail the most distant suburbs of the Andromeda galaxy via the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS), undertaken with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and measured with the Keck Observatory, providing our first panoramic view of our closest large companion in the cosmos.

The study culminates many years of effort by an international team of scientists who have discovered a large number of the satellite galaxies, developed new techniques to measure their distances, and have used the Keck Observatory with colleagues to measure their radial velocities, or Doppler shifts (the speed of the galaxy relative to the Sun). While earlier work had hinted at the existence of this structure, the new study has demonstrated its existence to a high level of statistical confidence (99.998%).

Continue reading “A Vast Rotating Disk of Dwarf Galaxies Surrounding the Andromeda Galaxy”

Postcard from Hawai’i – Dried Bananas

We are attempting to deal with our banana surplus issue.

A bunch of bananas is too much fruit for us to use in the few days before they spoil. A single bunch can yield 50 to 60 bananas. We snack on bananas, we make smoothies, we slice bananas onto our morning cereal, it is still too many bananas. Our standard answer to avoid waste is to give away much of the fruit. Apple bananas are quite popular and quickly accepted when given away to neighbors an co-workers.

Dehydrated Bananas
A batch of bananas in the dehydrator
Still, it is a long time between bunches, feast and famine, and I would like to have bananas around more often. We have tried freezing, but are not entirely happy with the results, and our freezer space is limited.

This time we are trying dried bananas using a recently purchased food dehydrator. A bit of an experiment, I have never done this before. I dimly remember my mother drying bananas when I was a kid, I do remember the results being pretty good.

Continue reading “Postcard from Hawai’i – Dried Bananas”

Perihelion

Today the Earth is closest to the Sun, a point called perihelion. We will be about 147,099,000km (91,403,000miles) from the Sun. Compare this to the 152,096,000km (94,508,000miles) we will be at aphelion on July 4th, a difference of about 4,996,000km (3,104,000miles) occurs throughout one orbit.

It may seem odd that we are actually at the closest for the middle of northern winter, you just have to remember that proximity to the Sun is not the cause of the seasons. The seasons are caused by the axial tilt of the Earth, creating short and long days throughout the year, with a resulting change in the angle and intensity of the sunlight.

2013 Solstices and Equinoxes
  UT HST
Perihelion Jan 2 00:59UT Jan 1 14:59HST
Spring Equinox Mar 20 11:02UT Mar 20 01:02HST
Summer Solstice Jun 21 05:04UT Jun 20 19:04HST
Apehelion Jul 5 18:59UT Jul 5 08:59HST
Fall Equinox Sep 22 20:44UT Sep 22 10:44HST
Winter Solstice Dec 21 17:11UT Dec 21 07:11HST
 
Source: NASA Sky Calendar

 

Darker View’s Top Posts of 2012

Looking through the site statistics is an interesting exercise. I get a chance to see what people are reading. The vast majority of readers do not write comments, the stats are the best tool for feedback I have. Perusing the stats is also an realization of one’s own vanity, a necessary motivation for all writers, not just bloggers.

Site traffic has taken a large hit with the transfer to the WordPress platform. I expected this, there would inevitably be loss of links and search engine traffic with the changeover. This has begun to recover, but very slowly. There have been 55 thousand views of the Darker View blog in 2012. Overall there were 66 thousand views of the entire site for the year, not just the WordPress material. This compares to 91 thousand visitors in 2011, about two-thirds of pre-changeover traffic. Total traffic to Darker View since inception in 2007 is now over 288 thousand visitors.

Continue reading “Darker View’s Top Posts of 2012”

2012 in Photos

For your viewing pleasure, here are some of the best photos from Darker View assembled into a gallery. New Year is a time for reviewing the year past. I have enjoyed the last year, with the photos to prove it. I hope that 2013 brings you the chance to collect your own gallery of photos and memories.