Today Mercury reaches maximum elongation, the furthest point it will reach from the Sun in the sky and the highest it will be above the sunset for this evening apparition. The planet is easily visible as a bright, starlike object about 18° above the setting Sun as twilight begins. Over the next couple weeks Mercury will slide back into the sunset, heading for inferior conjunction on March 4th.
Category: Astronomy
Exploring the cosmos
Meteor Airbursts over Chelyabinsk
A good sized meteor has airburst over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. There are reports of injuries and damage, but how much is unclear right now. Give it a day and we will probably have a good idea of the scale of this event, and probably fragments of the meteor itself.
A lot of vehicles in Russia carry dashcams, and videos of the event are rapidly showing up on YouTube. It is quite spectacular, the bright fireball saturating the closer cameras.
I have seen meteoric airbursts, but nothing on this scale. It is impressive, and a bit scary to be reminded that this can happen. This even almost certainly has nothing to do with the close approach of asteroid 2012 DA14 tomorrow, but I am sure some people will make a connection. The conspiracy theorists will probably go further, perhaps much further, it should make amusing reading.
Update: A link to a collection of videos and photos of the damage here. Midway down is a vid from a warehouse security camera of a loading bay door blown inwards by the blast wave.
Employment Opportunity at Keck – Electronics Engineer
W. M. Keck Observatory position announcement…
Responsibilities
- Provide electronic engineering expertise to support upgrades and new development projects
- Participate in system level specifications, develop hardware specifications, interface control documents, and lifecycle design documents
- Write, analyze and document test plans, conduct design tests and evaluate results
- Generate and maintain production documentation, including schematics, wire diagrams, assembly drawings, data sheets, manuals, and project notebooks
- Support project managers by providing and maintaining accurate cost and labor estimates and Bills of Material. Help to maintain project plans through good communication
- Coordinate the electronic interfacing of new instrumentation;
- Direct the efforts of associate engineers and technicians, coordinate and schedule engineering activities
- Assist in the investigation of chronic performance and reliability problems in existing systems and develop and implement solutions to resolve these problems.
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering or equivalent
- Three or more years of applicable work experience, preferably in a team environment
- Working knowledge of AC and DC electronics theory
- Experience in analog and digital electronics, computer interface electronics, and real-time control systems
- Understanding of grounding, shielding, and electrical safety
- Experience with schematic capture, PCB design and layout
- Experience in the design, debug, simulation and validation of electronic circuits and products
- Skilled user of test and analysis equipment including oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, bus analyzers, cable and fiber optic test equipment, power measuring equipment, and signal generators
- Experience planning and implementing PLC based solutions including I/O selection, communication and programming (Rockwell/AB ControlLogix and RSLogix); experience with National Instruments RIO and LabVIEW FPGA; use of PADS, E3 Wireworks (Zuken), SolidWorks; and experience with programmable multiple axes motion controllers such as DeltaTau PMAC or Galil would be a plus
The W. M. Keck Observatory operates the largest, most scientifically productive telescopes on Earth. The two, 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawaii feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectroscopy and a world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics system. The Observatory is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and a scientific partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA.
To learn more about this position and to apply, go to: www.keckobservatory.iapplicants.com
Equal Opportunity Employer
Setting Up
New Moon Saturday
A line of big telescopes greeted the crowd. Mike had his 20″, Cliff his 24″, my 18″ Deep Violet, later in the evening Olivier set up his 18″ Priscilla. All of this large glass was open to the public, we each had long line of folks waiting a turn at the eyepiece. It was a huge Saturday night crowd, several hundred people awaited darkness. Yes, I had made the decision to observe from the VIS, knowing that there would be a crowd, but wow!
Showpiece objects, the Andromeda Galaxy, The Pleiades and Jupiter were available for viewing. I was stuck on the Orion Nebula all evening long. I changed targets once, to meet a chorus of request to move back to the nebula. I have to admit it was a pretty view, even to me, who has seen this sight more times than I remember. I put the 35mm eyepiece in place, creating a bright low power view that had visitors waiting through line a few times for second and third looks.
In addition to the big dobs there were quite a few smaller ‘scopes present. Maureen had her C-11 setup, Larry brought his nice Stellarvue 102mm refractor, Mike had an 8″ SCT beside his 20″ for use by a friend. Dan didn’t bring a ‘scope, but he did bring pizza! We met Woody, an Alaskan Airlines pilot flying the Anchorage to Kona run. Out of a couple carry-on sized bags he produced more telescope than we would have thought fit in airline luggage…. A neat collapsible pier arrangement with an alt-az mount and a very nice WO 110mm APO.
New Moon
Postcard from the Summit – Supplies
The summit of Mauna Kea is a long way from anywhere on this island. If something breaks we really need to have the parts on-hand to fix it. The result is that just about any unclaimed space in the building is used to store spare parts. We have stuff stashed everywhere!
This goes for the electronics lab too. A little bit of everything we might need is available. Now you just need to spend a few months learning where to find everything…
Mercury and Mars
Tonight and tomorrow the pair of planets, Mercury and Mars will be about 30′ apart, close enough to easily fit in the low power view of most small telescopes. The pair will be 13° above the sunset, setting about an hour after the Sun slides below the horizon.
After the 8th the pair will separate, with Mercury heading for maximum elongation on February 16th.
Mercury and Mars
For the next few evenings Mercury and Mars will pair in the sunset for a dance. Tonight the two are 3°13′ apart, with Mercury rising rapidly. Tomorrow the two will be only 2°17′ apart. On the 7th and 8th there will be about 30′ between the two. After the 8th the two will gradually draw apart. On the 10th the separation will be just over 2° with the addition of a 1.8% illuminated Moon just 7° lower and north of the pair.
The pair should be easy to spot. Mercury will be shining brightly at -1 magnitude with Mars at about 1.2 magnitude. A pair of binoculars might help spot the dimmer Mars.
Neptune is also in this dance, but at 8th magnitude it could be very difficult or impossible to spot, even with optical aid. On the 5th, with Mercury and Mars only 2° apart, Neptune will be right between the two.
Mars and Neptune
Tonight and tomorrow night Mars and Neptune will be under a degree apart. But, as the pair is quite low in the sky, this may not be observable. The planets will be 40′ apart tonight, a little closer tomorrow at only 27′ separation. The pair will be 14° above the horizon at sunset. Mars, shining a 1.2 magnitude should be relatively easy to spot. The 8th magnitude Neptune may be too dim to see, even with a telescope, against the bright glow of sunset.
On the evening of February 5th, Mercury will join in to create a trio, just 2° below Mars with Neptune between the two.