When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Exploring the cosmos
The forecast looks promising. Not for observing, we lost most of the night last night to fog and clouds, the rest of the week looks worse. It does look like we may get some snow this week. Checking the cameras there are already a few flakes coming down, just a degree or so too warm to stick.
Winter is here… Snow for Christmas?
Update! Sticking now…
Today Mercury will be at maximum eastern elongation, as high in the evening sky as it will appear for this current apparition. After today the planet will slide back into the sunset, passing through inferior conjunction on December 12th to reappear in the morning sky around the end of the year.
There are no transits of Mercury in 2017, the next will be Nov 11, 2019.
W. M. Keck Observatory press release…
An international team of astronomers led by Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) has made a bizarre discovery; a star that refuses to stop shining.
Supernovae, the explosions of stars, have been observed in the thousands and in all cases they marked the death of a star.
“The spectra we obtained at Keck Observatory showed that this supernova looked like nothing we had ever seen before. This, after discovering nearly 5,000 supernovae in the last two decades,” said Peter Nugent, Senior Scientist and Division Deputy for Science Engagement in the Computational Research Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who co-authored the study. “While the spectra bear a resemblance to normal hydrogen-rich core-collapse supernova explosions, they grew brighter and dimmer at least five times more slowly, stretching an event which normally lasts 100 days to over two years.”
Researchers used the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) on the Keck I telescope to obtain spectrum of the star’s host galaxy, and the Deep Imaging and Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) on Keck II to obtain high-resolution spectra of the unusual star itself.
Continue reading “Astronomers Discover A Star That Would Not Die”
With the Keck Observatory open house approaching I am helping get one of the most popular activities ready. At the last two open houses we have made flasher pins, we will do so again this year.
The PCB is configured as a pin or badge, with a brooch pin soldered to the back that also serves as a switch to turn on the LED’s.
The original design came from John Maute at SAO. The circuit is based around the venerable LM555 timer IC configured as an astable multivibrator. The LM555 timing circuit is simple enough to solder together in a few minutes, complex enough to look cool and provide a real introduction to an electronic circuit.
Today the planet Uranus will pass through opposition, directly opposite the Sun in our sky. The planet will be well placed for observation all night long, rising at sunset, transiting at midnight, and setting at sunrise. If you are looking to observe Uranus, it is currently shining at magnitude 5.7 in the center of the constellation Pisces.
