Not a pleasant day

 This is not anything about astronomy.

Today is the day on which my wife died one and a half years ago; a sad day.

I raised our two happy marriage wine glasses, which we used for that occasion for many years during our 57 years of a happy marriage. I had a small drink for both of us, as I do on the 23rd day of every month.

Our son died of cancer 13 years ago, an ongoing sad memory, but is softened by his two adult, in their in-the-twenties daughters, our granddaughters, a continuation of his existence.

I also received news that a another family member has a serious medical problem. I hear by phone that the medical problem has improved to some degree. Improvememts continue September 4.

 Planet secrets

Nowadays there is a constant effort to find planets orbiting around stars other than our sun. This effort is tied to try and find indications and traces of life, such as we know it. 

We are conducting the same activity on many of our solar planets, some of which we have, and are being explored by probes and satellites sent by us from Earth. So far, we cannot say that we have found any life as we know it, or traces of it. To pursue such efforts, in my opinion, is typical human. We have a tribal  bent.

Another approach we, as humans do, is to theorize, and to make the first efforts to settle on one of our solar planets, or one of its moons. I've written about this about a year ago. There seem to exist surprising and unexpected conditions on the solar planets and/or their moons.

To settle on another planet or moon requires knowing the conditions where you could suitably land and could stay.  There are a number of unexpected and surprising conditions and even movements. Enceladus, Mars, Pluto, Jupiter's Galileyan moons, are all exhibiting some unexpected responses to probes of various kind.

Right now I am reading (slowly) an interesting book about just the topics referred to above. The author is Paul Murdin, published by Pegasus Books, New York, London. The title is THE SECRET LIVES OF PLANETS, the subtitle is Order, Chaos, and Uniqueness in the Solar System. It was a ChristmasPresent to me. The price label was left on the wrapper, the price is very reasonable.

The planets farther away from the Sun may present environments which may unexpectedly be totally strange to us. If we settle long enough on one of  our sun's planet's moons, we may be making a decision to permanently be removed from Earth, and to be forever incapable of physically ever returning "home". 

For myself, I'd prefer to forego any opportunity to travel to anywhere in space. I like it here on earth, with my family and friends. My explorations of space are based on the use of telescopes. 

As an aside, if you begin astronomical efforts, use binoculars for looking at the sky. Binoculars can be generally found in a home. Read my article "Visual Aid" which I published on March 29, 2019 here. You'll probably agree that binoculars are quite versatile, i.e. birdwatching, distance viewing, navigational help when on a ship or boat, and definitly the sky on a clear night.

Lining up my telescope

 

This story refers to my 3" refractor telescope  (you've seen it in previous blogs). I use it as my public astronomy telescope. It came into my hands (I bought it) in 1964, used, being available as a security by someone who had not repaid a loan. It came with a wooden, very stable tripod, which had nothing electric or automatic and it meant that any use of the telescope was done by hand. For public astronomy, that telescope and tripod are portable devices. I have no idea about how old the telescope is, but it has excellent optical performance. I have since bought a used EQ-3-like metal tripod which can be used with electrical and electronic components.

Whenever you are going to use a portable telescope to track stars and other objects in the sky, there is a first requirement if you want to track observing targets in the sky without having to do it yourself. For the purpose, the telescope's rotational axis needs to be exactly parallel to the Earth's rotational axis. This applies to equatorial telescope mounts used to adjust the pointing of the telescope's rotational axis to the north, or south point in the sky if you are somewhere in the Earth's southern hemisphere.

The North Pole in the Earth's northern hemisphere is found in the sky above the horizon  depending on the geographical latitude of your location. At the Earth's equator, the latitude is 0. Therefore the North Pole is 0 degrees above the horizon. Here, at the Trottier Observatory, we are close to 49.2 degrees latitude. So the North Pole is 49.2 degrees above level. At the North Pole, the latitude is 90 degrees, right above the top of your head, if you are standing there. the rotation axis would have to be set to 90 degrees. The stars move almost parallel to the horizon as would the Sun and Moon. The seasons determine position above or below the horizon.  This is an effect of the position of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. 

For visual observing using our pole star (name: Polaris) as the north pole in the sky is adequate, it is very close to the correct point. 

That also means that the angle of the rotational axis with respect to level at the Earth North Pole is equal to the latitude at which the telescope is being used. When correctly positioned, there will be little need to manually correct deviation from tracking. The rotational axis is driven by a small electric motor at the speed the Earth turns. The Earth turns 15 degrees eastward in one hour. In order to stay pointed at a star, or other astronomical object in the sky, the rotational axis moves fast enough to achieve to achieve the same speed westward. Remember the Sun, the Moon, the stars rise in the East and set in the West. This is the result of the  Earth's rotation eastward.

The housing at right angle at the top of the rotational axis housing contains the axis which allows the telescope to move "up and down". The axis inside itself is set at a permanent 90 degrees angle to the rotational axis, but free to turn on itself. The lock is activated by the black lock handle to the upper right of the label "declination axis". This axis is the "declination axis" and the telescope is firmly attached to this declination axis, which is fixed to the rotation axis. In this picture my 3" telescope is clamped to the locked declination axis, and the rotational axis is turning westward. The telescope has been set onto an object up or down, the declination axis is clamped, and cannot move up or down again until unlocked. So, to repeat, the rotational axis turns westward at 15 degrees per hour, the telescope is fixed to the clamped declination axis, pointed at the chosen object, the telescope moves westward driven by the motion of the rotation axis which is driven by the motor. That means that the telescope moves along the same arc and speed of the clear sky and the object to which the telescope is pointed.

So far, I have written about the telescope. What point in the sky do you point the tracking mechanism to in order to achieve correct tracking? The point is that one in the sky which is exactly above the Earth's rotational axis, our precise North Pole on Earth. If you stood on the Earth's North Pole, the North Pole in the sky would be exactly above your head, the highest point in the sky. The rotational axis in the tripod is usually a hollow tube which may contain a small finder telescope. There are mechanical adjustment controls to move the whole mounting mechanism sideways and up and down. If you adjust the rotational axis to point exactly to the North Point, using the finder scope in the rotational axis, your tracking will be accurate. 

Nowadays, technology has evolved so that an equatorial mount is not needed. Computer programming allows an alt-azimuth mounted telescope to be controlled to follow the arc of a star or other object in the sky, as well as compensate for the field rotation which results from rising in the East and setting in the West. Objects launched into space from Earth are unlikely to be followed in this fashion. 

I have to repeat the setup routines for my 3" every time  we do a public astronomical evening for SFU, or other schools and locations. Obviously, I can't leave the observing equipment and the telescope behind after the end of the evening. Fun every time...

Go to Venus

Venus (NASA year 2008)

 The climate change which has been predicted for decades has become part of our new reality. Moreover, the effects and resulting damages and difficulties engendered by that change are also evident. Being interested in Astronomy, and living in British Columbia, some of the environmental changes caused by the  climate change are at least annoying, if not definitely unhealthy. Some much more serious aspects of the climate change are hundreds of forest fires in our province alone (other areas have the same problems). People are forced to leave their houses, find them burned down, thereby incurring immense losses. More serious, some people, while fighting the fires are injured, and, sadly, some have died. 

Climate changes have occurred a number of times in the past, but, it appears, not at the current rate. Humans, at whatever evolutionary stage, seem to have developed methods, physiological, biological, and  thinking up solutions which allowed adaptations to changes of climate. Many humans may have lost their lives in these processes. 

Evolution, in my thinking, is a random process. Most genetic and DNA alterations are unsuccessful. The successful versions continue and become more numerous and dominant. I therefore believe that some of our current human individuals have a genetic internal makeup which will allow their adaption and increase their biological dominance under the new climatic conditions. 

As humans, we also have developed a very complex system of dealing with climate change: it is called space travel. Humans have walked on the Moon and have returned to Earth. Current efforts aim at permanent settlement on the Moon, and even Mars. That means getting away from current dangers on Earth and facing new, more likely much more powerful dangers in space. 

Humanity is very adaptive. These current efforts will likely result in success sometime in the future. We'll possibly  spread to wider space presence within suitable environments created by us. There is going to be no "hell". So, if someone annoys you in that future, recommend that person go to Venus.

Navel-gazing

Astronomers, ancient, recent, and current have looked and are looking for "life, as we know it", elsewhere in the universe. A lot of resources are applied to this purpose (see image). Whenever I hear or read this statement something in my mind asks: what about life as we do NOT know it (yet)? 

NASA

The James Webb Telescope (Sun.Org)

(Costs of building and launch have been quoted as 10 billion dollars. It is used for other explorations as well.)

What follows is my thinking (I am no expert) about the subject. The starting event was what we call the Big Bang. Scientists have established that all the atomic particles, atoms themselves, molecules, down to the smallest sub particles came into existence in a sequence of events depending on pressure, temperature, time and available space and other temporary conditions. Whatever combination of particle combinations occurred in that time frame, the final results are entities we call stars, planets, galaxies, and whatever else we find in space (including us), all made from some part of the same source of atomic materials. 

There are occasions which I think of as a small repetition of the Big Bang. They happen inside very large and giant stars. These stars are at the end of their present existence; they no longer produce the counter pressure that made it possible to counteract the gravitational forces which try to concentrate the star's material at the centre of the star. Without that counter pressure, the star can collapse at an immense speed and with extremely large activating of huge amounts of light and much other electromagnetic activity. These energetic conditions create and may also recombine and blow the material of which the star is made into space (some part of the same materials which followed the Big Bang because that's the material which made up the star in the first place). We can observe such events. We call them supernovae. 

Our current level of technology allows us to watch the formation of new stars from the material blown into space by the collapse of dying stars. This means that the forming of new stars, planets, moons, meteors, rocks, air, and every other physical piece which we observe associated with that event uses the material from supernovae. It can be called the stuff of stars. We know of no other available material to form a new thing. Therefore, everything, including us, could only be made of some part of Starstuff. 

So, finding life as we know it could be possible. It would have to be made from the same basic materials of which we are made, starstuff, and the same organizational principles. It would also actually replicate itself or help some other species do so, as we know it. 

Is replication the proof of life?  Currently, we are quite intensely concerned with the speedy growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We have built computers which do replicate themselves, based on sophisticated software written by humans. Some of these computers (robots?), in my thoughts, could be working to improve and, independently, come up with a way to replicate themselves without having to rely on any human effort or connection. If we were to encounter such entities somewhere in space, would we recognize such as life, and, specifically, life as we know it ? It can only be built from Starstuff (which is the same as what was originated by the Big Bang). Could this affect our species' existence? If AI outcompetes us over time, and our species slowly disappears will AI consider us to be the gods that created them ? Astronomy connects with many of our different sciences, examples are Astrochemistry,  Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Electronics, and other scientific activities. How will these sciences affect us if they are controlled by AI ? 

In my younger years I voraciously read science fiction written by Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, and Professor Isaac Asimov (all polymaths in my opinion) had interests in writing science fiction. These writings often included the interaction of humans and human-like robots. These robots had levels intelligence about equal to that of our current Artificial Intelligence. Professor Asimov required these robots to operate only under his Three Laws of Robotics:

(from Wikipedia)

Perhaps our current AI should incorporate these same laws without any possibility to remove or inactivate them by either Humans or  robots.

I think about these things because, before I retired about 10 years ago, making my living included having an electronics background. The recent improvements in that field, with closer relations to the computing world, make me consider these things. 

One thing we will likely have in common with whatever entity evolves in the future: we are, and will be, made of some part of Starstuff. Since everything in the Universe looks like Starstuff (again: including us, we are a piece of Universe), when we examine and explore the Universe we can say that the Universe is examining itself. 

..... Navel-gazing

Some questions remain in my mind: What is Dark Matter ?  What makes the Universe expand ?  Maybe AI knows?

. 

Again, the 3" telescope...

After a recent serious family event, I finally have found some time to put a number of things into some order. Among those, I ran across a picture (on photo paper) which I had developed, from a film I had also developed, both in what was then my darkroom. In those days (in the sixties) it was possible to have a chemical darkroom in your house. Digital processing technology did not exist then. Nowadays, chemical processing is tightly controlled, and what limited photography I pursue now is all of digital nature.

The image of the Moon below was taken fairly soon after I bought the used 3" refractor in 1964. I have mentioned this telescope before, shown here on the left. The Moon photo is an afocal image, taken through an eyepiece attached to that telescope. 

3" telescope.                                                The Apennines, 

                                                                         Caucasus and Alps on the Moon

                                                                  (from the bottom up)

The afocal method can be used on any telescope with an eyepiece inserted for visual observation. The trick is to align and mount the camera to be used in such a way that the "optical centres" for all the lenses, both in telescope and camera involved, align precisely. For instance, anyone who has tried to use a smartphone to take a picture by holding it behind the eyepiece of a telescope pointed at the Moon, will have found out that a good, undistorted image is mostly a matter of luck. I've heard that there are smart-phone-to-telescope adaptors available. Personally I haven't seen one, but they should be available at reputable telescope dealers. 

Another requirement is an accurate alignment of the telescope mount with the North Pole in the sky. Exposure time may vary, depending on what is being photographed. If the mount is misaligned, and the magnifying power used is high (i.e. a short-focus eyepiece) tracking errors could result in a "smeared" image.

As an aside, there is evidence of the Moon's curvature visible in the photo. You may notice that the crater Eratosthenes at the very bottom is perfectly round. That implies that we are looking straight down on it. The shape of the other craters placed successively higher, i.e. the large one in the centre (Archimedes) looks more oval. Plato, the large crater at the top, even more so, We are looking from increasing angles at them. 

That shows the Moon's surface is dropping more and more away from our point of view. For anyone of average height standing on a level surface of the Moon it means that the horizon is about 2.4 km away. This is also shown by the increasingly darker surface curving westward (to the left) on the Moon. The Sun rises in the East on the Moon, just as on Earth, therefore the East is the brightest area on the right.

I think that it is obvious that I like my 3". Occasionally, you may see it on these pages again.

 

Little problems

 

Living in an area subject to a lot of cloudy weather, I use my telescopes sporadically. The Christmas and New Years' periods additionally result in family and friends getting together. That means that some clear sky conditions are also bypassed. Because of several days being available, I had time in which I could, and did, check the operation and possible problems on my EQ type telescope mounts and my telescopes. 

From my previous blogposts you'll know that I much enjoy the public astronomy nights which SFU runs on clear Friday nights. I've been using my 3" refractor most often for our RASC participation. The telescope is not heavy and can be put onto the telescope mount quickly. As well, it is easy to align with the celestial North Pole. The reason, of course, is the automatic tracking of any object being observed by moving the telescope westward at the same rate as the Earth's rotation eastward.

The EQ4 tracking mount I use for the 3" refractor has somewhat of an issue though. No matter how closely I align the telescope with North, the object in the telescope's field of view slowly drifts out of view. It's easy enough to correct this by using the control buttons on the Dual Axis Motor Drive which powers both the Right Ascension and Declination motors. However, it requires my periodic attention to make sure that our public guests will actually see the target to which I pointed the telescope.

There are many cloudy days and nights at this time of year. I set up the telescope and mount in our recroom at home to move through a 24 hour tracking run. The idea was to set the time and direction scales on the mount to a start point (I pointed the E marker on the telescope RA axis to the 0 hour mark on the time scale) and to read the scales at the end of the run, 24 hours (actually 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds) later. At that point I would have expected to see the E marker to point again at the 0 hours mark. Lo and behold, it pointed instead to 2h and 50 min beyond the 0 mark. This means that the telescope actually indicated that it moved past the 0 hour time marker; it incorrectly showed that it had moved a total of 26 hours and 50 minutes. The tracking motion of the mount is therefore 11% faster than the daily sky motion. Since the Earth turns 15 degrees per hour this result moves the telescope to a position almost 45 degrees ahead of  the position it should have after 24 hours tracking, Instead of moving through 360 degrees, it moved almost 405. I had noticed smaller overruns on other days, even on much shorter test runs. This is what actually made me run the 24 hour test.

My motor drive unit has 4 control buttons to speed up the RA and DEC stepper motors 2, 4, or 8 times by means of a separate speed switch. Each button is dedicated to one particular direction. The RA motor is controlled by an East button and a West button, the DEC motor by a North and a South button. The East button can be used to compensate for the 11% excess tracking speed, but it requires me to push and hold the button to move the telescope back to the observed target. It is a very basic and very slow slewing system - it would take many minutes to move from Vega to Deneb for example. As it exists, this whole system is not suitable for long-exposure astrophotography, in my opinion. It's ok for visual observation and possibly photography of the Sun or the Moon.

The dual axis motor drive

proposed astable  timer (below)

Now the question: what causes this? I was thinking about the gear ratios in the RA motor, or in the mount, the clock frequency in the electronics of the Dual Axis motor drive unit, the pulse rate applied to the RA motor stepper windings, searched for an adjustment capability in the electronics board (found none), and other electronic possibilities. I also searched the internet for electronic schematics (there are dozens) but did not find the one which exactly matched the Dual Axis motor drive above. 

I'm thinking of putting together an astable timer based on the 555 precision timer chip. Its output voltage could control the power provided to the motor drive, i.e. shut off power 11% of the time. That way, the movement of the sky could catch up with my faster-moving telescope. It's a crude approach, but in my working days I built many similar timers to control printers, vending machines, debit card readers, and other equipment. I found the timer shown above in one of my "junk"drawers which contain all manner of parts, most of which are decades old. The shown timer is an unused piece I started about thirty years ago, and never finished. I'll check it out and may modify it to counteract the tracking error. 

Stay tuned. .

Watch your sky

For all I know, the dinosaurs did apparently not have much interest in looking at the sky. Also, they did not seem to have any capability that would have led them to plan ahead in detail. The major part of their activities likely were to hunt down other species for food. It was a successful life philosophy; dinosaurs were wide-spread on Earth for more than 200 million years. Among their hunted, there were some which fed milk to their offspring, the mammals. Because they were quite small, mammals would have been an easy target for the dinosaurs. Probably because they were under almost constant threats, mammal species evolved into various types, and because they were much threatened, many likely built their living quarters in protective places. They would have to have been acutely aware of their surroundings, both on the ground, and above and below. Anticipation of danger would have been an important characteristic. Altogether, mammals would have become very flexible, in order to stay alive.

These two different "philosophies of life" eventually cost the dinosaurs their existence, except for one or two who became the ancestors of our current species of birds. The mammals' approach to living insured the survival of at least some primate-like mammalian species. The main cause for this turn of events was very likely the impact of an extremely large meteorite, which 66 million years ago or so caused world-wide destruction of plants and animals on land, in oceans and lakes, and also caused extreme changes in the atmosphere. The Chicxulub crater located on the Golf of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula is believed to be the remnant of this catastrophic event.

Some primate species turned into the human line about 3 million or so years ago and today, we are spread around the world. Our "smarts" have increased to an amazing level (although I wonder sometimes, considering the current political conditions, and the disregard for past warnings of a major climate change ahead). The most impressive aspect for me is our capability to travel in space. 

As a prime requisite this requires technologies to obtain a very accurate knowledge of the effects of gravity, astronomical distances, and ongoing precise measurements and observations, the mathematics to precisely calculate orbits, and intense observations of the space environment. If we want to avoid another Chicxulub, then among these ongoing activities is the necessity of looking out for large Near Earth Objects, whose orbit might lead them to a serious collision with the Earth. Fortunately, a fair number of organizations do this; NASA is leading the way. We also need to build up the capability to alter the orbit of any such threatening object, so that it will bypass us. 

The first test to alter the orbit of an NEO has already been completed successfully. NASA put out a press release about its Double Asteroid Redirection Test, an attempt to hit the "moon" of NEO Didymos, called Dimorphos. 

Here is an excerpt from the press release:  

“All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it’s the only one we have,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us. NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet. This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and all of humanity, demonstrating commitment from NASA's exceptional team and partners from around the world.”

Prior to DART’s impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. Since DART’s intentional collision with Dimorphos on Sept. 26, astronomers have been using telescopes on Earth to measure how much that time has changed. Now, the investigation team has confirmed the spacecraft’s impact altered Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, shortening the 11 hour and 55-minute orbit to 11 hours and 23 minutes. This measurement has a margin of uncertainty of approximately plus or minus 2 minutes.

Before its encounter, NASA had defined a minimum successful orbit period change of Dimorphos as change of 73 seconds or more. This early data show DART surpassed this minimum benchmark by more than 25 times.  

This imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope from Oct. 8, 2022, shows the debris blasted from the surface of Dimorphos 285 hours after the asteroid was intentionally impacted by NASA’s DART spacecraft on Sept. 26. The shape of that tail has changed over time. Scientists are continuing to study this material and how it moves in space, in order to better understand the asteroid.

Credits: NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble

One must call this a major achievement on the way to protect Earth from a catastrophe similar to which befell the dinosaurs. However, we can't just consider the fate of our Earth. We have the benefit if a fairly dense atmosphere, which not only keeps us alive, but also does a pretty good job of protecting us from the meteors which hit us every day and night. Those range in size from dust grains to small asteroids and burn up in the air because of their high speed (think of shooting stars and fireballs). Beyond a certain size they do not burn up: the bigger, the worse.

There are projects underway which propose human visits to, and settlements on our Moon and also Mars. The threat of meteorite impacts exists for them just as much as it does for us. It is danger enough; but another threat exists pursuing these plans: highly ionized space radiation. Our atmosphere, and Earth's magnetic field, do a reasonable job of protecting us against this radiation too. That is not quite the case on the Moon and Mars.

So, using all possible methods: Watch Your Sky...

An experiment

In the late 1980s, my wife and I moved to Toronto for a limited time. During our stay there (about 3 1/2 years) I joined the RASC Toronto Centre, but I also kept my membership in the Vancouver Centre. The Toronto Centre also has a group of people who observe the sky actively. Just as here in Vancouver, light pollution problems in the city made us look for a darker sky, but within a reasonable driving distance. During fall and winter, clear nights in Ontario can be very cold, so you have to be prepared to have some related effects on your telescopes (and yourself - dress accordingly).

Occasionally, cold air's low relative humidity will fog up your telescope's lenses' external surfaces. Since wiping them by hand is always a bit chancy, some "no-touch" method is preferred. That usually requires some electric power supply to run a "gentle" warming fan or use some other warming method to clear the lenses. In general, that means fairly large, portable batteries, or a connection to your vehicle, or gasoline-driven generators. These requirements made me try another approach. 

Many telescopes come with "dew caps", meant to counter the fogging of optics. I own a C-8 telescope, whose performance and portability make it ideal for observing at various locations. My C-8 did not come with a dew cap, but I found one labelled as made by Nova Astronomy-Products in Toronto. It fit the C-8 nicely. Since my working activities involved electronics, I thought of trying a simple experiment involving standard, small sized resistors (1 to 2 watt rated) to come up with a low powered warming system to repel some more humidity. 

I decided to use 5 resistors with a heat rating of 2 Watts and a resistance of 15 Ohms each (mainly because I had them on hand) and taped this series of resistors into the dew cap so that the resistors are placed near the front of the C-8 when the dew cap is attached to the C-8. The amount of heat generated is small. If you apply 12 Volts to the resistor series (Total of 75 Ohms resistance) you'll get slightly less than 2 Watts as the total amount of heat generated. Each resistor contributes a little less than 0.4 Watts.

One caution: If you double applied voltage, you will get four times the heat, four times the voltage gives you sixteen times the heat. Remember that the resistors I used can handle only a maximum of 2 Watts each. The effects of Voltage and electrical current changes occur in the domain of the square of their original values. You can exceed ratings and do damage very quickly. Stick with your original values.

 

The black dew cap mounted on the front end of the orange C8 telescope. The 5 resistors are attached inside the dew cap, where the dew cap and telescope meet.

Inside the dew cap, one of the 15 Ohm, 2 Watt, resistors is shown in front of the C8. Held in place by a small piece of Velcro.

Note  the 5 resistors deep in the C-8 dew cap, just in front of the C-8 telescope. They are connected as a series circuit. You can see the wire which connects one to the next. The resistors do not touch the C-8 telescope.

The 2 wires for connecting the resistors to the external voltage source are a small bundle at the lower left, on top of the tripod telescope mount.

You may want to try something similar to what is described above. The "small scale" warm-up arrangement worked reasonably well (and is still, more than 30 years later) at moderate humidity levels. It requires very little electrical power, so that there is little demand on a battery used for powering other functions on your telescope. 

Life as we know it

 Last Christmas, I received a present from my family, a book by David Attenborough titled "Living Planet, The Web of Life on Earth". The book was chosen by my granddaughter Meredith. She is in her last year of Marine Biology studies at SFU; obviously, the book relates to that.

There are a number of picture plate sections distributed throughout the book. Among them are excellent images of "black smokers", located about 3km below ocean surface, which exude hot, sulphide-laden water, and are the home of several anaerobic species (no sunlight). None-the-less, they are a form of life "as we know it"; they are still DNA-based.

 

A black smoker (From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository)

Here's a quote from https://theliquidearth.org/2010/10/black-smokers: Black smokers are black chimney shaped formations that are found in large numbers in “hydrothermal vent fields” in the abyssal and hadal zones of the world’s oceans.  The fields are hundreds of meters wide usually found where tectonic plates below the ocean are moving, where water seeps down into the rocks where it becomes superheated, before returning to the surface where it clouds on contact with the cold ocean water due to the abundance of dissolved minerals in it.  On contact with the cold water, these minerals fall back to the ocean floor forming a chimney structure around the vent.  Because of the large amount of sulphides in the superheated water, sulphide ore deposits are usually found at the base of each chimney. Water at the bottom of the ocean is only around 2^oc, the water escaping the chimney of the black smoker can be as high as 400^oc (end of quote).

This made me think of the efforts currently being initiated by NASA to send a probe to Europa, the second closest Galilean moon orbiting Jupiter. The name of the probe is Europa Clipper. Fly-bys by an earlier probe (called Galileo) notwithstanding, there's still relatively little known about Europa. This new, in-progress mission, NASA hopes, is going to improve our understanding of that moon. As is quite common, the underlying reason is our search for evidence of possible life elsewhere, other than on Earth. The plan is to launch the probe into space by 2024 to extensively explore Europa from space after arrival in 2031. This multi-orbit exploration will employ a number of various remote-sensing sophisticated sensors. 

The moon Europa appears to be covered by a many-kilometre-thick layer of ice showing cracking ice plates on the surface. Past fly-bys detected characteristics of a deep saltwater ocean below the ice layer, exceeding the amount of water in the oceans here on Earth. A future landing probe would attempt to detect biosignatures of life (as we know it - I can't quite imagine what it would take to recognize a version we DON'T know).

Engineers and technicians unwrap and inspect the main body of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft after it was built and delivered by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory(APL) in Laurel, Maryland, to the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in early June. Credits: NASA/JPL Caltech/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman.

 

Jupiter's moon Europa.  Image Credit: NASA/somagnews.com

At 3,120 km diameter, Europa is the smallest of the four Galilean moons (a bit smaller than our Moon). It orbits Jupiter at a distance of about 671,000 km and is in a resonance relationship with the moons Io and Ganymede. It takes two orbits for Io to go around Jupiter to one orbit for Europa, four Io orbits for one Ganymede orbit. Jupiter itself has the major gravitational effect. These various interactions create complex gravitational flexing of Europa, which is likely to create heat in Europe's interior (to some degree, other Jupiter moons are similarly affected, of course). Perhaps these effects contribute to the cracked appearance of Europa's surface; maybe black smokers exist on Europa also, along with the extremophiles which are the bacterial basis for the existence of the black smoker anaerobic species in our oceans.  

Along with other moons, Europa is also subject to intense radiation which surrounds Jupiter. That situation is not beneficial for life (again, as we know it) on the surface of Europa, but might generate possibilities in the water under the ice shell (maybe turn it into beer?).

 

Close-up of a rugged area on Europa's surface

Source: NASA/JPL Published January 8, 2019:

During its twelfth orbit around Jupiter, on Dec. 16, 1997, NASA's Galileo spacecraft made its closest pass of Jupiter's icy moon Europa, soaring 124 miles (200 kilometers) kilometers above the icy surface. This image was taken near the closest approach point, at a range of 335 miles (560 kilometers) and is the highest resolution picture of Europa obtained by Galileo. The image was taken at a highly oblique angle, providing a vantage point similar to that of someone looking out an airplane window. The features at the bottom of the image are much closer to the viewer than those at the top of the image. Many bright ridges are seen in the picture, with dark material in the low-lying valleys. In the center of the image, the regular ridges and valleys give way to a darker region of jumbled hills, which may be one of the many dark pits observed on the surface of Europa. Smaller dark, circular features seen here are probably impact craters.North is to the right of the picture, and the sun illuminates the surface from that direction. This image, centred at approximately 13 degrees south latitude and 235 degrees west longitude, is approximately 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) wide. The resolution is 19 feet (6 meters) per picture element. This image was taken on Dec. 16, 1997 by the solid state imaging system camera on NASA's Galileo spacecraft. 

NASA has a link to detailed planned activities during a number of Europa Clipper fly-bys. Here it is: https://europa.nasa.gov/mission/about/

If you own a pair of reasonably sized binoculars (7x50, say) you can easily see the four starlike Galilean moons, and follow their orbits around Jupiter over hours and days. Telescopes will afford you a closer view, depending on the telescope's size. Exact positions, times, and names are listed in the RASC "Observer's Handbook" which contains a multitude of planetary, orbital, scientific data. It is used by both professional and amateur astronomers. If you are a member of the RASC, the handbook is one of the membership bonuses. 

Looking at the Galilean moons, I'm always amazed to think that Galileo's discovery of these moons had a direct effect on, and is perhaps the actual cause of the direction our scientific and cultural evolution has taken since then... life as we know it now.

Moonrise

 

Many people have little interest in astronomy. Most of them have never given thought, or don't know, for instance, the cause of the Moon's various phases, and its different locations in the sky from day to day.  The picture below was taken through our living room window, the Moon phase shown a day or so after full. The Moon and Earth,  as are all the planets and their moons in our solar system, are illuminated by the Sun. 

The Moon about a day after full.

I expected to see the Moon rise behind the the mountains at about that position and at that time, both from past experience (we've lived in our house for over 50 years), and rough calculations of thumb.

The Moon's speed in its orbit around Earth is such that it moves the distance of its own diameter (about 3500 km) eastward in an hour. That is its real motion in the sky, as is obvious when compared with the position of background stars. The Moon's apparently much larger motion westward is the result of Earth's daily rotation. 

The full Moon is always located in the sky opposite the sun's position in the sky on an imaginary straight  line from the Sun, to the Earth, and then the Moon. For the northern hemisphere in summer, the Sun rises in the northeast, and sets in the northwest. The full Moon on the same day rises in the southeast and sets in the southwest. The winter sunrise and sunset are again opposite each other: Sun southeast rise, southwest set, the full Moon northeast rise, northwest set.

Throughout the year, as the Earth orbits through the four seasons, the rising and setting points for Sun and Moon  change every day; none-the-less, the full Moon is always opposite the Sun. That implies that the position of the Sun in the sky 6 months later will be approximately where the full Moon is today, and the full Moon 6 months later will be approximately where the Sun is today. Opposing positions can also be applied to other phases of the Moon. For instance, first quarter Moon and last quarter are in the same relationship as full Moon and Sun. One difference is that their respective illuminations are opposite. In the northern hemisphere on Earth the first quarter shows the illuminated right side and the third quarter is its illuminated left side, as seen standing up, facing south. In general, all phases of the Moon before full are illuminated on the right side, all phases past full Moon are illuminated on the left side. The opposite is true for the mid-southern hemisphere, where you are looking north to find the Moon. Close to the equator, the Moon moves through the sky overhead, your left/right phase perceptions depend on the direction you're facing. 

An aside: in the northern hemisphere, due to the Earth's daily rotation, Sun, and at night the Moon and astronomical objects move in the sky from left to right, if you are facing south. If you're looking at the North Star, the stars move around it counterclockwise. The North Star is below the horizon for the Southern Hemisphere, there is no South Star. The stars move around the "South Point" clockwise and, facing north, all astronomical objects move from right to left. In the northern hemisphere, you can simulate all these effects by stretching out on the ground. If your head points south, the stars overhead appear to move like they do in the southern hemisphere (right to left); lie down in the southern hemisphere with your head pointing north, they move as they do in the northern hemisphere (left to right). The Cardinal Points North, East, South, and West are never changed. They are the same in both hemispheres. It all boils down to "personal positioning".

The Earth is not flat after all!

The Moon's average apparent diameter, as it appears from Earth, is about half of a degree. Also, the Moon in reality moves eastward about one half of a degree per hour (see above). In a day, that is a distance of about 12 degrees. In a month, Earth, along with the Moon, has moved along the Earth orbit by about 30 degrees. The orbit of the full Moon, say, from today's position with respect to background stars to the next time in the same relative position with the same stars is 27.3 days. That is the sidereal month. At that point the Moon is not full again, because of the 30 degree change in the Earth's orbital position. The Moon has to move about 2.2 days more before full phase occurs. Therefore, the synodic month, from full Moon to full Moon, or any other phase to the same phase again is about 29.5 days.

 The numbers shown here are all general approximations and ignore several other aspects of Earth and Moon orbits. For one thing, the plane of the Moon's orbit differs by 5 degrees from the Earth's orbital plane. The Earth's rotational axis is inclined by 23.5 degrees from the vertical to the Earth's orbital plane. Both Moon and Earth orbits are not circles; that also affects orbital speed and position. The imaginary line I mentioned connecting Sun, Earth, and full Moon is only really straight when the Moon is at the crossover points of Earth's and Moon's orbital planes. When lunar eclipse occurs the Earth is exactly between the Sun and the full Moon. With the new, invisible Moon is exactly between the Sun and Earth, solar eclipses occur. At other times, that line is "slightly bent".

As I mentioned in the beginning, past experience and simple calculations give me an approximate idea about the area in the sky where I should find the Moon, the planets or the major constellations and stars. There are much easier ways to do all this, of course. Nowadays, many computer-based highly accurate sky map applications for smart phones, laptops, and desktops are available. I use those quite often, too. What these apps don't do for me is give me a mental perspective of the spacial distribution of the Moon, Earth, Planets, and stars, and the immense time spans and distances in the universe, something like being on a trip in space, or looking at the sky through binoculars and telescopes.  

 You can get an accurate version of the numbers above in the RASC's Observer's Handbook. You can either purchase the book, or have it sent to you without cost if you are a member of RASC Vancouver or other RASC centres.

My first Astronomy books

A few days ago, I rifled through one of several of our bookshelves in our house. Hidden behind some family pictures I came across two books which I've had since shortly after I first got interested in Astronomy (at the ripe old age of 8 [I'm now 82]). In previous posts I have stated that I was born in Berlin; the books were published in the German language and were first printed in the 1930's. My copies are reprints from the 1940's.They were already well-used books when they were given to me and haven't improved their condition since then. I wrote about what got me started in astronomy in November 2019; the article appeared in the Jan/Feb 2020 Nova newsletter.

The books are written by different authors. The older book, "Von Fernen Welten" (Of Distant Worlds) by Bruno H. Bürgel, was originally published in 1910. The author was a true philosopher; he wrote other books about many aspects of the "human condition". As such, this book was written for the general public and was only meant to be a general look into Astronomy. Nonetheless, it contains a lot of astronomical detail.

The "newer" book, simply named "Astronomie", by Oswald Thomas, was first published in 1933. Thomas was a professional Austrian astronomer and wrote this book for the scientifically interested public and to "fill in" some astronomical themes which were less often addressed in other books on astronomy. It contains a multitude of tables, drawings, information about both the non-rotating and rotating sky, astronomy of the Earth's globe, the solar system, and what was known and unknown of the near and distant universe at the time.   However, it was not annually updated. An enlightened neighbour in the apartment building where we lived gave me this (also used) book in 1953 as a present. 

The battered books

Bruno Bürgel's book gave me more motivation to look at and learn more about the sky. I spent many hours in public libraries. The sky of Berlin in the late 40's and early 50's was far less light-polluted, because many buildings had been bombed into ruins and streets were still sparsely illuminated. We could not afford to buy a pair of binoculars, never mind a small telescope, but I was the proud possessor of a 3X40 Galilean monocular. That monocular was my "telescope" for a number of years. It was an overwhelming feeling for me to find some of the interesting astronomical details mentioned in Bürgel's book. Oswald Thomas's book became my reference book later, and I occasionally still refer to it. Even in this digital age, well-written older books have value. They can last centuries and don't need batteries.

Nowadays, you can get all this information on the internet, and on your smartphone or home computers; at that earlier time the necessary technology did not exist. I've used the two books only occasionally in the last 4 decades. Having been a member of the RASC through all this time I have the advantage of access to up-to-date astronomical information in the annual Observers' Handbook, SkyNews magazine, the RASC Vancouver Centre's library, and the Nova newsletter, all included in membership. The astronomical knowledge and experience of RASC members is freely given to everyone who asks, member or not. 

In early 1950, I joined an astronomy club called the BAV (Berlin Association [workgroup] for Variable stars) which had access to the what was then a temporarily located Wilhelm Foerster observatory (see note). It had a seven inch refractor, exposed to the weather (no domed building). The telescope had been built by dedicated amateur astronomers with salvaged parts from the bomb-damaged Urania observatory in Berlin. We were an enthusiastic group of people of various age and, beside variable stars, observed everything else, too, along with setting up and showing people the view through the telescope on public astronomy nights. Our variable star observational results were mailed to the AAVSO in the U.S. and I hand-copied their reference maps by tracing them on transparent paper (AAVSO's star maps are now accessible on-line). I still regard my participation in our RASC's in-person public astronomy nights as my most rewarding of astronomical activity. Covid-19 has put a damper on this in the last couple of years, but I'm hopeful about doing so again soon (subject to Covid-related rules at this time).

 The "temporary" Wilhelm Foerster Observatory, about 1950

Note: The new Wilhelm Foerster observatory is now located on top of the only "mountain" in Berlin worth that designation (in my opinion); the mountain consists of thousands of tons of broken bricks and cobblestones, and other detritus collected from the war's ruins when rebuilding of the city was underway after the war. Trees and other plants have turned it into a beautiful park. The 3-dome Wilhelm Foerster observatory is now a totally up-to-date public institution connected to a Zeiss planetarium.

Radio Station Andromeda ?

 (whimsical) 

Radio Andromeda

  

I take a daily half-hour walk, sometimes inside our house, or the back yard, or around several blocks in our neighbourhood. While doing that, most of the time I listen to the radio or music library on my cell phone. I've set the music to be played in random sequence. It seems to make the time go faster.

One of the tracks is called "Radio Andromeda" (electronic music by Michael Walthius). 7 minutes long, it has just the right tempo for a good walk. The other day, walking, and fantasizing that this melody was actually a transmission sent by a civilization living somewhere in the Andromeda Galaxy, and imagening my receiving it just now on my radio. It would imply a much advanced intelligence but with a technology in some way compatible with ours. 

We know of nothing in our physical world that can move faster than the speed of light. The interesting aspect of my fantasy would be that this music would have had to be transmitted about 2,400,000 years ago, since the Andromeda Galaxy is 2.4 million light years distant. It also means that these "Andromedans" will have had 2,400,000 years to evolve since then (approximately the time it has taken for humans to evolve from  Australopithecus to Homo sapiens). If they exist, would we even be able to recognize them? 

There is another field of physics, the mathematical and observational basis of how the world around us works: it is called Quantum Mechanics. Personally, I find it difficult to wrap my mind around many of the concepts of this discipline. Perhaps the "Andromedans" have mastered the art of making use of its quantum entanglement and superposition effects, and have somehow circumvented its no-communication theorem. That might give them the ability to be aware of who we are and what we do in "real time", even from a distance as far away as the Andromeda Galaxy. (NO, I don't take "social" drugs, or smoke anything. I do have the occasional glass of red wine, though not before my daily walk). 

This fantasizing is, of course, just my brain freewheeling. Quite aside from that, I look at the Andromeda Galaxy through binoculars often, preferably  from an area with no or little light pollution. It looks nothing like its long-exposure, colourful photos. Our visual perception of it is colourless. The light emitted from all the stars in that galaxy is too faint to stimulate the colour receptors in our eyes. 

As an example, look at our own galaxy, the Milky Way. We can't see it in our light-polluted cities at all; in dark areas it just appears to be, well, faintly "milky" - no colour. Consider that we actually live inside our galaxy, in comparison, at its distance, it's no wonder the Andromeda Galaxy appears so faint. And yet, it is larger than our Milky Way and bright enough under a clear, dark sky to be visible with the naked eye as a grey patch. The best view I've had of the Andromeda Galaxy was in 1993 under a very dark sky at Crater Lake, Oregon.

This image approximates how the Andromeda Galaxy shows in binoculars under a dark sky. 

I've written in earlier posts how useful binoculars are in astronomy; if you know the sky reasonably well, a whole evening can pass looking at or searching for many objects, using only binoculars. Interesting views of those, i.e. the Orion Nebula, M13 (the global cluster in the constellation Hercules), the Milky Way in our southern sky with several gaseous nebulae and star clusters, and numerous stars; several nebulae in the Cygnus area overhead; all are bright enough to be visible at this time of year. The wide field of view in binoculars make them ideal for objects that cover a wider area in the sky. Stars bright enough to actually show some colour are also enhanced when looking at them through binoculars. 

A comfortable reclining chair greatly enhances an experience similar to actually being "in space". You may even want to listen to a  radio while you're exploring the sky, perhaps looking at the Andromeda Galaxy. Who knows what you might hear... ?