Hi all,
N.B. Subs for the coming session of the IAA are now overdue. See last Item below for details of how to pay.
Please note: send all correspondence to me only at terrymosel@aol.com
1. IAA PUBLIC LECTURE, Wed 15 November, "Living with a (Active) Star", by Dr Elizabeth Butler, ARC, QUB
SYNOPSIS: Space weather is a very complex field, involving many different subject areas, that as a community we are still working to grasp. This talk will discuss what some current points of concern are, and the science and missions being directed at them.
Biography: Elizabeth Butler grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, hating physics. She wanted to write novels about dragons instead. Something shifted in high school -- enough that she graduated from Northern Michigan University with a double bachelors in physics and writing. After taking a gap year to drive mowers and utility carts around 32 miles of hiking trails while composing poetry in her head, she was accepted as a graduate student by the Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Department of the University of Colorado in Boulder. There, she fell in love with planetariums, solar physics, and the developing field of space weather, and later used all three to become a Fellow in the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research program. After weathering two wildfire evacuation notices, a mass shooting, and a global pandemic, she graduated with her PhD in 2022, defending a dissertation that was two thirds solar flare physics and one third human subjects work on bridging the space weather research and forecasting communities. She then accepted the opportunity to move across the pond to work at Queen's Astrophysics Research Centre, where she has only received one of the seven visits threatened by friends and family.
Venue: Larmor Lecture Theatre, Physics building, Queen's University Belfast, 7.30 p.m.
Admission free, including light refreshments. All welcome.
2. Guide to November night sky. The latest excellent monthly guide to what's in the sky by Paul Evans and Sinead Mannion is at
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-3-whats-in-the-november-night-sky/id1705184817?i=1000633013136 and
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5JXfD729n3IQHNFHaEj8fM?si=sLNKmac2RhKR_Vm04m8t5Q
3. Mayo Dark Sky Festival, 3-5 Nov, Newport, Co Mayo:
Congratulations once again to Georgia, Fiona, Derek, Mags, Kate & all the others who delivered yet another first class event, very well organised, even though it's spread over 3 centres. Mark your diaries for 1-3 November 2024!
4. ISS
The ISS will start a new series of evening passes on 18 November. Details for your location on various sites, including www.heavens-above.com
5. VENUS at its best in morning sky
Is visible as a morning star throughout this quarter. It's now magnitude -4.2, and has an apparent diameter of 19.2". The phase is around 62%.
6. Comet Lemmon (C/2023 H2 Lemmon)
This comet has popped up in our skies fairly recently. It's just above 7th magnitude, and may just become visible to the naked eye, it's moving South from Aquila into Capricornus. www.heavens-above.com gives you charts and the latest details.
7. SATURN – catch it while you can.
Saturn was at Opposition on August 27 in Aquarius, at mag 0.4. The rings are now closing rapidly from our perspective, with an angle of only 9 degrees, which explains why it's no longer so bright when at opposition. The apparent diameter is 17.6" equatorial, and 15.7" polar, which shows that the disc is noticeably oblate. The rings have a diameter of 40", but only 7.3" on the minor axis. Of the satellites, Titan is very easy, and Rhea is usually visible even in a small telescope. Tethys and Dione are closer in, and fainter, and may need an aperture of 150mm to be seen. Even closer in, and fainter still, are Enceladus and Mimas, which will be easier to spot next year when the rings are almost edge-on, and thus much fainter, so their light doesn't drown out the faint inner satellites. Iapetus, one of the outer Moons, is brightest and easiest to see when at W elongation, which occurs on November 28.
8 JUPITER dominates the sky!
Our largest was at opposition on 3 November, and is by far the brightest starlike object in the evening sky. It's high enough up in the East by about 8.00 for observing, in Aries, and at mag -2.9 it's much brighter than Saturn. Look for the 4 Galilean moons as they do their stately dance around the giant planet. Ganymede, Callisto and Io are bigger than our Moon; Europa is a bit smaller, but it's brighter than Callisto because of its bright ice-covered surface.
9. Leonids The Leonid meteors peak on the night of 17-18 November, but rates are unlikely to exceed 10 per hour. They are some of the fastest meteors we see.
10. W.H. McCrea Lecture, RIA, Dublin, November 20, 6. 30 p.m.by Prof Greg Hallinan
McCrea Lecture: The Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy Tickets, Mon 20 Nov 2023 at 18:30 | Eventbrite
I have the honour of sponsoring this lecture, so it would be nice to see a good turn-out. Book soon to be safe! This biennial lecture, in honour of the late great astronomer Prof WH McCrea from Belfast, is back again after an interruption due to Covid.
11. The UK Space Conference 2023 will be hosted in Belfast at the ICC/Waterfront 21-23rd November. See https://brayleino.swoogo.com/ukspaceconference2023
12. AOP Events. Booking essential for all events
Stargazing Evenings
* 23 November & 29 December 6:30pm - 9pm.
Join us at Armagh Planetarium for a Stargazing evening.
Our World from Space
* Saturday Family Club: 25 Nov & 16 Dec 10am - 12noon
13. 5th Annual Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, 29 Nov – 1 Dec.
The IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) is pleased to announce that registration, abstract submission, and speaker suggestions are open for the 5th Shaw–IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education (the deadline for all but registration is 26 August 2023). This fully virtual event will take place on 29 November – 1 December 2023 and is being organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE), with generous funding from the Shaw Prize Foundation.
14. Galway Astronomy Festival Saturday 27 January 2024
15. The Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) Conference is the only large-scale international conference for astronomy communication. The next CAP conference will be held in hybrid mode from 24 – 28 June 2024, in-person at Cité de l'espace, Toulouse, France and online.
16. EASY TEASER:
What well-known celestial object currently (as of 16 Sep 2023) has a Right Ascension of 3h 02m 41.19"
NB – Note slight revision, as I have now given the position for 12h UT (midday) on that date.
Clue: You need to look in the right direction.
Another clue: The RA at the start of the current Standard Epoch (J2000.0) was 02h 31m 48.7".
Another clue: It would NOT be true to say that you can barely see it.
You're not doing too well on this one! The 'barely' clue is based on a homonym, or more correctly a homophone.
And it's a star.
(N.B. Peter Millar, who's not eligible to answer the easy ones, has got this one, so it's doable!)
Another clue (I'm too generous!) – I may have to give you pointers to the right direction.
OK, One final clue: Inuits get a good view of it.
17. Difficult Teaser: ANSWERED ALREADY!
What's next in this sequence, and why: 88.99, 92.75, 93.65, - ? Peter Denman (again!) was quick off the blocks, with an answer early next day. The answer is 89.84 - the length of the fourth (and current) astronomical season, in days. Those are the mean intervals between the Winter solstice – Spring Equinox – Summer Solstice – Autumn Equinox - Winter Solstice (seasons apply to the N. Hemisphere)
18. New Difficult Teaser:
Apart from being the closest planets to the Sun (and thus only visible as 'morning' or 'evening' stars), what other record among the planets is jointly held by Mercury and Venus?
19. INTERESTING WEBLINKS (Disclaimer – Use of material herein from various sources does not imply approval or otherwise of the opinions, political or otherwise, of those sources). NB: If the title in the weblink does not indicate the subject matter, I give a brief simple intro before the link. I may also comment about the link afterwards.
ASTROPHYSICS:
What physics allows, and forbids, in the universe.
https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/895722681971000/?sfnsn=scwspmo (SMBH = SuperMassive BH, BH = Black Hole, NS = Neutron Star, WD = White dwarf, BD = Brown Dwarf, GUT = Grand Unified Theory, CMB = Cosmic Microwave Background, Qg = Quantum Gravity, p, n, e, = proton, neutron, electron, lp = Planck length (I think), and 'instanton' = hypothetical smallest unit of time. The rest you'll have to guess, like me!) 1st black hole ever imaged by humans has twisted magnetic fields and scientists are thrilled | Space
James Webb Space Telescope reveals most distant Milky Way galaxy doppelganger | Space and
Dark matter mystery https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/898111865065415/?sfnsn=mo Very interesting. Is there a possibility that there is also an 'antimatter' version of Dark Matter?
Supermassive black holes are messy eaters big on recycling | Space
'Heartbreak' Stars Cause Enormous, Tumultuous Waves in Their Partners - Scientific American
What Is a White Hole, and Do White Holes Really Exist? (popularmechanics.com)
New space telescope embarks on biggest 3D map of the universe | Science | AAAS
First 'awe-inspiring' images from Europe's Euclid space telescope released (msn.com)
Starlight from ancient quasars was the 2023 discovery that changed everything (msn.com)
'Rogue' runaway star won't collide with our solar system in 29,000 years after all | Space
Baby star's first 'screams' captured in stunning new images taken by NASA telescope (msn.com)
Oldest black hole discovered dating back to 470 million years after the Big Bang (msn.com)
Misaligned Binary Star Systems are Rogue Planet Factories - Universe Today
COSMOLOGY
Dark matter may have its own Periodic Table. https://www.facebook.com/100059401486924/posts/722225529767490/?sfnsn=mo
The mysterious CMB 'Cold Spot' explained The Universe is normal! The "CMB cold spot" is now explained- Big Think. This gets your grey matter going, but is well worth the effort!
A second big bang? The radical idea rewriting dark matter's origins | New Scientist
Euclid 'dark universe' telescope captures 1st full-color views of the cosmos (images) | Space
Scientists make crucial discovery on the existence of time travel (msn.com)
The universe's puzzlingly fast expansion may defy explanation, cosmologists fret | Science | AAAS
EARTH & MOON
Armagh Astronomer saves Earth! (OK, not quite! – But read this for the details!) Disaster averted! Rogue star will not collide with us in 29,000 years (newatlas.com)
How heavy metals got to the Earth's mantle https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/897624665114135/?sfnsn=mo
NASA scientists warn over deadly 'invisible' asteroids hidden by the sun's blinding light (msn.com)
Space weather is a growing threat. This new NASA center aims to help protect us | Space
Heterogeneity of Earth's mantle may be relics of Moon formation (spacedaily.com) If you are ever tempted to try and argue with a Flat Earther show them this photo. If the Earth was flat, ALL of it should be visible in this photo…..
EXOLIFE:
'Bouncing' comets could deliver building blocks for life to exoplanets – study (msn.com)
Detecting alien life might be easier if we hunt for 'Jurassic worlds.' Here's why | Space
The oldest continents in the Milky Way may be 5 billion years older than Earth's | Live Science But if the planets formed so long ago, would they have enough of the various elements essential for life, which are formed by successive generations of stars?
This moon of Saturn found to have all ingredients essential for life (msn.com)
EXOPLANETS
View all the Kepler exoplanets https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/895722681971000/?sfnsn=scwspmo
Giant 'Hot Jupiter'exoplanet directly imaged: https://www.facebook.com/100064701819652/posts/727944172705637/?sfnsn=scwspmo The oldest continents in the Milky Way may be 5 billion years older than Earth's | Live Science
Move over TRAPPIST-1: New planetary system of 7 Super-Earths discovered (newatlas.com)
Misaligned Binary Star Systems are Rogue Planet Factories - Universe Today
IMAGES, VIDEOS etc
Webb, Hubble telescopes combine to create most colorful view of universe (spacedaily.com) 1st images from the Euclid 'dark universe' telescope are here — and they're jaw-dropping | Live Science"They upgrade the cameras regularly, not only because they get better, but because their sensors get damaged by radiation" - Astronaut Thomas Pesquet talks about shooting the earth from out of space (msn.com) Heterogeneity of Earth's mantle may be relics of Moon formation (spacedaily.com)
Messier-54, by HST, in Sgr dwarf galaxy.jpg - OneDrive (live.com)
NAMES:The Magellanic Clouds must be renamed, astronomers say | Space It's also a misnomer to call them Clouds, as they are of course galaxies. One option would be 'Large Southern Galaxy', and 'Small Southern Galaxy. Or Large Satellite Galaxy' and 'Small Satellite Galaxy'; both would give LSG and SSG as initials.
SOLAR SYSTEM 'Bouncing' comets could deliver building blocks for life to exoplanets – study (msn.com)
Alarming! Nasa's hunt for signs of life on Mars divides experts as mission costs rocket (msn.com) I don't query the desirability of returning Mars samples to Earth, but this always seemed a very complex way of doing it.
Dinkinesh moonrise https://www.facebook.com/1251911121/posts/10231173530942247/?sfnsn=mo
Seeing NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample up close at the Smithsonian was surreal | Space
The little moon of Dinkinesh is actually a binary: First ever binary moon? https://science.nasa.gov/.../nasas-lucy-surprises-again.../ and
Pluto may have an ice-spewing 'supervolcano' the size of Yellowstone, New Horizons data reveals | Live Science
https://www.facebook.com/100053433786465/posts/886725263118592/?sfnsn=scwspmoVenus has oxygen on both day and night sides https://www.facebook.com/100053433786465/posts/886725263118592/?sfnsn=scwspmo
JWST Detects Carbon Dioxide in a Centaur for the First Time - Universe Today
Mercury Appears To Be Shrinking | IFLScience
Nasa gets 'puzzling' data back from Lucy spacecraft exploring distant object (msn.com)
Sizes of Asteroids https://www.facebook.com/100045998303732/posts/891896202353648/?sfnsn=scwspmo
Smithsonian debuts 1st display of asteroid Bennu sample brought back by OSIRIS-REx | Space
JWST spots CO2 on Europa https://www.facebook.com/100064701819652/posts/722796343220420/?sfnsn=scwspmo
I haven't watched this, so can't comment - We Need to Talk About Pluto and Its Moon, Charon! Something Is Not Right! | Watch (msn.com)
SPACE
SpaceX's Starship may make second flight as early as Friday (newatlas.com) Another legend gone. Sorry to hear this news. Frank Borman, Apollo 8 astronaut who led first flight to the moon, dies at 95 | Space He lived longer than most of the Apollo astronauts.International Space Station dodges orbital debris hours before SpaceX cargo arrival: report | Space Europe to hold competition to build space cargo ship (spacedaily.com) Ireland's first satellite to launch this month ESA - Ireland's first satellite on its way to launch andBig bang: Dutch firm eyes space baby (spacedaily.com) Quote "a lack of gravity -- a couple would drift away from each other". Last time I checked, most couples have two arms and two legs each: it's not that difficult to just hold on to each other! But how am embryo, foetus, and then baby, would develop in zero or low G is another matter entirely!
SpaceX will launch Ireland's 1st-ever satellite this month | Space Virgin Galactic to ground its VSS Unity space plane next year: report | SpaceTrack the ISS with NASA's new 'Spot the Station' mobile app | SpaceEuropean Space Agency to let private firms compete for chance to deliver cargo to ISS (msn.com) "They upgrade the cameras regularly, not only because they get better, but because their sensors get damaged by radiation" - Astronaut Thomas Pesquet talks about shooting the earth from out of space (msn.com)
NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission: Live updates (msn.com) NASA's Lucy spacecraft successfully completes 1st flyby of asteroid 'Dinky' | Space'A City on Mars' is a reality check for anyone dreaming about life on the Red Planet | Space SUN
How Big Is the Sun? Scientists Finally Measured the Size (popularmechanics.com)
Space weather is a growing threat. This new NASA center aims to help protect us | Space
TELESCOPES, EQUIPMENT, etc
Latest on the ELT https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10210224428002541&id=1695174762&sfnsn=scwspmo
20. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION. This link gives options to join the IAA.
https://irishastro.org/join-the-iaa/ If you are a UK taxpayer, please select the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button. See also https://irishastro.org/
The Irish Astronomical Association is registered with The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC 105858
DISCLAIMER: Any views expressed herein are mine, and do not necessarily represent those of the IAA.
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
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