Posted on by John Williams

Monster Black Holes Lurk at the Edge of Time

The reddish object in this infrared image is ULASJ1234+0907, located about 11 billion light-years from Earth. The red color comes from vast amounts of dust, which absorbs bluer light, and obscures the supermassive black hole from view in visible wavelengths. Credit: image created using data from UKIDSS and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) observatory.

As if staring toward the edge of the Universe weren’t fascinating enough, scientists at the University of Cambridge say they see enormous, rapidly growing supermassive black holes barely detectable near the edge of time.

Thick dust shrouds the monster black holes but they emit vast amounts of radiation through violent interactions and collisions with their host galaxies making them visible in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The team published their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The most remote object in the study lies at a whopping 11 billion light-years from Earth. Ancient light from the supermassive black hole, named ULASJ1234+0907 and located toward the constellation of Virgo, the Maiden, has traveled (at almost 10 trillion kilometers, or 6 million million miles, per year) across the cosmos for nearly the estimated age of the Universe. The monster black hole is more than 10 billion times the mass of our Sun and 10,000 times more massive than the black hole embedded in the Milky Way Galaxy; making it one of the most massive black holes ever seen. And it’s not alone. Researchers say that there may be as many as 400 giants black holes in the tiny sliver of the Universe that we can observe.

“These results could have a significant impact on studies of supermassive black holes” said Dr Manda Banerji, lead author of the paper, in a press release. “Most black holes of this kind are seen through the matter they drag in. As the neighbouring material spirals in towards the black holes, it heats up. Astronomers are able to see this radiation and observe these systems.”

The team from Cambridge used infrared surveys being carried out on the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) to peer through the dust and locate the giant black holes for the first time.

“These results are particularly exciting because they show that our new infrared surveys are finding super massive black holes that are invisible in optical surveys,” says Richard McMahon, co-author of the study. “These new quasars are important because we may be catching them as they are being fed through collisions with other galaxies. Observations with the new Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile will allow us to directly test this picture by detecting the microwave frequency radiation emitted by the vast amounts of gas in the colliding galaxies.”

Huge black holes are known to reside at the centers of all galaxies. Astronomers predict the most massive of these cosmic phenomena grow through violent collisions with other galaxies. Galactic interactions trigger star formation which provides more fuel for black holes to devour. And it’s during this process that thick layers of dust hide the munching black holes.

“Although these black holes have been studied for some time,” says Banergi, “the new results indicate that some of the most massive ones may have so far been hidden from our view. The newly discovered black holes, devouring the equivalent of several hundred Suns every year, will shed light on the physical processes governing the growth of all supermassive black holes.”

Astronomers compare the extreme case of ULASJ1234+0907 with the relatively nearby and well-studied Markarian 231. Markarian 231, found just 600 million light-years away, appears to have recently undergone a violent collision with another galaxy producing an example of a dusty, growing black hole in the local Universe. By contrast, the more extreme example of ULASJ1234+0907, shows scientists that conditions in the early Universe were more turbulent and inhospitable than today.

Source: Royal Astronomical Society

Image Credit: Markarian 231, an example of a galaxy with a dusty rapidly growing supermassive black hole located 600 million light years from Earth. The bright source at the center of the galaxy marks the black hole while rings of gas and dust can be seen around it as well as “tidal tails” left over from a recent impact with another galaxy. Courtesy of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Shiny Object on Mars Update: Likely ‘Benign’ Plastic

Curiosity sol 62 ChemCam image detail. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Image processing courtesy 2di7 & titanio44 on Flickr.

Lost earring? Cigarette butt? Those were just a couple of ideas tossed around loosely by the public about what this unusual object could be, found laying near the Mars Curiosity rover. The rover team is still looking closely at the shiny object, seen in images of the sandy regolith near the rover, and they issued a report today saying their initial assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, and not Martian material. It appears to be a shred of plastic material, “likely benign,” they said, but it has not been definitively identified.

A loose piece of plastic or insulating tape may have jarred free during the rover’s shaking of the sample of Martian regolith it recently scooped up.

The team will proceed cautiously and will spend another day investigating new images before deciding whether to resume processing of the sample in the scoop. Plans include imaging of surroundings with the Mastcam, and perhaps looking at the rover itself, too, for any chips or loose parts.

One of the rover drivers, Scott Maxwell said on Twitter that the entire team was working hard to figure that out what could have possibly come loose from the rover and they are “crawling over rover model, tracking down testing records, etc. We simply don’t know yet.”

A sample of sand and dust scooped up on Sol 61 remains in the scoop, and plan to transfer it from the scoop into other chambers of the sample-processing device were postponed as a precaution during planning for Sol 62 after the small, bright object was detected.

Curiosity sol 62 ChemCam view of the bright object on the ground. Image: NASA/JPL -Caltech. Anaglyph processing courtesy 2di7 & titanio44 on Flickr.

The shaking being done by the rover is to clean it of any residual oils that may be left inside, which could skew any results from the two onboard chemical labs, known as Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), and the Chemical and Mineralogy experiment (CheMin.)

Daniel Limonadi, the Lead Systems Engineer for Curiosity’s Surface Sampling and science systems told reporters last week that the cleansing was required even though the hardware is “super-squeaky-clean when it’s delivered and assembled. By virtue of its just being on Earth, you get a kind of residual oily film that is impossible to avoid,” he said.

Once the soil has been shaken and stirred through the chambers, it’ll be ejected from the mechanism and ‘poop’ it back onto the Martian surface. “We effectively use it to rinse out our mouth three times and then kind of spit out,” Limonadi said.

The images here were sent in by Universe Today reader Elisabetta Bonora who zoomed in and created 3-D views of the images of the shiny piece. See more here.

Interesting to note, closeup views reveal more spherical “blueberries” similar to what the Opportunity rover found at its landing site in Meridiani Planum and at its current location near Endeavour Crater, too.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Searching for Life on Mars

Today, Mars is a barren desert. But millions of years ago could our planetary neighbor have been much more Earth-like – covered with rivers, oceans, and even life? A new video series called EPIPHANY, Dr. Ashwin Vasavada, NASA’s Deputy Project Scientist of the Mars Science Laboratory shares how the Mars Curiosity rover is going to shed new light on the ancient history of Mars and whether life could have ever existed there. While Curiosity is not equipped to look for life itself, it will look for “the ingredients of life,” the essential molecules and elements that go into living things. Already, at just 50 sols into the mission, the rover has found an ancient streambed and as Project Scientist John Grotzinger said, “We have already found our first potentially habitable environment.”

Continue reading “Searching for Life on Mars”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, Explained

This hot-off-the-press video from the science-explainer folks at Sixty Symbols does a great job of detailing the science of the work by Serge Haroche of France and American David Wineland, which won them 2012 Nobel Prize in physics today. Their experiments on quantum particles have already resulted in ultra-precise clocks and may one day help lead to computers that can work faster than those in use today.

The video also shows how expectations were that the prize might go to the teams at the Large Hadron Collier for the discovery of what they called a “Higgs-like boson” — a particle that resembles the long sought-after Higgs.
Continue reading “The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, Explained”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Watch Live: Felix Baumgartner’s Record Breaking Jump Attempt

UPDATE: The launch/jump attempt for Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos mission on October 9 has been aborted due to winds at the launch site in Roswell, New Mexico. At first, there was a 5 hour weather delay, then a radio system malfunction which was fixed, and then the winds became too high. Winds have to relatively benign for the huge balloon to take off. The balloon used for this mission is three times larger than any other human balloon flight.

Felix Baumgartner will leap from nearly 37 km (23 miles, 120,000 feet), attempting to not only break the sound barrier with his body, but also break the record for the longest freefall

We’ll provide updates and post the live video feed for future attempts. The weather for the rest of the week remains “iffy,” however.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Last Night’s View: Skies Filled with Stunning Aurora

The Aurora Borealis fills nearly the entire sky in Cleary Summit, Alaska. Credit: Jason Ahrns on Flickr.

With just a glancing blow from a coronal mass ejection (CME) this week, skywatchers in the northern latitudes have been enjoying some beautiful views of the Aurora Borealis. Here are a few stunning views from last night (October 8-9, 2012), including this jaw-dropping aurora that filled the entire sky for Jason Ahrns in Cleary Summit, Alaska. “This lens has a near-180 degree field of view from corner to corner – this swirl covered the entire sky, and put off enough light to read the focus indicator on my lens,” Jason wrote on Flickr.

See more below:

This view is from Kilmany, Scotland. “You could see the rays moving left – so stunning,” said photographer Corinne Mills.

This view came from the AuroraMAX camera in Yellowknife, NWT taken at 00:53 MDT on October 9, 2012. Credit: AuroraMAX.

“I’ve been tracking aurora activity all day and it peaked again tonight,” writes photographer Gareth Paxton on Flickr. “There was a substantial glow in the sky – this was taken from Linlithgow (Scotland).”

Northern lights over Ottawa, Canada. Credit: FailedProtostar on Flickr.

Stunning view from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Credit: Colin Chatfield.

Another beauty by Jason Arhns in Alaska, which he calls a “ghost flame.” Credit: Jason Arhns

Green aurora over Ulverston, Cumbria, UK. Credit: Raymond Gilchrist on Flickr.

Posted on by Jason Major

Curiosity Finds…SOMETHING…on Martian Surface

While scooping its first samples of Martian soil, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured the image above, which shows what seems to be a small, seemingly metallic sliver or chip of… something… resting on the ground. Is it a piece of the rover? Or some other discarded fleck of the MSL descent mechanisms? Or perhaps an exotic Martian pebble of some sort? Nobody knows for sure yet, but needless to say the soil samples have taken a back seat to this new finding for the time being.

See a ChemCam image of the object below.

ChemCam shot of a recently spotted unknown object on Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The ChemCam image, although monochrome, reveals some interesting and curiously organic-looking edges on the object… although it could be a bit of something that came loose from the rover itself. Perhaps a bit of plastic wrap or tape from a cable? Or a flake of metal from the back shell?

Or, as MSNBC’s Alan Boyle jokingly (?) suggested, another piece of “Martian macaroni”?

The MSL mission page states:

Curiosity’s first scooping activity appeared to go well on Oct. 7. Subsequently, the rover team decided to refrain from using the rover’s robotic arm on Oct. 8 due to the detection of a bright object on the ground that might be a piece from the rover. Instead of arm activities during the 62nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission, Curiosity is acquiring additional imaging of the object to aid the team in identifying the object and assessing possible impact, if any, to sampling activities.

Stay tuned for more info on this intriguing news as it’s available!

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

P.S. Of course, the now-famous “Sarcastic Rover” had something to say about it on Twitter:

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Recent UK Fireball Could Not Have “Skipped” Around the World, New Analysis Says

The meteoroid seen over the UK on September 21, 2012 has created quite a sensation – make that a several sensations. First, the bright object(s) in the night sky were seen across a wide area by many people, and the brightness and duration – 40 to 60 seconds reported and videoed by some observers – had some experts wondering if the slow moving light-show might have been caused by space junk. But analysis by satellite tracker Marco Langbroek revealed this was likely an Aten asteroid, asteroid which have orbits that often cross the Earth’s orbit, but their average distance from the Sun is less than 1 AU, the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

Atens are fairly unusual, making this a rather unique event. But then came another analysis that seemed to be so crazy, it might have been true: this meteoroid may have skipped like a stone in and out of Earth’s atmosphere, where it slowed enough to orbit the Earth until appearing as another meteor over Canada, just a few hours after it was seen over the UK and northern Europe.

How amazing that would have been! And there was much speculation about this possibility. But, it turns out, after more details emerged and further investigation ensued, it is not possible that the space rock could have boomeranged around the world and been seen in again 2½ hours later over Canada. However, the current thinking is that at least one or two of the largest pieces retained enough velocity that they went into an elliptical Earth orbit, and went perhaps a half an orbit around Earth.

“At first it seemed natural to consider a possible dynamical linkage (between the UK and Canadian meteors), partly because the precise location and time over Quebec/Ontario was not well-known early on,” said aerospace engineer and meteor expert Robert Matson, in an email to Universe Today. Matson worked extensively with Esko Lyytinen, a member of the Finnish Fireball Working Group of the Ursa Astronomical Association, to analyze the possible connection between the September 21 UK fireball, and the Quebec fireball that followed about 2½ hours later.

At first, the time of the fireball sighting over southeastern Canada and northeastern USA was in doubt, but two Canadian all-sky cameras from the Western Meteor Physics Group captured the meteor, providing an accurate time.

“And once I triangulated the location to a spot between Ottawa and Montreal, a linkage to the UK fireball was no longer possible due to the longitude mismatch,” Matson said.

Additionally, the 153-minute time difference between meteors places a strict limit on the maximum longitude difference for a “skipping” meteoroid of roughly 38 degrees. This would put the final perigee well off the coast of Newfoundland, south of Greenland, Matson added.

More facts emerged, putting a death knoll on the connection between the two.

“Independent of the longitude mismatch, triangulation of the Canadian videos revealed that the entry angle was quite steep over Quebec – quite at odds with what an orbiting remnant from a prior encounter would have had,” Matson said. “So the meteors are not only unrelated, their respective asteroid sources would have been in different solar orbits.”

Image of fireball taken on Feb. 25, 2004 by the Elginfield CCD camera from the University of Western Ontario.

Another duo of astronomers from the British Astronomical Association, John Mason and Nick James concurred, also noting the shallow angle of the UK fireball, in addition to its slow speed. “We get velocities of 7.8 and 8.5 km/s and a height of 62 km ascending,” they wrote in the BAA blog. “These velocities and the track orientation and position are not at all consistent with ongoing speculation that there is a connection between this fireball and a fireball seen in south-eastern Canada/north-eastern USA 155 minutes later.”

But did parts of the meteoroid survive and skip out of the atmosphere? “Nearly all of the fragments of the meteoroid did just come in for good during and shortly after the UK passage, but at least one or two of the largest pieces retained enough velocity that they went into elliptical earth orbit,” Matson said. “The perigee of that orbit was a little over 50 km above the UK. The apogee would have been half an orbit later, possibly thousands of kilometers above the South Pacific, south of New Zealand.”

Just how high the apogee altitude was depends on how much the meteoroid decelerated over the UK, Matson added.

“This is why Esko, myself and others are very interested in determining the velocity of those fragments after they passed through perigee,” he said. “Below 7.9 km/sec, and they never get back out of the atmosphere; between 7.9 and 11.2 km/sec, they go into orbit — and we believe a couple of the biggest pieces were in the lower half of this range.”

But Matson said that if any remnant or remnants of the UK fireball did “skip” out of the atmosphere, they certainly had to come back in for good somewhere on the planet. “It is even remotely possible that it happened over Quebec,” Matson said. “But the laws of orbital mechanics do not allow an aerobraked fragment of the UK meteoroid to reenter over Quebec only 2½ hours later. It would have to be more than 4 hours later to line up with Quebec.”

The most likely scenario, Matson said, is that the surviving portion(s) of the UK meteoroid came in for good less than 2½ hours later, with the only possible locations during that window being the North Atlantic, Florida, Cuba, Central America, the Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey or southern Europe. Of these, the northern hemisphere locations would be favored.

So perhaps we haven’t heard the last of this meteoroid!

As crazy as the bouncing bolide sounds, it has happened in the past, according to Kelly Beatty at Sky and Telescope, who mentioned at least one instance where a large meteoroid streaked across the sky and then returned to interplanetary space. This sighting took place over the Rocky Mountains in broad daylight on August 10, 1972, and the meteoroid came as close as 35 miles (57 km) above Earth’s surface before skipping out into space. Beatty added that its velocity was too fast to become captured and return again.

You can read more analysis of the UK fireball being an Aten asteroid by Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy

Hat tip: Luke Dones

This article was updated on 10/9/12

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast: October 8-14, 2012

Messier 73 - Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! With early evening dark skies, this is a perfect opportunity to take on some more serious studies. We’ll start off BIG… and work down to the really small. (Think Hickson Compact Groups.) There’s even a meteor shower this week! Now, get out your telescopes and get ready, cuz’ I’m waitin’ in the backyard and lookin’ for the “Double Dark”…

Monday, October 8 – Today marks the birthday of Ejnar Hertzsprung. Born 1873, Hertzsprung was a Danish astronomer who first proved the existence of giant and dwarf stars in the early 1900s. His discoveries included the relationship between color and luminosity, which wasn’t truly recognized until it was recovered by Henry Russell. Now it is a familiar part of all our studies as the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. His use of absolute magnitudes will come into play tonight as we have a look at the age-old mystery of M73.

Located about three fingerwidths north-northwest of Theta Capricorni (RA 58.9 Dec -12 38), this 9th magnitude open cluster consisting of four stars was discovered by Charles Messier on October 4, 1780. He described it as a “Cluster of three or four small stars, which resembles a nebula at first glance…” Hotly debated as to whether or not the grouping is a genuine cluster or simply an asterism, it was also included in J. Herschel’s catalog (GC 4617) and given the NGC 6994 designation by Dreyer. In 1931 Collinder cataloged M73 as Cr 426, with an estimated distance of 12,000 light-years. Still, the debate about its authenticity as a physically related group continued.

At least two stars show the same proper motion, leading scientists to believe M73 may be the remnant of a much older and now dispersed cluster – or simply two related stars. Of the 140 stars investigated in the region, 24 may be real members, including those in Messier’s original observation. Thanks to the work of Hertzsprung and Russell, these candidates fall within the color-magnitude diagram of a 2 to 3 billion year old cluster with Messier’s suspect four being evolved giants. The most recent data indicates M73 may simply be an asterism – sharing no common proper motion, but until more studies are undertaken you can enjoy this unusual Messier in even a small telescope!

Tuesday, October 9 – Tonight is the peak of the Draconid meteor shower whose radiant is near the westering constellation of Hercules. This particular shower can be quite impressive when comet Giacobini-Zinner passes near Earth. When this happens, the fall rate jumps to 200 per hour and has even been known to reach 1000. So what am I going to tell you about this year? Comet Giacobini-Zinner reached perihelion on July 2nd of 2005, passing with 8 million kilometers of Earth, but has now greatly distanced itself from our solar system. Chances are the Draconids will only produce around 3 to 5 per hour, but no one knows for sure!

While we’re out, let’s take the time to have a peek at M72, just about a degree and a half west (RA 20 53.5 Dec -12 32) of last night’s target M73.

Originally found by Mechain on the night of August 29-30, 1780, this class IX globular cluster is one of the faintest and most remote of the Messiers, and Charles didn’t catalog it until over a month after its discovery. At around magnitude 9, this 53,000 light-year distant globular will be not much more than a faint round smudge in smaller aperture, but will take on a modicum of resolution in larger telescopes. Well beyond the galactic center and heading toward us at 255 kilometers per second, M72 is home to 42 variables and the average magnitude of its members is around 15. While mid-sized scopes will pick up a graininess in the texture of this globular, notice how evenly the light is distributed, with little evidence of a core region. Be sure to write down your observations!

Wednesday, October 10 – Today in 1846, William Lassell was busy at his scope as he made a new discovery – Neptune’s moon Triton! Although our everyday equipment can’t “see” Triton, we can still have a look at Neptune which is also hanging out in tonight’s study constellation of Capricornus. Try checking astronomy periodicals or many great on-line sites for accurate locator charts.

Tonight let’s head to the eastern portion of Capricornus and start by identifying Zeta about a fistwidth southwest of the eastern corner star – Delta. Now look southeast about 2 fingerwidths and identify 5th magnitude star 41. About one half degree west is our target we’ll be revisiting this evening, M30 (Right Ascension: 21 : 40.4 – Declination: -23 : 11).

At near magnitude 8, this class V globular cluster is well suited to even binoculars and becomes spectacular in a telescope. Originally discovered by Messier in August 1764 and resolved by William Herschel in 1783, some of M30?s most attractive features are the branches of stars which seem to radiate from its concentrated core region. Estimated to be around 26,000 light-years away, you’ll find it fairly well resolved in large aperture, but take time to really look. The dense central region may have already undergone core collapse – yet as close as these stars are, very few have collided to form x-ray binaries. For the smaller scope, notice how well M30?s red giants resolve and be sure to mark your notes!

Thursday, October 11 – Tonight is time for a telescopic challenge – a compact galaxy group. You’ll find it less than half a degree southeast of stellar pair 4 and 5 Aquarii (RA 20 52 26.00 Dec -05 46 19.1).

Known as Hickson 88, this grouping of four faint spiral galaxies is estimated to be around 240 million light-years away and is by no means an easy object – yet the galactic cores can just be glimpsed with mid-sized scopes from a very dark site. Requiring around 12.5? to study, you’ll find the brightest of these to be northernmost NGC 6978 and NGC 6977. While little detail can be seen in the average large backyard scope, NGC 6978 shows some evidence of being a barred spiral, while NGC 6977 shows the even appearance of a face-on. Further south, NGC 6976 is much smaller and considerably fainter. It is usually caught while averting and studying the neighborhood. The southernmost galaxy is NGC 6975, whose slender, edge-on appearance makes it much harder to catch.

Although these four galaxies seem to be in close proximity to one another, no current data suggests any interaction between them. While such a faint galaxy grouping is not for everyone, it’s a challenge worthy of seasoned astronomer with a large scope! Enjoy…

Friday, October 12 – Today in 1891, the Astronomical Society of France was established. Exactly one year later in 1892, astronomy great E. E. Barnard was hard at work using the new tool of photography and became the first to discover a comet – 1892 V – in this way!

Not only did Barnard use photography for comets, but his main interest of study was details within the Milky Way. Tonight let us take out binoculars or a telescope at the widest possible field of view and have a look at two such regions in the westering Aquila – The “Double Dark Nebula.”

Just northeast of Altair is bright star Gamma Aquilae, and about a fingerwidth west is a pair of Barnard discoveries: B142 and B143 – two glorious absences of stars known as interstellar dust clouds. B143 is no more than a half degree in size and will simply look like a blank area shaped like a horseshoe, with its extensions point toward the west. Just south is B142, an elongated comma shape, which seems to underline its companion.

Located anywhere from 1000 to 3000 light-years away, these non-luminous clouds of gas and dust are a very fine example of Barnard’s passion. Do not be upset if you don’t see them on your first attempt – for the chances are if you are seeing “nothing,” you are looking in the right place!

Saturday, October 13 – Today marks the founding of the British Interplanetary Society in 1933. “From imagination to reality,” the BIS is the world’s oldest established organization devoted solely to supporting and promoting the exploration of space and astronautics.

Tonight we’ll do them proud as we go back for another look at the mighty M2. You’ll find it located about three fingerwidths north-northeast of Beta Aquarii (RA 33.5 Dec 00 49).

At slightly dimmer than 6th magnitude, this outstanding globular cluster is just inside that region where it can’t quite be viewed unaided, but even the smallest of binoculars will pick it out of a relatively starless field with ease. Holding a Class II designation, it was first discovered by Maraldi on September 11, 1746 and rediscovered independently by Messier exactly 14 years later. At a distance of roughly 37,500 light-years, it is estimated to contain in the neighborhood of 150,000 stars.

Even a small telescope will reveal M2’s rich and concentrated core region and slight ellipticity. Not bad for a 13 billion year old group of stars! As aperture increases, some of the brightest stars will begin to resolve, and in larger telescopes it will approach total resolution. You might well note a dark area in the northeastern section, and several more located throughout the splendid field. Feast your eyes on one of the finest in the skies!

Sunday, October 14 – Before we leave Cygnus for the year, try your luck with IC 5070 (Right Ascension: 20 : 50.8 – Declination: +44 : 21), also known as the “Pelican Nebula.” You’ll find it just about a degree southeast of Deneb and surrounding the binary star 56 Cygni.

Located around 2000 light-years away, the Pelican is an extension of the elusive North American Nebula, NGC 7000. Given its great expanse and faintness, catching the Pelican does require clean skies, but it can be spotted best with large binoculars. As part of this huge star forming region, look for the obscuring dark dust cloud Lynds 935 to help you distinguish the nebula’s edges. Although it is every bit as close as the Orion Nebula, this star hatchery isn’t quite as easy!

Now let’s give deep sky a rest as we travel to the northwest corner of Capricornus and have a look just south of Alpha at beautiful Beta.

Named Dabih, this lovely white 3rd magnitude star has a very easily to split 6th magnitude companion which will appear slightly blue. Over 100 times brighter than our own Sun, the primary star is also a spectroscopic triple – one whose unseen companions orbit in a little over 8 days and 1374 days. Oddly enough the B star is also a very tight binary as well – yet the two major stars of this system are separated by about a trillion miles! If you have a large aperture telescope – power up. According to T. W. Webb, a 13th magnitude unrelated double is also found in between the two brighter stars. No matter if you chose binoculars or a telescope, I’m sure you’ll find the 150 light-year trip worth your time to add to your doubles list!

Until next week? Wishing you clear skies!

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Virtual Star Party – Oct. 7, 2012: West Coast Edition

Only the West Coast of North America was represented in our Virtual Star Party this week. We had astronomers in Oregon, California and Nevada. But we also a great night, with dozens of observed objects, including Comet 168P/Hergenrother.

Click here to see all the pictures from last night’s observing session.

Astronomers: Gary Gonella, Roy Salisbury, Bill McLaughlin, and Stuart Forman.

Bringing the Science: Dr. Thad Szabo and Scott Lewis

Host: Fraser Cain

We hold our Virtual Star Party every Sunday night when it gets dark on the West Coast, and broadcast live on Google+. Circle the Virtual Star Party page on G+ to get a notification of the event.