Category Archives: Astronomy

The constellation Scorpius sits beneath the arch of the Milky Way in this image. The yellow-orange star near the branches is Antares, which receives several visitors this week. Credit: Luis Argerich (Flickr)

Friday, January 5 The mighty ringed planet Saturn remains a fixture in the southwestern sky after sunset, shining at magnitude 0.9. Youll find it still 30 high an hour after sunset, to the upper right of a relatively bright star that sits about half as high above the horizon thats Fomalhaut, the magnitude 1.2 alpha star of Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish.

Through a telescope, Saturns disk stretches 16 across, with its rings just over twice that width. Those rings are tilted 9 to our line of sight, still showing off their northern side before next years ring plane crossing.

With no Moon in the sky, try to catch Saturn during the window starting after the sky is dark but before the planet sinks too low. You might spot several of its moons clustered nearby. The brightest at roughly magnitude 9 is Titan, which sits just southeast of the planet. It passes south of the gas giant overnight and will be southwest of the world tomorrow. Also visible may be 10th-magnitude Tethys, Rhea, and Dione. Tethys sits west of Saturn, about 17 from the western tip of the rings, Rhea is close to the disk and slightly northeast, while Dione is just south of the eastern tip of the rings. Even fainter moons are also present, but youll need a large telescope to see them. Iapetus, now a challenging 12th magnitude, reaches its eastern elongation tomorrow and sits a whopping 7.7 east of Saturn tonight.

Sunrise: 7:22 A.M. Sunset: 4:49 P.M. Moonrise: 1:21 A.M. Moonset: 12:15 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (35%) *Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40 N 90 W. The Moons illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.

Saturday, January 6 Venus passes 6 north of the bright star Antares at 3 A.M. EST. You can catch the pair about an hour before sunrise in the southeast, when magnitude 4 Venus appears just to the upper left of the magnitude 1.1 star. Its a lovely pairing, particularly because of Antares deep red color. This aging star has cooled down as its fuel runs low, lending it a ruby hue.

Adding to the sight, the delicate crescent Moon (just less than 30 percent lit) lies in Libra, to Venus and Antares upper right. The scene is an appealing one for astrophotographers as morning twilight begins to color the sky and the trio rises higher. The Moon will track east and pass close to both Antares and Venus in just a few days, so stay tuned to the morning sky for more.

If you prefer observing in the evening, theres some action for you tonight as well: The Galilean moons Europa and Ganymede are transiting the face of Jupiter. The event is underway at sunset in the Midwest, when Jupiter is high in the southeast. By 5:50 P.M. EST, Ganymede is just finishing its transit, about to slip off the southwestern limb of the planet. Europa is not yet halfway across, making its way from east to west south of Jupiters equator. It will finally exit the disk just before 7:30 P.M. EST, following Ganymede and pulling away to the west.

Keep watching and youll catch Europas shadow appear on the cloud tops not long after, around 7:40 P.M. EST. Nearly two hours later, Ganymedes much larger shadow joins it at 9:20 P.M. EST. The shadow is so large that it takes some 10 minutes to fully appear against the disk. The dark blot will then take almost two hours to cross Jupiters southern polar region.

Sunrise: 7:22 A.M. Sunset: 4:50 P.M. Moonrise: 2:25 A.M. Moonset: 12:40 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (26%)

Sunday, January 7 Colorful stars can be a delight to observe, particularly when they come in contrasting sets. If youre willing to stay out over the course of a few hours this evening, you can check out two particularly popular pairs: the famous star Albireo in Cygnus and its wintertime counterpart 145 Canis Majoris.

Lets start with Albireo itself, cataloged as Beta () Cygni. Youll want to observe this one first, as the Swan is setting in the west as the sky grows dark after sunset. Albireo marks the head of the graceful bird as it flies through the sky; the bright star Deneb (Alpha [] Cyg) is the Swans tail. Ninety minutes after sunset, Albireo is roughly 20 high. It glows at magnitude 3.1, readily visible to the naked eye. Pull out a telescope and youll discover not one but two stars, separated by about 35. The brighter sun shines golden yellow, while the fainter star is a hotter blue-white. Their stunning color contrast is readily visible to most observers.

A few hours later, around 9:30 P.M. local time, Cygnus has set but the stars of Canis Major have climbed high enough in the southeast to track down the so-called Winter Albireo. 145 Cma is fainter than Albireo at magnitude 4.8; it lies 3.5 northeast of magnitude 1.8 Wezen (Delta [] Cma) and about 10 east-southeast of Sirius, the brightest star in the northern sky. This beautiful double star looks much like Albireo, with a cooler but brighter yellow-orange primary and a hotter secondary of blue-white. This pair is slightly closer, roughly 27 apart still easy to split with most instruments.

Sunrise: 7:22 A.M. Sunset: 4:50 P.M. Moonrise: 3:34 A.M. Moonset: 1:12 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (17%)

Monday, January 8 Now its the Moons turn to visit Antares in Scorpius, passing just 0.8 north of the star at 10 A.M. EST. The Moon then passes 6 south of Venus at 3 P.M. EST.

Again, early morning is time to observe this scene. Look southeast around 6:15 A.M. local time to find the trio 12 high and rising as the sky starts to lighten with the coming dawn. The Moon is now just a sliver of light, roughly 11 percent lit with only its western limb illuminated as it wanes toward New. It sits about 1 from Antares, directly between this star and nearby magnitude 2.9 Sigma () Scorpii. About 5.7 north-northeast of the Moon is Venus, just waiting for Luna to slip due south in a few hours.

Take out a telescope for a more detailed view. On the Moon, you may be able to spot the small, dark round blot of Grimaldi Crater near the terminator that separates lunar night from day. Venus is also an excellent target, presenting an 80-percent-lit face that is a hefty 14 across. Even as the stars begin to fade, bright Venus will continue to stand out in fact, observing the planet in the brightening sky often offers a better view because of the lower contrast. Just take care to put away any optics well in advance of sunrise from your location, which may differ slightly from the time given at our standard location below.

Sunrise: 7:22 A.M. Sunset: 4:51 P.M. Moonrise: 4:44 A.M. Moonset: 1:53 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (10%)

Tuesday, January 9 Continuing its trek across the ecliptic, the Moon passes 7 south of Mercury at 2 P.M. EST. Mercury, too, is a morning planet, so youll need to be up early to catch this pairing as well.

Look southeast an hour before sunrise and the first thing youll likely spot is again bright Venus. Its the brightest thing in the sky! Drop down closer to the horizon and a little to the left to find the 5-percent-illuminated Moon and, to its upper left, magnitude 0.1 Mercury. The solar systems smallest planet spans just 7 on the sky, but through a telescope will readily show off its roughly half-lit (56 percent) face.

As you enjoy the scene, note the distance between Mercury and Venus. They are now 12.5 apart, but will move slightly closer day by day until the 17th, when they stand 11 apart. It can be hard to notice subtle motion one day at a time, so consider taking a shot of the morning sky as dawn approaches and then doing so again every day or two for the next week. Comparing your photos over time may better show the planets motion as they close in.

Sunrise: 7:22 A.M. Sunset: 4:52 P.M. Moonrise: 5:55 A.M. Moonset: 2:45 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (4%)

Wednesday, January 10 The Moon passes 4 south of Mars at 4 A.M. EST; the Red Planet, however, is still too close to the Sun and not yet visible. It should finally pop out from our stars bright glow next week.

In the evening sky tonight, asteroid 4 Vesta is passing near the famous supernova remnant M1 in Taurus this week. Often called the Crab Nebula, this glowing tangle of gas is all thats left of a massive star. Its explosive end was seen by astronomers on Earth in the year 1054.

Lets start by finding 3rd-magnitude Alheka (Zeta [] Tauri), already 40 high in the east two hours after sunset. This star marks the tip of Taurus southern horn, while Elnath marks the northern horns tip. M1 lies just 1 northwest of Alheka and tonight Vesta sits roughly between them, about 30 northwest of Alheka.

Vesta is 7th magnitude, about a full magnitude brighter than the magnitude 8.4 Crab. The two look quite different, with the asteroid resembling a faint star and the nebula more a thumbprint smear of grayish-white light. If you have trouble spotting M1 where you think it should be, try shifting your gaze to the edge of your eyepiece without physically moving your telescope. The nebulas soft glow may pop out in your peripheral vision; this is called averted vision, and it helps because the light-sensitive cells in your eye are located on the sides, while the color-sensing cells (which need more light to register an object) are in the center. Thus, looking directly at faint objects can make them more difficult to see.

Come back to this field over the next several nights to watch Vesta move slowly west-northwest, sliding due south of M1 on the 12th.

Sunrise: 7:22 A.M. Sunset: 4:53 P.M. Moonrise: 7:00 A.M. Moonset: 3:49 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (1%)

Thursday, January 11 New Moon occurs at 6:57 A.M. EST, leaving the heavens dark and perfect for deep-sky observing.

Lets look to Monoceros the Unicorn tonight, which houses the Rosette Nebula. Youll find the Rosette some 50 high in the south by 10 P.M. local time; it sits just 2 east of magnitude 4.4 Epsilon () Monocerotis. The Rosette itself stretches more than 1 across and surrounds the young star cluster NGC 2244. The cluster has a collective magnitude of 4.8, making it an easy target: Even a small scope from a dark site should show more than two dozen stars. Moving to larger apertures will increase this number to more than 100 young suns.

But what about the Rosette? This gaseous, petal-like gas complex is made up of several different regions, all sporting different catalog numbers. As a whole, the Rosette is best seen with a large telescope (10 inches or more) and lower magnification (around 50x). Use an OIII or nebula filter to cut down on the stars brightness and bring out the nebulas gauzy glow. Alternatively, smaller apertures can work well when coupled with a camera stacked or long exposures will help reveal what the eye cannot see in smaller instruments.

Sunrise: 7:22 A.M. Sunset: 4:55 P.M. Moonrise: 7:56 A.M. Moonset: 5:04 P.M. Moon Phase: New

Friday, January 12 Mercury reaches its greatest western elongation from the Sun at 10 A.M. EST, when it is 24 from our star. Check out the planet an hour before sunrise, where it now stands 11.7 east of Venus in the southeastern sky. Through your telescope, youll notice that Mercurys illuminated face has grown from earlier in the week its now 63 percent lit and magnitude 0.2, just slightly brighter than the last time we observed it.

Venus now sits level with Antares, 9to the left (east-northeast) of the red giant star. There are several other bright stars visible in the early-morning sky as well, lingering until the impending sunrise blots them from view. Altair, Lyra, and Deneb the stars of the Summer Triangle are rising in the east, to the left of Venus and Mercury. Vega is highest, with Deneb to its lower left and Altair to its lower right, closest to the horizon. Far above Venus and just slightly to the right is Arcturus in Botes; to the lower right of this star is Spica in Virgo.

Sunrise: 7:21 A.M. Sunset: 4:56 P.M. Moonrise: 8:42 A.M. Moonset: 6:23 P.M. Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (2%)

Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron.

Excerpt from:

The Sky This Week from January 5 to 12: Visitors to the Scorpion - Astronomy Magazine

New scientific results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Very Large Array (VLA), and Green Bank Observatory (GBO) will be revealed at multiple press conferences during the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) from January 8-11, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The AAS meeting includes a series of press conferences based on a range of themes. Presentations will highlight new research, including new types of planet and star formation, and the accidental discovery of a primordial galaxy.

Press conferences will be held in person during the conference, and streamed live on the AAS Press Office Page.

Note: Each press conference consists of a panel of scientists presenting 4-5 unique scientific results. The number listed in parentheses indicates the order of presentation for the listed result.

All press conferences are listed and will occur in Central Time.

Monday, 8 January 2024, 10:15 am CT Dust, Clouds & Darkness

A Polarized Dust Ring in the Milky Ways Center Natalie Butterfield (NRAO) (1)

Mystery of Star Formation Revealed by Hearts of Molecular Clouds Jin Koda (Stony Brook University) & Amanda Lee (U.Mass. Amherst) (3)

The Dark Galaxy J0613+52 Karen ONeil (Green Bank Observatory) (4)

Monday, 9 January 2024, 2:15 pm CT High-Energy Phenomena and Their Origins

Evolution of Planetary Disk Structures Seen for the First Time Cheng-Han Hsieh (Yale University) (3)

Tuesday, 9 January 2024, 2:15 pm CT High-Energy Phenomena and Their Origins

Spatially-resolved spectroscopy of dual quasars at cosmic noon with JWST and ALMA Yuzo Ishikawa (Johns Hopkins University) (1)

Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 10:15 am CT

A New Census of Neutral Clouds in the Milky Ways Nuclear Wind Jay Lockman (Green Bank Observatory)

Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 2:15 pm CT Stars, Disks & Exoplanets

JWSTs New View of Beta Pictoris Suggests Recent Episodic Dust Production from an Eccentric, Inclined Secondary Debris Disk

Christopher Stark (NASA Goddard) (3)

Thursday, 11 January 2024, 2:15 pm CT Oddities in the Sky

The Smith Cloud: A Dust Bowl Barreling Through Our Galactic Halo Johanna Vazquez (Texas Christian University) (3)

For embargo access for members of the press, please contact Jill Malusky at jmalusky@nrao.edu or Corrina Jaramillo Feldman at cfeldman@nrao.edu.

NRAO Media Contacts

Corrina C. Jaramillo Feldman Public Information Officer New Mexico VLA, VLBA, ngVLA Tel: +1 505-366-7267 cfeldman@nrao.edu

Jill Malusky NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager Tel: +1 304-460-5608 jmalusky@nrao.edu

In addition to the press conferences, dozens of papers with new and ongoing science results from NRAO and GBO facilities will be presented during AAS 243 conference sessions. Highlights will be posted to the NRAO website, the GBO website, and social media.

About NRAO

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under a cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

About Green Bank Observatory

The Green Bank Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation and is operated by Associated Universities, Inc.

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AAS 243 NRAO Press Announcement - National Radio Astronomy Observatory

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Download this detailed sky guide to discover what 2024 has in store for skywatchers: bright planets, bright comets, and a U.S. solar eclipse.

Cover credit: Astronomy magazine; Image credit: Alan Dyer

2024 is an exciting year for skywatchers.

Mercury makes several appearances this year, thanks to its 88-day orbit. The best of the bunch comes in the first week of September, when the world climbs highest above the eastern horizon before dawn. It appears nearly as good on mornings in early January and late December. If you want to see it at dusk, your best chance comes in the latter half of July.

Venus shines brilliantly before dawn from New Years Day until March. It then disappears in the Suns glow before returning to view at dusk in the latter half of July. And although Mars begins the year lost in the Suns glare, it reappears before dawn in late January and grows more prominent as the year progresses especially in autumn and winter.

Jupiter appears best around opposition in early December, though its a fine sight all year except in the weeks around solar conjunction in May. And Saturn provides a thrill for telescope owners from April through December, peaking in early September.

The years hallmark event is sure to be the April 8 total solar eclipse across North America. The stunning scene will play out wherever clear skies grace the path of totality, which begins on the Pacific Coast at Mazatln, Mexico, before heading northeast, crossing into the U.S. in Texas and then making its way to New England and the Canadian Maritimes.

2024 also brings us both a penumbral (March 25) and a partial (Sept. 17) lunar eclipse, as well as an annular solar eclipse Oct. 2. Annularity crosses Chile and Argentina, including Chiles Easter Island, where you can join Astronomy Editor David Eicher on the eclipse trip of a lifetime.

Meteor observing will suffer a bit of a down year, though the Eta Aquariids and Perseids should put on fine shows.

Finally, keep an eye to the sky for several promising comets in 2024, including C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS), 62P/Tsuchinshan, and 144P/Kushida early in the year, followed by 12P/Pons-Brooks in spring and C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in the fall.

Check out our comprehensive Sky Guide 2024 below for more details on these and many more events to watch this year!

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Your guide to the sky in 2024 - Astronomy Magazine

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While telescopes are popular for stargazing, binoculars for astronomy offer a more portable option for gazing into the heavens. Binoculars are extremely versatile, working well for general terrestrial observations as well as more celestial surveying. You can even use them handheld or on a mount. Whether you want to observe the moon or casually stargaze, the best binoculars for astronomy are great to take into nature and bring you closer to the stars.

Binoculars for astronomy require more specific specs than general-purpose binoculars, so we prioritized options with larger objective lens size and higher magnification. We also aimed to select options at various price points suitable for everyone from beginners to expert stargazers. While binoculars with image stabilization are excellent for astronomy use, they are quite expensive, so weve included models both with and without stabilization. In making our selections, we considered optical quality, size and weight, eye relief, and build quality.

Binoculars for astronomy will allow you to gaze up at the moon, spot deep space objects, check out planets, and more. While these advanced optics can be used handheld, wed recommend a tripod or mount of some variety to offer more stable, high-quality night sky views.

Specs

Pros

Cons

Canon makes some of the best image-stabilized binoculars available, so it should be no surprise that our top pick comes from the imaging giant. The Canon 1236 IS III binoculars for astronomy offer the companys typical high-end optics and Porro II prisms, resulting in a sharp, bright, colorful image. It also features a double field flattener, which produces a distortion-free image.

The 36mm objective lens diameter is slightly lower than what is typically recommended for astronomy use. However, these still offer plenty of light gathering for stargazing. Youll also be able to use them for things like bird watching, adding to their versatility. Plus, the smaller objective lens results in a more compact size ideal for most people, which is why it earned our top spot. These Canon binos provide 12x magnification, allowing you to see details on the moons surface.

What really makes these optics stand out is the image stabilization. Canon built these with technology similar to what they use in their EF lenses, resulting in much sharper images when holding the binoculars. Youll need two AA batteries for power, and they will typically get up to 12 hours of use. Simply put, once you use IS binoculars, you wont want to go back to anything else.

Specs

Pros

Cons

If money is no object and you want the best of the best, the Canon 1042 L IS WP binoculars are the way to go. These powerful binoculars for astronomy offer a large objective lens of 42mm, capturing tons of light for viewing even dim celestial objects. The 10x magnification is plenty for most astronomical observations and offers plenty of eye relief for a range of users.

Like the pair mentioned above, these feature Canons impressive image stabilization. It will almost look like you are using a tripod, giving you sharp, clear views. The L in the name refers to Canons top-tier line of optics. These feature two ultra-low dispersion (UD) lens elements (on each side), which effectively corrects for chromatic aberration. Images will be sharp, bright, and vibrant, offering excellent views of the stars.

Of course, there are downsides to these binos. First, they are expensive. If you are a casual user, they will be overkill. Second, they are fairly bulky and heavy. You likely wont want to hold them for long periods, and they will add weight to your pack if you are hiking. But this is the pair to get if you are serious about stargazing with your binoculars.

Specs

Pros

Cons

Celestron is one of the top telescope producers, so it makes sense that the company would also produce top-notch binoculars for astronomy. Celestron SkyMaster 25100 is essentially the equivalent of a telescope in your hands. It offers a whopping 25x magnification and an objective lens measuring 100mm. That massive lens will let in tons of light. Paired with the high level of magnification, youll see epic details in the night sky, such as Jupiters belts, star clusters, and more.

These binos feature BaK-4 prisms and multi-coated lenses, enhancing contrast for superb viewing quality. They are ruggedly built with a water-resistant design. The SkyMaster also utilizes a rubber-armored housing, which protects them from damage and provides a better grip.

Unfortunately, such power comes with great responsibility. In this case, that means lots of weight. The SkyMaster weighs 8.75 pounds and, naturally, is larger than any other option on our list. They also dont offer any image stabilization. As a result, you wont want to hold these by hand for very long. Luckily, it has a built-in tripod adapter, making it easier to hook up to a tripod for hands-free use. All of this also comes at a rather reasonable price, so you dont have to break the bank to see craters on the moon.

Pros

Cons

Weight is an important consideration when backpacking or hiking, even when you hope to take advantage of the dark skies. Thats where the Nikon PROSTAFF P7 binoculars come into play. They are very compact and lightweight, coming in at just 1.3 pounds and just under six inches long. It will be much easier to bring them along on your trips. And, it will be easier to hold for longer viewing sessions as well.

The PROSTAFF P7 are also ruggedly built and suited for adventures. They are waterproof to 3.3 feet and nitrogen-filled for fogproof performance. The 0.62-inch eye relief works well for those who wear glasses, and the turn-and-slide eyecups are adjustable to work well for a group of people. A rubber-armored body protects from drops and bumps and makes them easier to hold. Nikon used a water- and oil-repellent coating on both the objective and eyepiece lenses, which helps keep them free of water and fingerprints.

Although these are not specifically designed for stargazing, they will definitely do the job. The 10x magnification is enough for casual night sky viewing, and the 42mm objective lens will gather plenty of light. Nikon designed these with high-quality optics and Phase-Correction coating for superb image quality and clarity. It also features a dielectric high-reflective multilayer prism coating, which maximizes light transmission. Finally, the locking diopter ring, typically only found on much more expensive optics, keeps your setting locked in.

Specs

Pros

Cons

You dont have to spend a fortune to get started with binoculars for astronomy. This budget-friendly pair also happens to be great for beginner stargazers. They are compact and lightweight, making them ideal binoculars for hiking. Yet they still offer 10x magnification and a 50mm objective lens. Those specs will allow you to see the moon in all its glory easily, as well as some star clusters and more.

Celestron built these with a rugged design, including a rubber coating to protect from drops and improve grip. They are water resistant, so you wont need to panic if you get caught in a rain shower. They are not nitrogen-filled, though, so they tend to fog up.

The main downside to this budget set of binos is that they require collimationthe alignment of the lenses. While not difficult, it does take time away from your stargazing. The good news is that Celestron used multi-coated optics, which results in a quality image with good contrast and mostly accurate color. If you are just getting started or want some kid-friendly binoculars for astronomy, these will do a great job.

Binoculars are, for the most part, rather simple devices without much in the way of fancy technology. But, there is some specific lingo that you should be aware of when shopping for binoculars for astronomy to ensure you pick the right optics for viewing the night sky.

All binoculars include two numbers in the name, such as 1050. The first number refers to magnification. For stargazing, youll typically want at least 10x magnification. If you want to see the moon or planets in more detail or search for smaller deep space objects, 12x will be better. However, remember that more magnification will exaggerate movement while holding the binoculars. So, if you will only handhold the binos, we suggest sticking to 10x or lower.

The second number tells you the size of the objective lens, measured in millimeters. In our example above, that would be 50mm. The objective lens is the lens closest to the object youre viewing, or the one opposite of the eyepieces. This number tells you how large the binoculars are and how much light they let in.

Larger objective lenses collect more light, which is better for stargazing. But it also means larger binoculars, which makes them harder to handhold. As a result, youll need a balance unless you only plan on using a tripod or mount of some type. For astronomy use, youll want at least 40-50mm, though 50-60mm will allow you to see fainter celestial objects.

If youve ever spent time looking through binoculars, you may have noticed how hard it is to keep them steady. That movement gets even more dramatic in higher-powered binoculars for astronomy, which can make detailed observations quite challenging. If you want superb image quality and dont always want to rely on a tripod, look for a pair of image-stabilized binoculars.

There are different types of image stabilization in binos. Some offer passive stabilization (also called mechanical stabilization) with suspended prisms, which dont require any batteries. Other types of stabilization include digital, optical, and hybrid stabilization (a combination of digital and optical). Each type has pros and cons, though hybrid stabilization offers the best results, albeit at the highest cost.

There are two varieties of binocular design: Roof prisms and Porro prisms. In Porro prism binoculars, the objective lens is offset from the eyepiece, requiring the light to travel in a zig-zag pattern. This design can result in a higher quality image, but they are bulky and heavy compared to roof prism binos.

The prisms in Roof prism binoculars line up closely, allowing the objective lens to be in a straight line from the eyepiece. The Roof prism design results in a more compact, lightweight form factor. However, it is a more complicated design, which results in a much higher price tag compared to Porro prism binoculars.

Exit pupil refers to the round, bright image you see when looking through the eyepiece. The larger the diameter, the brighter the image, which is important for astronomy. To calculate this, divide the objective lens diameter by the magnification. So, for example, a 1050 binocular would offer an exit pupil of 5mm.

The key here is to find binoculars for astronomy with an exit pupil roughly the same size as the human pupil when dilated for darkness. In dark conditions, most pupils dilate to around 7mm. Opting for binoculars with an exit pupil of 2.5mm will make the image look quite dark.

Eye relief is the distance from the eyepiece lens to the exit pupil, where the image is formed. Put simply, it is how far you can hold the binoculars away from your eyes and still see the full image without vignetting. If you wear glasses, youll need binoculars with longer eye relief. Be sure to go with an eye relief greater than 14mm if you use glasses.

Weight might not be the first thing that comes to mind when choosing binoculars for astronomy. However, it can be incredibly important. If you plan on handholding your binoculars, look for a more compact, lightweight option. Otherwise your arms will tire quickly, but more importantly, they will be hard to hold steady. And if you cant hold them steady, you wont get a very good view of the night sky.

If you opt for a heavier option or plan long observation sessions with high magnification, we recommend mounting the binoculars to a tripod.

Binoculars with 10x magnification and an objective lens of 50mm (1050) are the most popular option for astronomy, thanks to the balance of size and magnification. However, if you want to see objects in more detail or hope to view faint deep space objects, something like 1570 or larger is best.

Depending on the objective lens and magnification on your binoculars, youll be able to use them to view the moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae, and even some galaxies.

While you can certainly look up at the stars with any binoculars, not just any pair will allow for in-depth astronomy. For astronomy use, youll need optics that are able to gather plenty of light and offer higher magnification than general use. Budget and travel-friendly binoculars typically wont make the cut as a result.

How much you should spend on binoculars for astronomy depends on how you plan on using them and what you hope to view. For beginners, a few hundred dollars is plenty. For those wanting epic night sky views, youll want to spend closer to $1,000 for high-quality optics, impressive image stabilization, and plenty of light-gathering abilities.

Binoculars for astronomy can serve as an excellent alternative to bulky telescopes. These optics allow you to view celestial objects on the go, making it a great choice for camping, hiking, or travel of any type. Binoculars are also easier to store, which is ideal for those living in smaller spaces. Despite their convenience, they still allow you to see plenty of wonders in the night sky.

Popular Science started writing about technology more than 150 years ago. There was no such thing as gadget writing when we published our first issue in 1872, but if there was, our mission to demystify the world of innovation for everyday readers means we would have been all over it. Here in the present, PopSci is fully committed to helping readers navigate the increasingly intimidating array of devices on the market right now.

Our writers and editors have combined decades of experience covering and reviewing consumer electronics. We each have our own obsessive specialtiesfrom high-end audio to video games to cameras and beyondbut when were reviewing devices outside of our immediate wheelhouses, we do our best to seek out trustworthy voices and opinions to help guide people to the very best recommendations. We know we dont know everything, but were excited to live through the analysis paralysis that internet shopping can spur so readers dont have to.

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The best binoculars for astronomy in 2024 - Popular Science

A telescope scans the sky in search of signals sent from advanced alien civilizations in this artist's concept. Credit: paulista/Shutterstock.

Dont bother wondering if alien civilizations can hear our radio broadcasts or not. According to a new study, sufficiently advanced aliens can already see us.

The research, set to be published to the journal Acta Astronomica, starts with a very basic assumption: that the laws of physics as we currently understand them are largely correct and hold across the universe. While this might not be true, anything past that assumption would be largely groundless speculation, so its as good a starting point as any.

This assumption allows us to conclude that if an alien civilization wants to directly observe us, then theyre going to need a big telescope. Us humans have built a variety of large structures on and around our planet, like the great pyramids, skyscrapers, and spacecraft (the authors did not discuss larger, more visible signs of technological development, like roads, canals, and farms). If aliens had a similar level of technology to ourselves, they might detect something funny in the spectrum of light coming from the Earth, but their image of our planet would be just a tiny dot. If they really wanted to see if we were up to something interesting, they would need a lot more resolution.

In astronomy to get more resolution we need bigger optics. To have the resolving power to take a picture of the pyramids, however, an alien civilization sitting hundreds of thousands of light-years away will need a telescope roughly ten times greater than the orbit of the Earth. This is an understandably daunting task, even for highly advanced aliens, so instead they can opt for a technique called long-baseline interferometry, where astronomers send multiple telescopes very far from each other and observe the same target, combining the data later to make a coherent image.

Earth astronomers have had great success using this technique at radio wavelengths, but we do not have the technological sophistication necessary to apply the technique to visible wavelengths of light, because we cannot record the information fast enough. But advanced aliens might just be able to do the trick, according to the researchers.

Aliens can only see what weve built after weve already built it, and it takes time for those light signals from our constructions to make their way out into the cosmos. That sets an upper limit on the distance of our visibility to any other civilization. For example, the great pyramids of Giza were built roughly 3,000 years ago, and so aliens have to be within 3,000 light-years to be able to see them. Similarly, aliens farther than roughly 100 light-years cant see our skyscrapers, and farther than a few tens of light-years couldnt pick out our orbiting space stations.

So the question of our visibility becomes whether a sufficiently advanced civilization sits within any of those bubbles.

Life may or may not be common in the universe. At the present time we have no evidence whatsoever of any life existing outside the Earth, so we can only guess. Presumably, and this is only a guess, intelligence is even rarer than life. And sophisticated intelligence is even rarer. The Kardashev scale gives us a sense of different levels of sophistication of a species, and from there we can estimate how common those levels are.

For example, a Kardashev Type-I civilization can harness the energy equivalent to the total solar energy hitting their planets surface. The authors of the paper argue that such a civilization could not construct a powerful enough telescope, so even if theyre nearby, they wont see us.

Next up the ladder is a Type-II civilization, which can use all the energy output of a typical star. These civilizations just might have the sophistication to directly observe us from hundreds or thousands of light-years away, but they are probably much rarer than their less sophisticated cousins.

Our visibility comes down to the number of Type-II civilizations nearby. If, for example, there are millions of such civilizations currently inhabiting the Milky Way, then conceivably one of them could be within the bubble of a few thousand light-years, and they could, at this very moment, be watching as the ancient Egyptians build their first pyramids.

If advanced civilizations are less common, however, then the average distance between intelligent aliens is so large that even the nearest one likely sits outside out visibility bubble, and they dont know yet that intelligent creatures have started large-scale engineering projects on the Earth. Theyre just going to have to wait.

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Are we visible to alien astronomers? This study makes the case - Astronomy Magazine

An international team of astronomers has revealed mysterious star formation at the far edge of the galaxy M83. This research was presented today in a press conference at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The research used several instruments operated by the National Science Foundations National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), along with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japans (NAOJ) Subaru Telescope and the NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).

Normally, new stars form as a result of diffuse atomic gas shrinking into concentrations of molecular gas, called molecular clouds, whose high density cores at their center trigger star formation. This process is common in the inner part of galaxies, but becomes increasingly rare toward galaxy outskirts.

A surprising number of very young stars are known to exist at the far edges of many galaxies, but scientists could not understand how and why these stars were made, because they could not pinpoint their formation sites. This research discovered 23 molecular clouds that showed a different type of star formation. The large bodies of these clouds were not visible like normal molecular cloudsonly their star-forming dense cores, the hearts of the clouds, were observed. This discovery provides an important clue to understanding the physical processes that lead to star formation in general.

The star formation at galaxy edges has been a nagging mystery since their discovery by the NASA GALEX satellite 18 years ago said astronomer Jin Koda, of Stony Brook University, who led this research, Previous searches for molecular clouds in this environment turned out unsuccessful. David Thilker, of Johns Hopkins University, who originally discovered the star formation activity occurring in the outskirts of M83 and other galaxies, commented, It has been gratifying to see the search for dense clouds associated with the outer disk finally come to fruition, revealing a characteristically different observational fingerprint for the molecular clouds.

The revelation of these molecular clouds uncovered a link to a large reservoir of diffuse atomic gas, another discovery by this research. Normally, atomic gas condenses into dense molecular clouds, within which even denser cores develop and form stars. This process is in operation even at galaxy edges, but the conversion of this atomic gas to molecular clouds was not evident, for reasons that are yet unresolved.

Amanda Lee, who was an undergraduate student on Kodas research team, processed GBT & VLA data for these findings. Through this, she discovered the atomic gas reservoir at the galaxy edge. We still do not understand why this atomic gas does not efficiently become dense molecular clouds and form stars. As often is the case in astronomy, pursuing answers to one mystery can often lead to another. Thats why research in astronomy is exciting, adds Lee, who is now pursuing her Ph.D. in astronomy at UMass Amherst.

Thilker added, I am excited to see this new opportunity leveraged more broadly in the outer disk environment in order to gain a deeper insight for physical processes central to the inside-out growth of galaxies still happening in the current cosmic epoch.

When I started, I didnt know what role my work would play. It was very exciting to see it contribute to the big picture of star formation, said Lee.

Watch the press conference here.

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

About Green Bank Observatory

The Green Bank Observatory is a major facility of the National Science Foundation and is operated by Associated Universities, Inc. The first national radio astronomy observatory in the US, its home to the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope, the largest fully-steerable radio telescope in the world.

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Corrina Jaramillo Feldman, Public Information Officer NRAO/VLA/ngVLA

cfeldman@nrao.edu

505-366-7267

Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

jmalusky@nrao.edu

304-460-5608

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Mystery of Star Formation Revealed by Hearts of Molecular Clouds - National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Astronomers ask questions like, What is that? not very often. Cosmological phenomena such as stars, planets, black holes, and galaxies are the most commonly observed and understood.

However, something unprecedented was detected in 2019 by the recently finished Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope: radio wave circles so big that the waves contained entire galaxies in their centers.

The question of why the circles were there was as much of an interest to the astrophysics community as what these circles were. Now, a group led by Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Alison Coil of the University of California, San Diego,may have discovered the solution: the circles are shells created by outflowing galactic winds, maybe from massive supernovae explosions. The research was published in Nature.

These extremely quick outflowing winds can be produced by massive starburst galaxies, which Coil and her colleagues have been researching. Star formation is incredibly common in starburst galaxies.

Gas from the star and its surroundings is released back into interstellar space when stars explode and die. The force of several stars exploding close to one another at the same time can drive gas out of the galaxy and into outflowing winds, which have a speed of up to 2,000 kilometers per second.

These galaxies are really interesting. They occur when two big galaxies collide. The merger pushes all the gas into a very small region, which causes an intense burst of star formation. Massive stars burn out quickly and when they die, they expel their gas as outflowing winds.

Alison L. Coil, Chair and Professor, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California

In 2019, odd radio circles (ORCs) were detected for the first time, thanks to technological advancements that made it possible for ASKAP to scan a large area of the sky at very faint limits. The Milky Way galaxy is roughly 30 kpc across, so the ORCs were massive, measuring hundreds of kpc across, where a kpc is equivalent to 3,260 light years.

Black hole mergers and planetary nebulae were two of the theories put forth to explain the origin of ORCs, but radio data was unable to distinguish between the two. Enticed, Coil and colleagues speculated that the radio rings might represent an evolution from the later phases of the starburst galaxies the scientists had been observing.

The scientists started investigating ORC 4, which is the first known ORC that can be seen from the Northern Hemisphere.

Until then, there had been no optical data and ORC observations had only been made through the radio emissions. When Coils group examined ORC 4 with an integral field spectrograph at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaii, the group discovered an enormous amount of compressed, heated, and highly luminous gas - much more than is seen in the typical galaxy.

The group started working as detectives, but there were more questions than answers. The group calculated the age of the stars within the ORC 4 galaxy to be about 6 billion years old using optical and infrared imaging data.

Coil states, There was a burst of star formation in this galaxy, but it ended roughly a billion years ago.

A co-author of the paper, Cassandra Lochhaas is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who specializes in the theoretical side of galactic winds. Lochhaas used a suite of numerical computer simulations to mimic the bulk of shocked, cool gas in the central galaxy as well as the size and characteristics of the large-scale radio ring.

According to Lochhaas models, the outflowing galactic winds would continue to blow for 200 million years before ceasing. When the wind ceased, cooler gas fell back onto the galaxy from a reverse shock, while forward-moving shock continued to push high-temperature gas out of the galaxy and form a radio ring. The simulation ran for 750 million years, roughly equivalent to ORC 4s estimated stellar age of one billion years.

To make this work you need a high-mass outflow rate, meaning its ejecting a lot of material very quickly. And the surrounding gas just outside the galaxy has to be low density, otherwise the shock stalls. These are the two key factors. It turns out the galaxies weve been studying have these high-mass outflow rates. Theyre rare, but they do exist. I really do think this points to ORCs originating from some kind of outflowing galactic winds.

Alison L. Coil, Chair and Professor, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California

Not only can outflowing winds help astronomers understand ORCs, but ORCs can also help astronomers understand outflowing winds. Coil concludes, ORCs provide a way for us to see the winds through radio data and spectroscopy. This can help us determine how common these extreme outflowing galactic winds are and what the wind life cycle is. They can also help us learn more about galactic evolution: do all massive galaxies go through an ORC phase? Do spiral galaxies turn elliptical when they are no longer forming stars? I think there is a lot we can learn about ORCs and learn from ORCs.

Computer Simulation of Outflowing Galactic WindPlay

This simulation of an outflowing galactic wind provides a possible explanation for the origin of odd radio circles. Video Credit: Cassandra Lochhaas/Space Telescope Science Institute.

Coil, L. A., et al. (2024). Ionized gas extends over 40 kpc in an odd radio circle host galaxy. Nature. doi/s41586-023-06752-8

Source: https://ucsd.edu/

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Astronomers Solve the Mystery of Giant Radio Circles - AZoQuantum

An international team of astronomers have found ring and spiral structures in very young planetary disks, demonstrating that planet formation may begin much earlier than once thought. The results were presented today at the 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Using data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatorys (NRAO) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) the team captured images of Class 0 and Class I planetary disks, which are much younger than the Class II disks observed by earlier disk surveys. Class II disks are known to have gaps and ring structures, indicating that planetary formation is well underway. ALMAs early observations of young protoplanetary disks have revealed many beautiful rings and gaps, possible formation sites of planets, said Cheng-Han Hsieh, PhD Candidate at Yale University, I wondered when these rings and gaps started to appear in the disks

This new study shows that structure begins to form when the disks are about 300,000 years old, which is incredibly fast. Young disks can have multiple rings, and spiral structures, or evolve into a ring with a central cavity. These observations challenge our understanding of how planets form, particularly large Jupiter-like planets. It is difficult to form giant planets within a million years from the core accretion model, said Cheng-Han Hsieh. Future studies will pinpoint the exact time when the disk substructure appears and how that connects to early planet formation.

Watch the press conference here.

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

jmalusky@nrao.edu

304-460-5608

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Early Evolution of Planetary Disk Structures Seen for the First Time - National Radio Astronomy Observatory

A first glimpse of the unparalleled data that will be gathered when science operations of the Japan-led XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory start later this year has been made public.

Scientists can now get a thorough look at the chemical composition of a nearby galaxy by examining a spectrum of stellar wreckage and a picture of hundreds of galaxies taken by the satellite's science team.

XRISM will provide the international science community with a new glimpse of the hidden X-Ray sky, and we will not only see X-Ray images of these sources but also study their compositions, motions, and physical states.

Richard Kelley, The US Principal Investigator for XRISM, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

Pronounced "crism," XRISM is spearheaded by NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), with support from ESA (European Space Agency). It debuted on September 6th, 2023.

It will investigate the hottest spots, biggest structures, and objects with the highest gravity in the cosmos. It is intended to detect X-Rays with energies up to 12,000 electron volts. In contrast, visible light has between two and three electron volts of energy.

Resolve and Xtend, the two instruments of the mission, are each at the center of an X-Ray Mirror Assembly that was created and constructed at Goddard.

NASA and JAXA created the microcalorimeter spectrometer known as Resolve. It is housed inside a refrigerator-sized container filled with liquid helium and runs at a temperature just slightly above absolute zero.

Resolve's 6-by-6-pixel detector warms up in proportion to incoming X-Rays. The device measures the energy of each individual X-Ray, providing previously unobtainable source information.

The mission team utilized Resolve to investigate N132D, a supernova remnant and among the most luminous X-Ray sources within the Large Magellanic Cloud. This dwarf galaxy resides approximately 160,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado. The expanding remnants are thought to be roughly 3,000 years old, formed by the collapse and explosion of a star approximately 15 times the mass of the Sun when it depleted its fuel.

There are peaks in the Resolve spectrum that correspond to silicon, sulfur, calcium, argon, and iron. This is the object's most comprehensive X-Ray spectrum ever acquired, showcasing the amazing science the mission will perform once normal operations start later in 2024.

These elements were forged in the original star and then blasted away when it exploded as a supernova. Resolve will allow us to see the shapes of these lines in a way never possible before, letting us determine not only the abundances of the various elements present but also their temperatures, densities, and directions of motion at unprecedented levels of precision. From there, we can piece together information about the original star and the explosion.

Brian Williams, XRISM Project Scientist, NASA, Goddard

JAXA developed Xtend, the second instrument aboard XRISM, which is an X-Ray imager. Because of its wide field of view, XRISM can see a region that is almost 60% bigger than the full moon's average apparent size.

An X-Ray image of Abell 2319, a dense galaxy cluster located in the northern constellation Cygnus and approximately 770 million light-years away, was taken by Xtend. It is presently going through a significant merger event and is the seventh brightest X-Ray cluster in the sky.

The cluster, which demonstrates Xtend's broad field of vision, is 3 million light-years across.

Even before the end of the commissioning process, Resolve is already exceeding our expectations. Our goal was to achieve a spectral resolution of 7 electron volts with the instrument, but now that its in orbit, were achieving 5. What that means is well get even more detailed chemical maps with each spectrum XRISM captures.

Lillian Reichenthal, XRISM Project Manager, NASA, Goddard.

Despite a problem with its detector's aperture door, Resolve is operating at peak efficiency and has already initiated fascinating scientific research. Despite multiple tries, the door that was intended to shield the detector prior to launch has not opened as intended.

Rather than stopping the mission at 300 electron volts as planned, the door stops lower-energy X-Rays. The XRISM team is looking into several strategies for unlocking the door and will keep examining the phenomenon. There is no impact on the Xtend device.

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/goddard/

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XRISM's Revolutionary Insights into X-Ray Astronomy - AZoQuantum

Br. Guy Consolmagno, SJ, is the director of the Vatican Observatory (the "Specola"). In an interview he discusses his work and what makes this institution unique.

A universe full of stars is big enough to hold intangible things like Truth and Beauty, says the director of the Vatican Observatory (Specola), American Jesuit Guy Consolmagno, in an interview with I.MEDIA. For Brother Consolmagno, who shares his fondest memories and the unique characteristics of the small Catholic states Observatory, contemplating the stars naturally leads to an imminent realization of God.

People generally think of an astronomers job studying the countless stars as mysterious and fascinating. What does your work as the Vaticans chief astronomer consist of?

Br. Guy Consolmagno, SJ: In fact, my day-to-day life can seem rather mundane and tedious. I spend very few working hours looking at the stars; mostly I look at computer screens. Indeed, half of us working at the Specola are theorists, puzzling out how to understand the things the observers bring us using detailed computer programs.

Even those of us who get to use the telescope are only on the mountain a few weeks every year (not looking through the telescope, but looking at computer generated images from the telescope cameras). The rest of our time is spent reducing the data, which is to say removing flaws and artifacts and extracting from the images the exact measurement of how big or how bright the objects are that we observe.

What we all have in common, however theorists and observers is that we then need to write up our results into papers that can be presented at meetings and published in journals. And we need to follow the work that our colleagues are doing. The real work, and the real joy in our work, comes from sharing what we find with the rest of the scientific community. In addition, some of us who have the talent to do so are also deeply involved in communicating those results to students or the general public in the form of talks and books.

On Being CC

Is there a life lesson youve learned from studying the universe?

Br. Consolmagno: Most of us myself included tend to live in a world that is very small and flat, where I am at the center and the other important places around me are the refrigerator and my bed! But studying the universe including just going outside at night and looking up at the stars, with the same wonder that we had as children reminds us that the real universe is so much bigger than that. A universe full of stars is big enough to hold intangible things like Truth and Beauty. Looking out, and out, and out, eventually leads you to wonder why it all exists; in the words of Leibnitz, Why is there something instead of nothing? From such contemplation one is naturally led to an imminent realization of God.

What is your most cherished memory so far from your career as an astronomer?

Br. Consolmagno: There are so many moments searching for meteorites in Antarctica, seeing my first student work cited in the popular astronomy magazine Sky and Telescope, the first time I saw the Eta Carina nebula from New Zealand But perhaps one particular moment was when I had the sudden realization that one of my pet theories, an idea that I wrote up in a paper back in 1978 that has been cited in the scientific literature for decades, was actually (probably) wrong! It made me feel like St. Paul on the road to Damascus.

The writer Isaac Asimov, himself a scientist, once observed that the most exciting thing to hear in a lab is not hurrah, I have found it! but rather, hmm thats odd Realizing that the universe is stranger than we thought, not just in general but in this particular way, this particular instance, which I can explore more deeply with this observation or that calculation, is opening a door to a whole new world of possibilities. Nothing can be more exciting than that!

Youre a special kind of astronomer, being a Jesuit too. Do your faith and your astronomy have an impact on each other?

Br. Consolmagno: Being a Jesuit has certainly changed the way I do my science. It reminds me that the goal of my work is not simply to earn money or fame, or to show up my rivals in the field. Rather, I do it for the joy that astronomy brings me, a joy that I recognize as evidence of the presence of God.

Likewise, my astronomy has enriched my faith; rather than being the case that science gives me faith actually, I had faith before I was a scientist but rather, science and contemplating the universe gives me an understanding of why I need faith. Only faith can make sense and give meaning to the joy and beauty I encounter when I gain some understanding of the universe and how it works.

What is the place of the Vatican Observatory on the international stage?

Br. Consolmagno: The members of the Vatican Observatory play a very large role in the international world of astronomy. Of course, we are good astronomers who have studied at the same schools and attend the same international meetings as our colleagues. In our annual reports you can find hundreds of research papers that our members publish in scientific journals every year; in virtually all of them, we are collaborating with lay scientists in institutions from around the world.

But by being at the Vatican we are not competing with our colleagues for the same limited government funding, and we are encouraged by the Vatican to help out in the organizing and administration of organizations and meetings that other scientists often do not have the time to do.

The Vatican is a member of the International Astronomical Union and our astronomers have been elected to a number of positions including presidents, vice presidents, and secretaries of various divisions and commissions. To give but two examples, Fr. Chris Corbally was on the committee that wrote the definition of a planet that granted Pluto its new status, and I serve on the working group that names features like craters and valleys on the surfaces of planets. In addition to the IAU, I was also elected to a term as president of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in 2006, and as president of the Meteoritical Society (term starting in 2025).

We are also often called upon to serve on panels or as referees to judge proposals from our fellow scientists applying for research funding from NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and other national space funding agencies.

One unique way that we have made an impact in international astronomy is with our biennial summer schools. Since 1986 we have sponsored four-week gatherings of 25 students from around the world in an intensive study of some aspect of modern astrophysics with some of the best astronomers in the world (Including Nobel laureates). Students from past schools now are playing important roles in contemporary astronomy.

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Vatican's chief astronomer talks about stars, beauty, truth - Aleteia