Category Archives: Astronomy

Jupiters Great Red Spot is a hurricane-like storm about 10,200 miles (16,500km) wide and at least 150 years old. On July 10, the Juno spacecraft will complete the first ever up-close study of this storm, flying 5,600 miles (9,000km) above the Great Red Spot. In preparation for this landmark opportunity to observe some of our solar systems most extreme weather, the Gemini and Subaru Telescopes on Mauna Kea have taken some stunning images of Jupiter to supplement the data Juno is expected to obtain.

Why are Earth-based observations so important, when Juno is sitting in orbit around the giant planet? Observations with Earth's most powerful telescopes enhance the spacecraft's planned observations by providing three types of additional context, Juno science team member Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory explained in a press release. We get spatial context from seeing the whole planet. We extend and fill in our temporal context from seeing features over a span of time. And we supplement with wavelengths not available from Juno. The combination of Earth-based and spacecraft observations is a powerful one-two punch in exploring Jupiter.

The infrared image obtained with the Gemini North Telescopes Near-InfraRed Imager (NIRI) on May 18 allowed astronomers to probe the uppermost regions of Jupiters atmosphere. As one of the highest-altitude features on the planet, the Great Red Spot appears as a bright white oval with narrow streaks on either side. These streaks are thought to be atmospheric features undergoing stretching by the storms high winds.

On the same night, the Subaru Telescope imaged Jupiter using its Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS). This data revealed structures further down inside the storm, such as its cold and cloudy interior increasing toward its center, with a periphery that was warmer and clearer, said Orton.

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NASA releases stunning views of Jupiter's Great Red Spot - Astronomy Magazine

July 4, 2017 by Tim Stephens A false color image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3359, which is about 50 million light years from us. NGC 3359 appears to be devouring a much smaller gas-rich dwarf galaxy, nicknamed the Little Cub, which contains 10,000 times fewer stars than its larger companion. The contour lines show where the gas is being stripped from the Little Cub, whose stars are located in the central blue circle. Credit: SDSS Collaboration

A primitive galaxy that could provide clues about the early universe has been spotted by astronomers as it begins to be consumed by a gigantic neighboring galaxy.

The Little Cub galaxyso called because it sits in the Ursa Major or Great Bear constellationis being stripped of the gas needed to continue forming stars by its larger companion. The find means scientists now have a rare opportunity to observe a dwarf galaxy as its gas is removed by the effects of a nearby giant galaxy to learn more about how this process happens.

As the Little Cub has remained almost pristine since its formation, scientists also hope its elements will reveal more about the chemical signature of the universe just minutes after the Big Bang.

The research, carried out by UC Santa Cruz and Durham University, UK, is being presented on Tuesday, July 4, at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting.

The Little Cub and its larger neighbor, a spiral galaxy called NGC 3359, are about 200 to 300 thousand light years apart, and approximately 50 million light years from Earth. Gas from the Little Cub is being stripped away by its interaction with NGC 3359, which has up to 10,000 times as many stars as the Little Cub and is similar to our Milky Way. By observing this cosmic feast, scientists hope to understand more about how and when gas is lost from smaller galaxies.

"We may be witnessing the quenching of a near-pristine galaxy as it makes its first passage about a Milky Way-like galaxy," said lead author Tiffany Hsyu, a graduate student in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. "It is rare for such a tiny galaxy to still contain gas and be forming stars when it is in close proximity to a much larger galaxy so this is a great opportunity to see just how this process works. Essentially the larger galaxy is removing the fuel that the Little Cub needs to form stars, which will eventually shut down star formation and lead to the smaller galaxy's demise."

The researchers also hope to gain an insight into the make-up of the very early universe by studying the hydrogen and helium atoms that are being illuminated by the small number of very bright stars within the Little Cub (which also has the less romantic name SDSS J1044+6306). Since this galaxy is so primitive, it may still preserve the hydrogen and helium atoms that were created minutes after the Big Bang.

Research coauthor Ryan Cooke, Royal Society University Research Fellow in Durham University's Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, said, "We know by studying the chemistry of the Little Cub that it is one of the most primitive objects currently known in our cosmic neighborhood. Such galaxies, which have remained dormant for most of their lives, are believed to contain the chemical elements forged a few minutes after the Big Bang. By measuring the relative number of hydrogen and helium atoms in the Little Cub we might be able to learn more about what made up the Universe in the moments after it began 13.7 billion years ago."

The researchers hope further observations will find more pristine galaxies where the chemical signature of the early universe might be found.

The Little Cub was initially identified as a potentially pristine dwarf galaxy in data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Follow-up observations were conducted using the 3-meter Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory and the 10-meter Keck II telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory.

"The Little Cub's discovery is a terrific example of using the smaller 3-meter-class Lick Observatory to scan through hundreds of candidates before focusing on the best sources with UC's 10-meter Keck telescope," said coauthor J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

A paper describing the discovery of Little Cub has been submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Explore further: Hubble scopes out a galaxy of stellar birth

This image displays a galaxy known as ESO 486-21 (with several other background galaxies and foreground stars visible in the field as well). ESO 486-21 is a spiral galaxyalbeit with a somewhat irregular and ill-defined ...

This dramatic image shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's view of dwarf galaxy known asNGC 1140, which lies 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. As can be seen in this image NGC 1140 has an ...

Galaxies today fall roughly into two categories: elliptically-shaped collections of reddish, old stars that formed predominantly during a period early in the history of the universe, and spiral shaped objects dominated by ...

The Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy, pictured in this new image from the Wide Field Imager camera, installed on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory, is a close neighbour of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Despite ...

Despite being less famous than their elliptical and spiral galactic cousins, irregular dwarf galaxies, such as the one captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, are actually one of the most common types of galaxy ...

The drizzle of stars scattered across this image forms a galaxy known as UGC 4879. UGC 4879 is an irregular dwarf galaxyas the name suggests, galaxies of this type are a little smaller and messier than their cosmic cousins, ...

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'Little Cub' gives astronomers rare chance to see galaxy demise - Phys.Org

Amy Templeman says her love of Saskatchewan's living skies instilled in hera love of astronomy so strong, she named her daughter Aurora.

It's also the reason she's been planning for five years to drive thousands of kilometres across North America to watch the day-time sky turn black for about two minutes.

On Aug. 21, Templeman, her partnerTravis and six-month-old daughter Aurora will be travelling to Missouri to watch the first total solar eclipse to cross the entire United States in 99 years.

"I've been interested in the sky since I was a little girl," she said.

"I would basically trick my dad into letting me stay up late if I asked him questions about astronomy."

In 2012, Templeman watched a partial solar eclipse over the spectacular mountain view at Lake Louise, Alta.

She and Travis shared the experience with some of the hospitality workers at the popular tourist spot, taking turns to look throughspecial eclipse glasses that make it safe to watch.

"The sun was setting over the mountains and it was a partial eclipse, so it looked like the cookie monster had taken a bite out of the sun," said Templeman.

Although it was fascinating to watch through the safety of the glasses, there was no noticeable difference in the daylight.

Templeman said she and Travis knew about this year's total solar eclipse at the time, and immediately decided to make sure they were were in the U.S. to see it.

The path of "totality," where the moon will completely obscure the sunlight, stretches from Oregon to South Carolina. In those states, millions of people will experience approximately 2 minutes of darkness in the middle of the day.

Templeman said her family chose the city of Columbia, Missouri because they have friends there.

However, it is also one of the places where the darkness is expected to last the longest. The feeling of night during the day is expected to be so convincing that birds and other animals will begin their evening routines.

A map of the the path of the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse. (CBC News)

Templeman said it was lucky she had booked accommodation early because she had heard many local hotels around Columbia had no vacancies, with numerous parties and events planned in the city that day.

Templeman is one of many Canadians travelling south for the event.

"It will be really interesting to see a bunch of like-minded people congregate," she said.

"It's a really small band across the U.S. that you'll be able to see, or not see, the sun."

Although the path of totality is entirely in the U.S., NASA predictions indicate that a partial eclipse will still be visible in parts of Canada. About 80 per cent of the sun is expected to be covered by the moon for those watching from Regina.

Looking at the eclipse can seriously damage a person's eyes. Anyone planning to watch needs special eclipse glasses, which can be found online or at some science stores or science centres. Do not look at the sun, even if a sliver of it is visible.

Templeman is not sure how she will feel when darkness falls over the crowd.

"I read other accounts of people feeling a sense of calm," she said.

"I've never heard of people being uneasy but, I don't know."

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Love of astronomy born under living skies drives Sask. woman on road trip to view total eclipse - CBC.ca

Astronomy is a natural science. It is the study of everything outside the atmosphere of Earth.

It studies celestial objects (such as stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets and nebulae) and processes (such as supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cosmic microwave background radiation). This includes the physics, chemistry of those objects and processes.

A related subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with studying the Universe as a whole,[1] and the way the universe changed over time.

The word astronomy comes from the Greek words astron which means star and nomos which means law.[2] A person who studies astronomy is called an astronomer.

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Ancient people used the positions of the stars to navigate, and to find when was the best time to plant crops. Astronomy is very similar to astrophysics. Since the 20th century there have been two main types of astronomy, observational and theoretical astronomy. Observational astronomy uses telescopes and cameras to observe or look at stars, galaxies and other astronomical objects. Theoretical astronomy uses maths and computer models to predict what should happen. The two often work together, the theoretical predicts what should happen and the observational shows whether the prediction works.

Astronomy is not the same as astrology, the belief that the patterns the stars and the planets may affect human lives.

Early astronomers used only their eyes to look at the stars. They used maps of the constellations and stars for religious reasons and also to work out the time of year.[3] Early civilisations such as the Maya people and the Ancient Egyptians built simple observatories and drew maps of the stars positions. They also began to think about the place of Earth in the universe. For a long time people thought Earth was the center of the universe, and that the planets, the stars and the sun went around it. This is known as the geocentric model of the Universe.

Ancient Greeks tried to explain the motions of the sun and stars by taking measurements.[4] A mathematician named Eratosthenes was the first who measured the size of the Earth and proved that the Earth is a sphere. A theory by another mathematician named Aristarchus was, that the sun is in the center and the Earth is moving around it. This is known as the Heliocentric model. Only a small group of people thought it was right. The rest continued to believe in the geocentric model. Most of the names of constellations and stars come from Greeks of that time.[5]

Arabic astronomers made many advancements during the Middle Ages including improved star maps and ways to estimate the size of the Earth.[6]

During the renaissance a priest named Nicolaus Copernicus thought, from looking at the way the planets moved, that the Earth was not the center of everything. Based on previous works, he said that the Earth was a planet and all the planets moved around the sun. This heliocentrism was an old idea. A physicist called Galileo Galilei built his own telescopes, and used them to look more closely at the stars and planets for the first time. He agreed with Copernicus. Their ideas were also improved by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton who invented the theory of gravity. At this time the Catholic Church decided that Galileo was wrong. He had to spend the rest of his life under house arrest.[7]

After Galileo, people made better telescopes and used them to see farther objects such as the planets Uranus and Neptune. They also saw how stars were similar to our Sun, but in a range of colours and sizes. They also saw thousands of other faraway objects such as galaxies and nebulae.

The 20th century saw important changes in astronomy.

In 1931, Karl Jansky discovered radio emission from outside the Earth when trying to isolate a source of noise in radio communications, marking the birth of radio astronomy and the first attempts at using another part of the electromagnetic spectrum to observe the sky. Those parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that the atmosphere did not block were now opened up to astronomy, allowing more discoveries to be made.

The opening of this new window on the Universe saw the discovery of entirely new things, for example pulsars, which sent regular pulses of radio waves out into space. The waves were first thought to be alien in origin because the pulses were so regular that it implied an artificial source.

The period after World War 2 saw more observatories where large and accurate telescopes are built and operated at good observing sites, normally by governments. For example, Bernard Lovell began radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank using leftover military radar equipment. By 1957, the site had the largest steerable radio telescope in the world. Similarly, the end of the 1960s saw the start of the building of dedicated observatories at Mauna Kea in Hawaii, a good site for visible and infra-red telescopes thanks to its high altitude and clear skies.

The next great revolution in astronomy was thanks to the birth of rocketry. This allowed telescopes to be placed in space on satellites.

Satellite-based telescopes opened up the Universe to human eyes. Turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere blurs images taken by ground-based telescopes, an effect known as seeing. It is this effect that makes stars "twinkle" in the sky. As a result, the pictures taken by satellite telescopes in visible light (for example, by the Hubble Space Telescope) are much clearer than Earth-based telescopes, even though Earth-based telescopes are very large.

Space telescopes gave access, for the first time in history, to the entire electromagnetic spectrum including rays that had been blocked by the atmosphere. The X-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet light and parts of the infra-red spectrum were all opened to astronomy as observing telescopes were launched. As with other parts of the spectrum, new discoveries were made.

From 1970s satellites were launched to be replaced with more accurate and better satellites, causing the sky to be mapped in nearly all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Discoveries broadly come in two types: bodies and phenomena. Bodies are things in the Universe, whether it is a planet like our Earth or a galaxy like our Milky Way. Phenomena are events and happenings in the Universe.

For convenience, this section has been divided by where these astronomical bodies may be found: those found around stars are solar bodies, those inside galaxies are galactic bodies and everything else larger are cosmic bodies.

Diffuse Objects:

Compact Stars:

Burst events are those where there is a sudden change in the heavens that disappears quickly. These are called bursts because they are normally associated with large explosions producing a "burst" of energy. They include:

Periodic events are those that happen regularly in a repetitive way. The name periodic comes from period, which is the length of time required for a wave to complete one cycle. Periodic phenomena include:

Noise phenomena tend to relate to things that happened a long time ago. The signal from these events bounce around the Universe until it seems to come from everywhere and varies little in intensity. In this way, it resembles "noise", the background signal that pervades every instrument used for astronomy. The most common example of noise is static seen on analogue televisions. The principal astronomical example is: Cosmic background radiation.

There are way astronomers can get better pictures of the heavens. Light from a distant source reaches a sensor and gets measured, normally by a human eye or a camera. For very dim sources, there may not be enough light particles coming from the source for it to be seen. One technique that astronomers have for making it visible is using integration, (which is like longer exposures in photography).

Astronomical sources do not move much: only the rotation and movement of the Earth causes them to move across the heavens. As light particles reach the camera over time, they hit the same place making it brighter and more visible than the background, until it can be seen.

Telescopes at most observatories (and satellite instruments) can normally track a source as it moves across the heavens, making the star appear still to the telescope and allowing longer exposures. Also, images can be taken on different nights so exposures span hours, days or even months. In the digital era, digitised pictures of the sky can be added together by computer, which overlays the images after correcting for movement.

With radio telescopes smaller telescopes can be combined together to create a big one, which works like one as big as the distance between the two smaller telescopes.

Adaptive optics means changing the shape of the mirror or lens while looking at something, to see it better.

Data analysis is the process of getting more information out of an astronomical observation than by simply looking at it. The observation is first stored as data. This data will then have various techniques used to analyse it.

Fourier analysis in mathematics can show if an observation (over a length of time) is changing periodically (changes like a wave). If so, it can extract the frequencies and the type of wave pattern, and find many things including new planets.

A good example of a fields comes from pulsars which pulse regularly in radio waves. These turned out to be similar to some (but not all) of a type of bright source in X-rays called a Low-mass X-ray binary. It turned out that all pulsars and some LMXBs are neutron stars and that the differences were due to the environment in which the neutron star was found. Those LMXBs that were not neutron stars turned out to be black holes.

This section attempts to provide an overview of the important fields of astronomy, their period of importance and the terms used to describe them. It should be noted that astronomy in the Modern Era has been divided mainly by electromagnetic spectrum, although there is some evidence this is changing.

Solar astronomy is the study of the Sun. The Sun is the closest star to Earth at around 92 million (92,000,000) miles away.[8] It is the easiest to observe in detail. Observing the Sun can help us understand how other stars work and are formed. Changes in the Sun can affect the weather and climate on Earth. A stream of charged particles called the Solar wind is constantly sent off from the Sun. The Solar Wind hitting the Earth's magnetic field causes the northern lights.[9] Studying the Sun helped people understand how nuclear fusion works.

Planetary Astronomy is the study of planets, moons, dwarf planets, comets and asteroids as well as other small objects that orbit stars. The planets of our own Solar System have been studied in depth by many visiting spacecraft such as Cassini-Huygens (Saturn) and the Voyager 1 and 2.

Galactic Astronomy is the study of distant galaxies. Studying distant galaxies is the best way of learning about our own galaxy, as the gases and stars in our own galaxy make it difficult to observe. Galactic Astronomers attempt to understand the structure of galaxies and how they are formed through the use of different types of telescopes and computer simulations.

Hydrodynamics is used in astronomy for mathematically modelling how gases behave. Strong magnetic fields found around many bodies can drastically change how these gases behave, affecting things from star formation to the flows of gases around compact stars. This makes MHD an important and useful tool in astronomy.

Gravitational wave astronomy is the study of the Universe in the gravitational wave spectrum. So far, all astronomy that has been done has used the electromagnetic spectrum. Gravitational Waves are ripples in spacetime emitted by very dense objects changing shape, which include white dwarves, neutron stars and black holes. Because no one has been able to detect gravitational waves directly, the impact of Gravitational Wave Astronomy has been very limited.

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Astronomy - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Learn about animals, astronomy and more scientific wonders at 6000 N. Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach.

A storied machine responsible for some of the greatest advances in modern astronomy, its 200-inch primary mirror set the size limit for five decades.

Yes, astronomy is typically extremely visual, but there are tons of ways to interact with data thats not visual at all.

Something else that makes this part of the country special, from an astronomy standpoint: Another total solar eclipse will swing by April 8, 2024.

The findings, described in a paper accepted to Physical Review Letters, cement the idea that gravitational-wave astronomy a whole new way to observe some of the most powerful events in the universe is here to stay.

Dr. Eugene Parker, from the University of Chicago's department of astronomy and astrophysics, debuts his Parker Solar Probe on May 31, 2017.

Yangs work stood out even among other excellent projects, said Len Duda, who just retired from the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., and served as a coach for the physics and astronomy division at the Intel competition.

This is the eighth annual Mall event that organizer Don Lubowich, astronomy outreach coordinator at Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y., has assembled.

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Astronomy | Definition of Astronomy by Merriam-Webster

30 June 2017 Astronomy Now

This orange blob shows the nearby star Betelgeuse, as seen by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This is the first time that ALMA has ever observed the surface of a star and this first attempt has resulted in the highest-resolution image of Betelgeuse available.

Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars currently known with a radius around 1400 times larger than the Suns in the millimeter continuum. About 600 light-years away in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), the red supergiant burns brightly, causing it to have only a short life expectancy. The star is just about eight million years old, but is already on the verge of becoming a supernova. When that happens, the resulting explosion will be visible from Earth, even in broad daylight.

The star has been observed in many other wavelengths, particularly in the visible, infrared, and ultraviolet. Using ESOs Very Large Telescope astronomers discovered a vast plume of gas almost as large as our Solar System. Astronomers have also found a gigantic bubble that boils away on Betelgeuses surface. These features help to explain how the star is shedding gas and dust at tremendous rates. In this picture, ALMA observes the hot gas of the lower chromosphere of Betelgeuse at sub-millimeter wavelengths where localised increased temperatures explain why it is not symmetric. Scientifically, ALMA can help us to understand the extended atmospheres of these hot, blazing stars.

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See the sharpest-ever view of giant Betelgeuse - Astronomy Now Online

On Monday, July 3 beginning at 7:30 p.m. join astronomers from Caltech for Astronomy on Tap.

At this event, youll learn about the supermassive black holes and weird planets in talks by Elena Murchikova: The Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy and by Dr. Erik Petigura: Is Our Solar System Weird? In addition, they will host an astronomically-themed quiz with great space-related prizes for the winners.

Come with science questions, as there will be many world-renowned astronomers to mingle with between talks. In addition, Der Wolfskopf features a special Astronomy on Tap Happy Hour for discount prices on beer and food throughout the event.

Astronomy on Tap is a nation-wide phenomenon where professional astronomers give informal talks in local bars on a variety of scientific topics followed by lots of discussion and interaction with the public. Here in Los Angeles, we at Caltech are spearheading this effort in collaboration with researchers from UCLA, Carnegie, The Planetary Society, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (operated by Caltech for NASA).

The event is free and open to all ages 21+. Doors open at 4:00 p.m. For more information about our events and affiliated lecture+stargazing series visit http://www.astro.caltech.edu/outreach/aot.

Der Wolfskopf Pub is located at 72 N. Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Pasadena.

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Bring Your Thirst for Beer and Knowledge to Astronomy on Tap - Pasadena Now

(Daniel Zantzinger / Skywatcher's Guide)

It is perhaps indisputable that skywatching July's warm summer nights is the most comfortable, spectacular and awe inspiring outdoor activity going.

The trick, the essence of summer's night skywatching, lies in first rooting in the core concentration of stars in the south, and then slowly climbing the galactic arms toward zenith and beyond.

Whether you're using your eyes, binoculars, telescopes, scientific journals and/or telescope-directing websites, there's more than enough out there to stimulate the imagination, provoke wonder and astound the senses.

For many skywatchers, this is a great time to head away from the city lights into the hills; to the high country with its deep and darkened valleys; to our state parks and national monuments; and to someone else's sparsely populated, protected properties.

This is the season of the scorpion, the swan, the deeply troubled Hercules and myriad other sidereal (star-like) residents of the Milky Way. Moreover, each one of these house crystalline and nebulous denizens of their own, who in turn hold in their embraces secrecies unfolded only to skywatchers making the effort to look for them.

Find fishhook-shaped Constellation Scorpius, "the scorpion," low and due south at 11 tonight (July 1) and around nightfall on the 31st. To its east is teapot-shaped Constellation Sagittarius, "the centaur archer," and to its north is Constellation Ophiuchus, "the serpent-bearer." Saturn, having reached opposition just two weeks ago, is well positioned here for viewing until the end of August.

These areas of space are so rich that if you figuratively speaking were to draw your last breath right after careful and thorough examination of them, you will have died having a life fulfilled with few regrets.

The moon is bright here in the month's first 10 days or so, so it's best to get serious July 16 and thereafter.

Darker skies mean better views. Longer expanses of time between ocular exposures to white light after a minimum of 12 minutes mean better viewing ability. Use red flashlights. Avoid looking at car headlights, or you'll have to start the clock all over again. A good dose of Zen patience and measured breathing provides for you a better overall experience. Speak minimally, and your companions will have a better overall experience.

When you're staring at Sagittarius, you're gazing in the direction of the galactic core, that is, toward the center of the Milky Way. Most of the wow factor in the southern sky is from here toward zenith.

From our line of sight, three arms of the spiral barred (striped) galaxy intersect at the Scorpius/Sagittarius border. This allows us to observe not only millions of stars, but also diffuse nebulae M8, M17 and M20; and the relatively young and open star clusters M6, M7, M21, M23 and M25 circulating with the disc. These clusters have a few hundred to several thousand stars.

Scorpius and Sagittarius and our southern sky's hemisphere for that matter is home to an abundance of globular star clusters, spherical concentrations of several hundreds of thousands of much older and denser stars that dwell in the galaxy's outer halo.

With the naked eye, find red giant star Antares, the "rival of Mars," the heart of the scorpion, an irregular star that slowly pulses from magnitude 0.6 to 1.6. Train the telescope 1.3 degrees west to M4 to find one of the two closest globular clusters to the solar system.

Clocking in at 12.2 billion years old, M4 has some 13 billion-year-old white/degenerate dwarf stars invisible to earthbound skywatchers that are among the oldest known stars in the Milky Way galaxy. In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope photographed white dwarf PSR B1620-26 with a planet with a mass of 2.5 times that of Jupiter.

With binoculars and/or a motorized telescope, crawl up the galaxy's arms into Constellation Cygnus, "the swan,"to the Great Globular Cluster (M13) in Constellation Hercules at zenith, and then into the great beyond.

The moon is full at 10:07 p.m. July 8, and is called the Full Thunder Moon.

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Astronomy: July is the season of Scorpius - Longmont Times-Call

Stars twinkle because were looking at them through Earths turbulent atmosphere. Quasars are not stars, but the massive disks around supermassive black holes sitting at the centers of faraway galaxies, gobbling up immense amounts of dust and gas. These objects show variability on a variety of timescales at different wavelengths, including variations in radio light. A recent study now suggests that some quasars might twinkle because of features around foreground stars when we peer at them from our vantage point on Earth.

The work, led by Mark Walker of Manly Astrophysics and published in the Astrophysical Journal, began with observations taken with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisations (CSIRO) Compact Array radio telescope in Australia. While studying the quasar PKS 1322110, it began twinkling violently, said Walker in a press release. When the team followed up with the 10-meter Keck telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, they noticed the quasar is very close on the sky to the hot star Spica, said collaborator Vikram Ravi of the California Institute of Technology.

That realization brought another twinkling quasar to mind: J1819+3845, which is close to the bright star Vega on the sky. Based on that knowledge, the team examined data of J1819+3845 and a third violently twinkling quasar, PKS 1257326, which is near the star Alhakim.

Could these alignments be pure chance? The researchers calculated that the likelihood of two twinkling quasars residing near hot stars on the sky was about one in ten million.

Based on their re-examination of data taken J1819+3845 and PKS 1257326, We have very detailed observations of these two sources, said co-author Hayley Bignall of CSIRO. They show that the twinkling is caused by long, thin structures.

These structures, the team thinks, are filaments of warm gas around hot stars, much like the filaments seen in the Helix Nebula. The Helix Nebula contains globules of hydrogen gas, which are stretched out into filaments by ultraviolet radiation from the central star. Although the Helix Nebula is home to an older star and the globules likely formed recently, the astronomers think similar structures might sit around younger stars.

They might date from when the stars formed, or even earlier, said Walker. Globules don't emit much light, so they could be common yet have escaped notice so far.

If so, these globules and the filaments associated with them could be responsible for the twinkling of background quasars when they affect the focus of the radio signals traveling through them, rather than changes in emission from the quasars themselves. Determining the true reason for the twinkling will tell astronomers more about both the physics of distant quasars and the stars in our own galaxy.

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Could foreground stars make faraway quasars twinkle? - Astronomy Magazine

July finds bright Jupiter in the south-southwestern sky at dusk, and Saturn in the southeast, closing to 65 degrees apart by months end. Before dawn, Venus gleams in the east, against the attractive background of Taurus the Bull, with its two prominent star clusters and bright reddish star.

On some dates, the moon forms attractive pairings with four of the five naked-eye planets, and four of the five bright zodiacal stars.

In Julys evening twilight, bright Jupiter attracts attention in the southwest, with bluish Spica nearby to its left, and golden Arcturus high above them. Yellowish Saturn glows steadily in the southeast to south-southeast, in contrast to the vigorously twinkling reddish star Antares, heart of the Scorpion, to its right. The star reaches south in mid-twilight near months end. The Summer Triangle, topped by its brightest star, blue-white Vega, ascends in the eastern sky. The Triangles other members are Altair, its southern point, and Deneb, trailing Vega.

Mercury has a several-weeks-long but very low apparition in the west-northwest to west. It loses nearly three-quarters of its brightness during July, fading from magnitude -1.0 to +0.4, and passes close by fainter, departing Regulus (+1.4) on July 25.

In Julys morning twilight, Venus continues climbing higher until late in the month, despite its having reached its greatest angular distance from the sun, 46 degrees, in early June. Thats because in July, the sun-to-Venus line inclines at an ever-steeper angle to our morning twilight horizon. Before dawn brightens much, watch Venus, shifting a little more than one degree daily against background stars, pass 6 degrees south of the Pleiades star cluster on July 5, and within 3.5 degrees north of Aldebaran on July 14. If you observe each morning at the same time interval, Venus will appear almost stationary during July, while the starry background rises toward the upper right, behind Venus. Note Capella far to the north (left or upper left) of Venus. Before months end, Orions brightest stars, Betelgeuse and Rigel, will appear in the east (with his striking three-star belt, not plotted, midway between the two), and Geminis Pollux, with Castor 4.5 degrees above it, will emerge in the east-northeast. Before mid-August, the Dog stars, Procyon and Sirius, will follow Orion into the eastern sky, completing the Winter Triangle with Orions shoulder, Betelgeuse.

On July mornings, the Summer Triangle of Vega, Altair and Deneb is still well up in west, and Fomalhaut crosses south toward southwest.

The moon and planets in July:On the evening of July 1, the gibbous moon appears several degrees north of Spica, with bright Jupiter just to their right; on July 5, the moon passes even more widely north of Antares. On the evening of July 6, the moon passes a few degrees north of Saturn. The moon is full two nights later, on Saturday, July 8. By that date, Mercury can be glimpsed very low in the west-northwestern evening twilight. Look to the lower right of Regulus,by 30 degrees on July 5, 15 degrees on July 14, 10 degrees on July 17, and shrinking to 5 degrees by July 21. Well return for another look at Mercury a few days later, after the moon has returned to the western early evening sky.

On July 8, we can catch the full moon rising in the east-southeast shortly before sunset; on the next evening, moonrise occurs within half an hour after sunset. Thereafter, the waning gibbous moon rises a little later and farther north each night. By July 14, the moon rises just before midnight, nearly due east. Instead of staying up late to wait for moonrise, get outdoors before sunrise, and follow the waning moon from July 9 through July 21 or 22. Venus, against a pretty background of the stars of Taurus, provides another reason to arise early, before the sky brightens much. Watch Venus go 6 degrees south of the Pleiades star cluster on July 5; just 3.5 degrees north of reddish-orange Aldebaran on July 14; a wide 7 degrees south of Elnath (Beta Tauri, tip of the Bulls northern horn) on July 25; and very close to third-magnitude Zeta Tauri, the southern horn, on July 27. (Use binoculars to see the faint star near brilliant Venus on the 27th.) The waning crescent moon adds special beauty to the scene on three mornings: On July 19, find the moon to the upper right of Venus, Aldebaran and the Hyades star cluster. On July 20, the crescent moon will be just a few degrees to the south (lower right) of Venus. An hour before sunrise on July 21, the moon will be low in the east-northeast, well to the lower left of Venus, while Orions shoulder, Betelgeuse, will be rising widely to the lower right of the moon.

The moon rises at about the same time as Venus on July 20. Two days later, on July 22, binoculars may be required to spot the very old crescent.Look for the hairline 1 percent moon only 2 degrees up, one-half hour before sunrise, just 21-22 hours before new.

That new moon occurs on July 23, at 2:46 a.m.one lunar month before the Aug. 21 solar eclipse! (See the May column at CVIndependent.com for a list of resources regarding that very special event.) The first view of this months young crescent moon is expected on the evening of July 24, within a half-hour after sunset. The 4 percent illuminated moon will then be 8 degrees up, 10 degrees north of west, at an age of 41-42 hours after new. As the sky darkens a bit, but before the moon gets too low, look a few degrees to the upper left of the moon for bright (magnitude +0.1) Mercury, with the fainter star Regulus (+1.4) just to the planets upper left. By the next evening, July 25, the crescent moon will have skipped to the upper left of the Mercury-Regulus pair, then at their closest, within a degree. Brighter Mercury will appear to the south (lower left) of Regulus. The evening of July 26 finds the moon far to the upper left of the now-widening pair.

On the evening of July 28, bright Jupiter is closely to the lower right of the fat crescent moon; note Spica several degrees to the left of Jupiter. On the next evening, July 29, the fat crescent moon, half a day short of first quarter, appears to the upper left of Jupiter and Spica, while Mercury reaches greatest elongation, very low, just north of west, and 27 degrees from the sun (which is below the horizon while you can see Mercury).

Check the website of the Astronomical Society of the Desert at http://www.astrorx.org for a listing of and directions to our star parties at Sawmill Trailhead, our high-altitude site (elevation 4,000 feetwear warm clothes), starting at dusk on Saturday, July 22, Aug. 19, Sept. 23 and Oct. 14. Also, check out the Skys the Limit Observatory and Nature Center in Twentynine Palms, at skysthelimit29.org.

Robert C. Victor, formerly a staff astronomer at Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, is now retired and enjoys providing sky watching opportunities for school children in and around Palm Springs. Robert D. Miller did graduate work in planetarium science, astronomy and computer science at Michigan State University, and remains active in research and public outreach in astronomy.

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July Astronomy: This Month and Next Are the Best Time of Year to Check Out Jupiter's Moons and Saturn's Rings - Coachella Valley Independent