WHAT TO BELIEVE

by Terence Dickinson
SkyNews Editor

I have always been fascinated with the difference between what I regard as "public astronomy," by which I mean the tidbits of celestial knowledge that one hears in coffee-shop or office water-cooler conversation, and the telescope/astronomy-laden talk commonly heard among backyard skywatchers. Not too surprisingly, there can be a world of difference.

For example, one water-cooler topic recently was the "Mars Spectacular" e-mail making the rounds in August. You probably know the one. It claimed that Mars would look as large as the Full Moon on August 27 at 12:30 a.m. "It will look like the Earth has two moons!" the message proclaimed. Nonsense, of course. It was a hoax.

Yet, in late August I had a few newspaper and radio station news people calling checking just in case it was true. I guess I've been immersed in astronomy too long, but how could any adult even think for a moment that the sky would suddenly have two moons--and that the ONLY way people are finding out about it is through spam e-mail and coffee shop conversations! (For details on how the hoax got started, see the excellent website www.snopes.com)

I suppose I could fly off the handle on a rant at this point about the state of critical thinking and lack of science literacy among the general public. But I won't. Furthermore, I shouldn't. The world is not going you-know-where in a handbasket. Here in this country, people are better educated than ever before, and, in my view at least, more civilized than ever before.

The fact is, knowledge of astronomy is nice to have, but it is not something one needs to know as an essential life skill, such as the ability to read well in at least one language, and the ability to managing your personal finances. I long ago accepted that most folks neither know much nor care much about astronomy. Many are interested and would like to know more about the cosmos but there are always other priorities.

With this in mind, I have always found particular fascination with polls conducted by reputable polling firms that include astronomy-related questions. One that caught my eye recently was a poll of 1000 adults in the United States showing that 57 percent say it is "somewhat" or "very likely" that life exists on other planets. The survey, conducted by the Rasmussen polling firm, found that 35 percent say life on other planets is not very likely, or not at all likely.

I wasn't at all surprised. I've been following this line of polling question for decades. The figures just mentioned are almost identical to earlier surveys conducted since the space age began 50 years ago. Thus, more than half of the population think we are not alone in the universe, and about one third say the reverse.

And it's not just in the USA. The figures are almost the same in the several similar surveys conducted in Canada on this subject since the 1960s. Perhaps predictably, younger adults are more likely to think life will be found on other planets than their elders. Seventy-three percent of adults under 30 say it's likely or very likely that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Among seniors, just 38% say it's likely or very likely that life exists on other planets. On this question, men and women think about the same. Across all age groups, there are few significant differences in the responses between men and women.

The survey was conducted during the June mission of the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station, a mission seen by those surveyed as so routine that few were paying any attention to it. Specifically, only 9% said that they were following stories of the mission on a daily basis, a significantly lower percentage than a generation ago. Even so, 72% still maintain a favorable opinion of the manned space program, only slightly less than a generation ago.

I think it's safe to assume that when asked a general question like, "Do you think it's likely that life exits on other planets?" as asked in this poll, most people automatically think of creatures more or less like humans rather than lower forms of life. Thus, what the poll tells us is that more than half of the adult population think we are not alone in the universe, and that creatures something like us are out there.

Celestial Observing Tips, September 2007

by Todd Carlson
SkyNews Assistant Editor

1) The Moon is beside Mars on September 5. Rising in the east after midnight, Mars appears as a moderately bright "star" to the right of the Moon. Mars will continue to increase in brightness as it approaches opposition in December. Most backyard astronomy telescopes won't show any detail on the small desert planet until late November. Keep in mind that two ride-on lawn mower-sized robotic spacecraft, Spirit and Opportunity, continue to explore Mars at this very moment.

2) On the morning of September 9, the thin crescent Moon is to the left of Venus close to the eastern horizon near 5:00 a.m. A viewing location with an unobstructed horizon offers the best opportunity for viewing the pair.

3) The Moon is beside Jupiter in the evening sky on September 18. Found low along the southwestern horizon, Jupiter is bright and easy to identify. When viewed with binoculars, up to four of the planet's moons are visible - appearing as tiny stars - on either side of the planet.

4) The first two weeks of September present the first opportunity to observe the Andromeda galaxy (M31) in the late evening sky. This is the most distant object visible to the unaided eye. Through binoculars, the galaxy appears as a distinct oval-shaped smudge, easily discerned from nearby stars (provide you are well away from light polluted skies). With a 6-inch or larger telescope, dust lanes and two companion galaxies, M32 and M110 can be seen. M31 is approximately 2.4 million light-years away.

BINOCULARS BEST FOR BEGINNING BACKYARD ASTRONOMY

by Terence Dickinson
SkyNews Editor

You don't have to own a telescope to be an amateur astronomer. Binoculars will reveal an amazing variety of cosmic sights. In my opinion, a good binocular is a better first instrument for the budding backyard astronomer than the so-called beginner's telescopes that appear every year about two months before Christmas in big-box discount stores. Binoculars are easier to use, provide bright, right-side-up images, and have a range of other applications besides astronomy.

Any size and type of binoculars will get you started, but the precise optics in better quality models produce images of celestial objects that are brighter and sharper than cheaper models of the same size. There is usually a good reason why one binocular is three times the price of another even though they look the same on the outside.

A popular size binocular is 8x40, which means a magnification of 8 times and main lenses 40mm in diameter. The minimum for celestial observation is 7 magnification, usually written 7x, and 30mm lenses. Maximum is 10x and 56mm lenses. You would think that the more power the better, but more magnification of the image also means more magnification of the quivers and shakes of your arms as you hold the binoculars to your eyes. I consider 10x the practical limit.

Similarly, bigger main lenses are a good thing because larger lenses mean more light is collected, which means a brighter image - a particularly important advantage in astronomy. But bigger lenses also mean bigger binoculars and more weight. In my opinion, 56mm is the limit for handheld glasses. This is why the only optical product sold by SkyNews is 8x56 binoculars, which I think is the ideal size for backyard astronomy. Other sizes frequently used in astronomy are 7x50, 10x50 and 8x42.

An essential binocular accessory for astronomy is an adapter for attaching the glasses to a camera tripod. One type of adapter (about $12) is L-shaped with a bolt at the top of the L that screws into a threaded hole at the front of the binocular's focusing bar. The base of the L attaches to the tripod like the base of a camera. When buying new binoculars, ensure that they have the threaded receptacle, not all do. If you already own a binocular without the threaded hole, a clamp tripod adapter is available for about $20. The difference in image clarity between hand-held and tripod-mounted binoculars is especially striking at night.

What celestial sights can binoculars show? Here's an abbreviated list:

- Fantastic detail on the moon, including at least 100 craters, mountain ranges and flat plains that seventeenth-century astronomers thought were seas.

- Countless thousands of stars in the Milky Way that are invisible to the unaided eye. This is a good time of year to see the Milky Way if you can get well away from city lights.

- Star colors become more evident with binoculars than without. Besides plain old white, stars range from sapphire blue to yellow, orange and red.

- From two to four of the large moons of Jupiter can be seen close beside the brilliant planet. (Jupiter is that bright object in the southwest during autumn evenings.)

- The planets Uranus and Neptune, which are too dim to be seen with unaided eyes.
The Andromeda Galaxy, a huge city of stars larger than our entire Milky Way Galaxy, is plainly seen as an oval smudge high in the east around midnight at this time of year.

- Star clusters of exquisite beauty, such as the Pleiades and Hyades, are seen in their entirety in binoculars whereas most telescopes (due to their smaller fields of view) can show only portions of them.

All backyard astronomers have binoculars whether or not they own a telescope. They are essential equipment.

CELESTIAL OBSERVING TIPS, AUGUST 2007

by Todd Carlson
SkyNews Assistant Editor

On August 21 the Moon will be one degree below Antares and six degrees below Jupiter. Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, translates as "rival of Mars" and glows a fiery red colour. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, appears as a bright creamy-white star and is brighter than any other object in that part of the sky (other than the Moon).

A total eclipse of the Moon will occur in the early morning hours of August 28 when the Moon will be dimmed to less than one one-thousandth of its normal brightness as it passes through the Earth's shadow. Observers in Alberta and British Columbia will have the best seats in the house as they will see the entire eclipse in a dark sky. From Manitoba and Saskatchewan, dawn begins during totality. Areas further east will see the Moon set during totality. The eclipse is visible without optical aid, though binoculars offer enhanced views of the coppery colour of the shadowed Moon. For more detail, see the July/August SkyNews, or www.skynews.ca.

SEEING SATELLITES

by Terence Dickinson
SkyNews Editor

Any clear evening this summer you can catch a satellite. Just watch the sky for the first hour after the stars become visible at dusk and you’ll see several steady, starlike dots march across the constellations.

One could be the International Space Station, another a military spy satellite, a third simply a spent rocket still in orbit. A satellite easily visible to the unaided eye is typically 200 to 400 kilometres up, travels at 28,000 km/hr and crosses the sky in two or four minutes.

With a little experience, distinguishing a satellite from an airplane is easy. Most aircraft have either flashing lights or red or green wing lights, though a few have a steady white light like a satellite. Binoculars usually reveal engine exhaust or other lights on planes that appear to the naked eye as single white lights. Satellites always appear starlike but untwinkling.

Satellites are made visible by sunlight shining on their metallic surfaces. As a satellite changes orientation with respect to the observer as it passes over, its brightness can surge for a few seconds because of direct reflection of sunlight from a solar panel or other flat surface. If the satellite fades and disappears as it cruises across the sky, it has entered the Earth’s shadow. The Earth’s shadow climbs higher as the sun sinks lower, which is why the best time to scan for satellites is the first hour after darkness falls.

Well away from city lights, an observer on a careful watch should see a dozen or more satellites in that first hour. The number drops after that and is quite low around midnight or 1 a.m.

Even more interesting is watching for specific satellites. By far the brightest is the International Space Station (ISS). On the evening of June 17, a few days after the space shuttle Atlantis astronauts had installed a huge new solar panel to increase the electrical supply for the station, the ISS made a perfect overhead pass over my home in eastern Ontario. As it passed over, its brightness ranged from magnitude -1 to a dazzling -5, slightly brighter than Venus. It shone with a golden glow, reflecting the colour of the solar panels which now account for most of its brilliance.

When will the ISS pass over your town? An excellent website that will tell you is www.heavens-above.com. Once you are there, take a few minutes to register. It’s free, and it will make your future visits faster and more enjoyable. Not only will you learn which satellites are passing over, you also will get times of sunset, sunrise and twilight, phases of the Moon, constellation maps and much more. The best feature is the sky map showing the path of the ISS (and other satellites) through the constellations for your site.

The ISS is visible from any given site for a few weeks at a time, then is unfavourably positioned for a few weeks, then visible again, in a repeating visibility cycle. Overhead passes are the brightest because they closer to you. In the case of the ISS, the altitude of an overhead pass is about 400 kilometres.

How much stuff is up there? The U.S. Air Force Space Command operates telescopes on the Hawaiian island of Maui and other strategic locations to track working satellites as well as the orbiting junkyard of defunct satellites and rocket casings. They keeps tabs on more than 12,000 objects ranging from van-sized communication satellites to a hatch hinge the size of a cell phone that broke away from a European satellite’s covering in 1988. Less than 1000 orbiting objects are doing anything useful, the rest is rubbish accumulated since the dawn of the space age nearly half a century ago.

Everything larger than a walnut flying in low orbit—200 to 400 kilometres above the Earth—is monitored along with all objects larger than a baseball out to geosynchronous orbit at 35,900 kilometres, where a fleet of communication satellites is stationed. The trajectory of the space shuttles are regularly altered to avoid a close brush with any of these potentially lethal chunks.

CELESTIAL OBSERVING TIPS FOR JULY 2007

by Todd Carlson
Assistant Editor

Although summer is a time when vacations can mean more time to observe the night sky, recreational astronomers have to contend with long days and short nights. The first rule of summer stargazing is remembering to bring along binoculars. Binoculars can reveal star clusters, dozens of craters on the Moon and up to four of the moons of Jupiter. Steady the binoculars by leaning against a wall or propping your arms on a picnic table or fence.

In order to make the most of the short July nights, here are the celestial highlights for the month.

1) Mid-July presents the best opportunity of the month to view deep into our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Looking high in the east after 11:00 p.m. from a dark site, you should be able discern a hazy swath of the Milky Way cutting towards the southern horizon. Use binoculars to examine the section towards the southern horizon where you should notice the density of stars increasing. That’s where the centre of our galaxy is located.

2) July 15-17. Watch for Earthshine, the portion of the Moon illuminated by light reflecting off of the Earth. Binoculars enhance the view. The Moon will be near Venus on July 17th.

3) All month: Jupiter can be found rising in the southeast after sunset and appears as the brightest "star" in that area of sky. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has a family of 63 moons, four of which can be seen in binoculars—Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io. Depending on the position of each moon during its orbit, observers may see two, three or all four moons on a particular night.

4) All month: Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, rides high in the northwest once darkness falls. The constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius can be located in the south. An unobstructed southern horizon is essential for viewing both.