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Transcript under
Dr Ian Musgrave brings us his April SkyGuide … telling us when, the place and what to search for within the night and morning skies this month.
Included are references to the April 8 Complete Photo voltaic Eclipse transecting diagonally proper throughout continental USA.
As common Ian provides us his ‘Tangent’ about Fungi on the ISS
Additionally Ian is continuous his ‘Astrophotography Problem’ the place he presents us with an achievable and difficult process to undertake with our cameras.
This month our problem is to seize Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, and this month he provides us nice tricks to seize this ‘Dragon Comet’ with easy gear.
Transcript:
Brendan: Welcome to the Astrophiz Podcasts. My identify is Brendan O’Brien, and first of all, we would like to acknowledge Australia’s first astronomers, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander folks, the conventional homeowners and custodians of the land we are on. This episode is produced on Yorta Yorta and Kauna Nation. And we’d additionally like you to affect your native politicians to do extra to mitigate local weather change by transferring from fossil fuels to renewable power sources.
We’re now in our ninth 12 months of manufacturing with over 180 fabulous interviews with prime scientists from all over the world. Every month we produce two fabulous episodes…. On the first of every month, Dr Ian ‘AstroBlog’ Musgrave provides us his month-to-month SkyGuide, plus a distinctive astrophotography problem. Then on the fifteenth of every month, we publish an interview with a main astronomer, astrophysicist, house scientist, information scientist, telescope engineer, undertaking supervisor, or particle physicist. And we uncover their science journey and uncommon insights into how they suppose and conduct their wonderful analysis into precisely how our universe works.
Our audio information and transcripts are out there on our web site at Astrophiz-dot=com and MP3s can be freely streamed from Soundcloud, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.
However proper now we’re zooming over to Adelaide in South Australia to communicate with Ian.
Brendan: Good day Ian.
Ian: Good day Brendan.
Brendan: Nice to be talking with you once more Ian and can you inform us mate, what’s up in the sky for April?
Ian: Nicely it’s all the time a pleasure to communicate to you Brendan and the month of April has a quantity of fascinating issues taking place.
Now sadly, most of the vibrant planets have vanished from our night sky and Jupiter is scraping the horizon over the subsequent few weeks. However regardless of that a quantity of fascinating issues are taking place.
To begin off with, as soon as once more, Australians will be united in the identical time zones in Central Australia and Jap Australia.
Which additionally makes telling you about when issues taking place a lot simpler. As all the time, I’m going to begin with the moon. So April the 2nd is the final quarter moon. April the ninth is the new moon. April the sixteenth is the first quarter moon and April the twenty fourth is the full moon. The moon is at perigee on April the eighth and at apogee on April the twentieth.
So Easter is coming up and over the Easter interval, we’re going to have a fairly darkish sky so you can go out and look at the pretties and then over the subsequent couple of weeks, you’ll have lots of darkish sky time.
So let’s go again to the night sky. I’ve already instructed you that Jupiter is decreasing in the northwest night sky.
It’s getting progressively decrease and progressively troublesome to see as the month progresses. And probably by the finish of the month, you gained’t be ready to see it very nicely at all. On the tenth and eleventh, Jupiter’s bracketed by the skinny crescent moon decrease in the twilight. And you most likely will want a decrease stage horizon to see it at its greatest. Jupiter and Uranus are inside binocular distance of every different.
They’re coming nearer over the month however they’ll be very troublesome to see in the twilight when they’re at the closest on the twenty first. In reality they’re most likely solely seen in the civil twilight the place the background gentle will make it nearly inconceivable to see Uranus even in binoculars.
So that’s the night planetary motion.
Now let’s look to the morning sky the place a lot extra fascinating issues are taking place. Having mentioned that, I will say there’s one extra fascinating factor coming up in the night sky, however I’ll speak about that later on.
So Mercury returns to the morning sky from about mid -month and at the finish of the month will be fairly seen. On the nineteenth, Mercury is two levels … That’s about two finger widths from Venus, however you’ll most likely want binoculars and a stage of unabscured horizon to see Mercury.
Nonetheless, by the finish of the month, Mercury is distinguished at nautical twilight and it’s making a good line with Mars and Saturn. Now, clearly, as I’ve simply mentioned, Venus is sinking additional into the morning twilight and by the finish of the month, it’ll be nearly unobservable, so it’s transiting from nautical twilight to civil twilight. It’s sufficiently vibrant that you can nonetheless see it fairly nicely at civil twilight, however at least at the starting of the week as nautical twilight is transiting into civil twilight, the view of the lineup of Mars, Saturn and Venus will look very good certainly.
So on the eighth, Venus will be above the crescent moon once more. This is fairly low in the twilight however it will look very good in binoculars and once more as I mentioned on the nineteenth Mercury is 2 levels from Venus however you’ll want binoculars to actually see Mercury.
Now Mars is nonetheless climbing increased in twilight and on the sixth the crescent moon is above Mars so you’ll have a lineup of moon, Mars, Saturn and Venus proper there on the horizon, and then Mars and Saturn are coming nearer collectively so Mars is going to be shut to Saturn on the eleventh and that’s as a result of Saturn is additionally climbing increased on the twilight so on the seventh bear in mind on the sixth the crescent moon was simply above Mars on the seventh the crescent moon is simply under Devil so the line up of Mars , Saturn and the uh crescent moon the with Venus down low on the horizon … And once more, that’s going to be fairly engaging.
As I mentioned, Saturn’s going to be shut to Mars on the eleventh, however the pair will be much less than half a finger width aside. And they’re going to be simply seen collectively in not solely binoculars, however in the medium energy telescope you ought to be ready to see the rings of Saturn, as nicely as the Mars being a disk. So that will be very good.
So that will be all a pictures problem. The principal problem there is merely getting up at that hour of the morning, slightly than a technical pictures problem.
So these are the principal planetary motion. Now, I bear in mind I mentioned that there’s one other factor taking place in the night. This is Comet 12P.
Now Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is a Halley -style comet and it’s presently entertaining the Northern hemispherians.
We’ve seen some actually good images of the comet close to the Andromeda Nebula. So it will come into our night sky round about mid month and it’s going to be fairly vibrant now when an astronomer says vibrant … that means brighter than magnitude about 13.
And usually, many of the vibrant comets are issues that you can solely see with a humungous telescope. However it’ll be coming in at round about magnitude 4 .5 will truly get brighter as it rises.
However sadly, it’s been going to be very low to the horizon initially. And so even although it’s actual magnitude is 4 .5, you’re trying by means of all this horizon muck, and it will be extra like magnitude 5 … so actually most likely simply seen for the unaided eye if you’ve bought a good eyesight extra doubtless going to be binoculars. So on the 14th it’s going to be fairly shut to Jupiter in reality it’ll be inside binocular distance of Jupiter as a result of it’s south of Jupiter.
So if you get your binoculars out look at Jupiter and look about binocular diameter to the south, you ought to be ready to see the comet. Now the comet’s going to be … even although it’s comparatively vibrant, that’s magnitude 5, which is inside unaided eye visibility … however as a result of it’s an prolonged object and a fuzzy object, it will be a lot more durable to see than one thing of the identical magnitude like a star, for instance. It continues to develop rise increased in the sky so by the twenty first it’s now considerably above the horizon, there’s much less murk, it is truly brighter, it’s the magnitude 4 .4. Wow! However it’s shut to two of the brightish stars in Taurus, Chai and Omicron. They’re comparatively seen as they’re comparatively vibrant stars, very shut collectively. They’re simply down from the head of Taurus the Bull, so you ought to be ready to verify it out fairly simply. So it’s on the reverse aspect of the horns of the bull, it’s forming the physique of the bull. So the form of the head of Taurus the Bull, you comply with that down by a couple of binocular distances, close to the head of Taurus the Bull, you ought to see the pair of the stars that symbolize Chai and Omicron and on the twenty first the comet will be inside binocular distance of them.
So I hope that you inform me your binoculars on that and the comet ought to be seen there in binoculars. You may be ready to see it with the unaided eye. Once more, that’s going to be increased in the m urk and you’ll have much less atmospheric distortion however nonetheless as a result of it’s a faint fuzzy object you might not be ready to see it very nicely with the unaided eye. Throughout the relaxation of the month it will get increased and increased nonetheless however now it’s beginning to fade sadly most of the …. there’s no good signpost stars however if you’ve bought your binoculars skilled on the pair of Omicron and Chai Tao and sweep up you ought to be ready to choose it up as it goes. And additionally, if you’ve managed to detect it when it was subsequent to Chai Tau, you ought to be ready to maintain on watching it night time after night time as it goes up.
And as the sky will get darker, it’ll be simpler to see even although it’s fading.
Brendan: Okay!
Ian: … And for these of you us who are in the northern hemisphere, waves to northern hemisphere folks, if you’re in the United States, you’ll be ready to see the complete eclipse of the solar on the eighth. That is, if you’ve already booked lodging a 12 months in advance and booked your airplane tickets a 12 months in advance.
If you stay shut to the line, which goes by means of Texas, Atlanta, Kentucky. Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York up into Maine and Ohio then you may be ready to drive to the heart line and watch the eclipse however don’t depend on getting any lodging as a result of all the eclipse fanatics will have booked it out however it’s going to be a very good eclipse.
It’s going to be a good deep eclipse. So we’ll be ready to see it for over three minutes. The greatest commentary is in southern US, north Mexico, however in every single place else we’ll nonetheless see a good period of eclipse and as a result of the moon is not far from Perigee the place it’s closest to the earth, it’s good and massive, it’s a good massive shadow and you ought to be ready to get some very good photographs of the Corona if you can get there … So that will that will be glorious for our North American listeners If you’ve bought a likelihood and you’re dwelling shut have a go if you’re not dwelling shut then it’s too late You ought to have organized your self a lot higher Hahah Which is what I all the time say as a result of each 12 months I say “Oh I ought to go go to this eclipse in someplace fascinating” and I by no means do.
So there’s one final factor to look at. If you’ve been watching the sky, you’ll be noticing that the Southern Cross has been getting increased and increased.
The final episode, I talked about the Southern Pleiades and the good little cluster simply heading off the Southern Cross. If you prepare your binoculars on the Southern Cross itself, simply under Beta Crucis, you’ll see a good, good little sprinkle of stars. This is the Jewel Field and this is one of the pretty sights of the southern skies.
It’s referred to as the Jewel Field as a result of there’s a lot of totally different colored stars. It’s small, however it is completely stunning.
Brendan: Sure!
Ian: And that’s it for the sky … There is tons of tons taking place, tons to do, however sadly it includes getting up very early in the morning.
Brendan: Glorious! What a good factor to do. Okay. Maintain going, Ian.
Ian: Okay. Would you like a tangent?
Brendan: I’d love a tangent. The tangents are a spotlight for me.
Ian: Okay. Nicely, subsequent time you’re trying up at the Worldwide House Station or Tiangong as it goes over, and this month round about the center of April, there ought to be some good ISS passes round about mid month, bear a thought for the passengers have made to them.
Now, I’m not speaking about the human passengers, however they’re not human ones. So the ISS has performed a host to a vary of organisms, ants, fish, mice, tardigrades and squid. However all of these have been intentional experiments with out taking the organisms up into the the house station to see what microgravity does to them,
or how they reply to microgravity. However I’m speaking about the unintentional passengers, a lot smaller and with higher horribility potential. I’m speaking fungi, and additionally microorganisms,
however largely fungi. Now, to set the scene, again in ’98, we first realized that fungi may survive in outer house in the… slightly dramatic manner.
So the Cosmonauts on the Russian house station close to noticed a unusual movie spitting throughout the outdoors, a window, sure, that’s the outdoors. And this factor saved on rising,
destroying the home windows, titanium quartz floor, and getting into the house station. Are you freaked out but? This is the place we’ve turned on the spooky music. Now, it turned out these house invaders have been…
not house invaders, however homegrown fungi that had hitched a experience on the spacecraft and had realized to survive in this vacuum of house. And I tried following up on these specific fungi,
however getting the peer -reviewed papers is very troublesome. So I can’t inform you… Really, I recognized them, however I can’t inform you what they are. However anyway. as a consequence of this we take a lot of care to maintain stuff going into house sterile.
So the payloads transfer by means of clear rooms, they’ve bought excessive energy air filtration techniques, they’re completely mopped in the scrum with disinfectants. So the issues we take into house are usually at least fairly sterile.
However you can’t do this to people, discovered you develop a human pores and skin, as I’ll do, certainly, different extra cross and get into house with this. So even with the greatest cleansing process, there’s nonetheless fungi lurking on the house station.
So once more, this has horrible potential, however there’s been a lengthy operating experiment monitoring the microbiomes of the pure house station. And so far it’s discovered that the ISS microbiome in the ISS is most likely related to the ISS.
to the city earth environments. They fluctuate a bit from month to month, however they’re not horribly the related to the earth environments. That’s the microorganisms,
fungi and micro organism that are dwelling inside the house nation. There are some variations. There’s some uncommon of yeast that have a tendency to be extra plentiful and colonized.
the astronauts, however so far it doesn’t appear like something’s gonna be actually poisonous. However like Mia, there are microbes that are on the outdoors of the ISS.
– Yep. – And the researchers have discovered that microbes have not solely survived in these environments, nicely, we do that from the ISS, however retain their reproductive potential. And most of the work orders exhibit elevated biochemical exercise and resistance to antibiotics,
which is not such a good factor. So in order to research the response of microorganisms to dwelling in the vacuum of house and the radiation of house,
the European House Company has began the Lycans and Fungi experiment to see how fungi behave in house and in Mars -like circumstances. Sadly, the abbreviation LIPE is the identical as the title of a Netflix horror film about an African -froled life type that begin legally seems to be like an overgrown fungus and takes over the Worldwide House Station with horrifying outcomes.
So, the ESA uncovered a lichen to the exterior of Mars -like circumstances. of the Worldwide House Station for 18 months. That is over a 12 months. And it survived.
There’s no water, no air, excessive temperature, fixed bar -bar radiation. And the lichen didn’t even go into stasis, however it saved proper on photosynthesis. You’re true.
This may appear weird, however lichens are actually radiations of resistance. They can survive one thing like 12 ,000. ,000 occasions the dose of a killer human. Not solely that,
there’s a fungus referred to as cryptococcus neopholans that truly eats radiation in roughly the identical manner that crops eat gentle we suppose as a result of we nonetheless don’t fairly perceive how it works.
They have been found inside the reactor at Chernobyl and half of the motive why they’re ready to survive annual warmth inverted commas. commas are radiation is they produce a enormous quantity of melanin.
So NASA despatched these melanites discovered in a house in 2016 and then did a lengthy -term experiment from between 2017 to 2018,
trying at whether or not or not these fungi may not solely survive air in house, however may they shield the eye of from radiation?
And they discovered that the fungi certainly may lower radiation ranges on the ISS by about 2%. This was executed with comparatively small patches of fungi, and they labored out that they had a extra complete fungal sheet.
This may lower it down by round about 4%. That doesn’t sound like a lot, however it nonetheless is one other layer of safety. safety decreasing radiation hazards on the ISS.
It may be integrated with different supplies to develop a thicket of fungal matter. You don’t have to fear so a lot about lofting all these supplies into house in one go the place the fungi can simply properly develop for you,
and it may be additionally helpful in Mars the place you may use these fungi to develop inside the Martian buildings to assist protect the Martian construction from radiation. radiation. So,
one day these microbes may assist protect spacecrafts to have that from some radiation. So, even although the bungie in house has the potential to be a kind of a horribly de -topic,
it turns out these issues might in reality be significantly useful and assist us and so the spacefaring society. Implausible,
that reminds me how prescient Nessa and JPL have been to crash Cassini into Saturn slightly than let it wander round house and doubtlessly deposit its hitchhikers into a moon or someplace else.
And it additionally makes me marvel what hitchhikers are on board Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which sooner or later, probably later, will ultimately attain different star techniques and begs the query,
what hitchhikers are doing on the floor of these spacecraft? – Nicely, each the voyagers and the pioneers earlier than them have been extensively sterilized as earlier than.
they went into house. So, hopefully, if something survived the sterilization course of, the prolonged interval in deep house will sterilize something. On the different hand,
when Bereshet crashed into the moon, it was carrying a load of tardigrades, and tardigrades are infamous for surviving excessive radiation and dehydrating circumstances.
So, the… hoping that the radiation on the moon will have killed any of the tardigrades that survived the crash, if any did. However the house fungus story should recommend that they may be a little bit extra resilient and perhaps the subsequent moon commoners will discover tardigrades on the moon.
Implausible. Okay, Ian. do you have a astrophotography problem for us for the month of April? Sure, I do. And guess what?
It revolves round Comet 12p. Now, as a result of everybody’s had a go at stacking photographs from their easy cameras or telephones,
and you’re now acquainted with stacking software program, it’s time to transfer out and use it for one thing totally different. Now, Comet 12p is a totally different problem to Vesta.
Vesta was fairly dim and mainly on the restrict of what you would be ready to picture with easy level and shoot techniques,
however Comet 12p is a lot brighter, however on the different hand, it’s an prolonged object, so a star -like object of the identical magnitude is simpler to picture than an prolonged object as a result of the brightness is extra plus now.
And additionally as a result of the comet is roughly at nautical twilight slightly than deep astronomical twilight, you’ve bought extra background gentle.
So with greatest you can go all out, do very lengthy exposures and stack blocks that’s good. of lengthy exposures at the highest doable ASA ISO ranking.
With 12p, you’ve bought the concern that the background twilight, if you purchase too a lot publicity, the background twilight will overwhelm widespread 12p.
So I would recommend that slightly than doing fairly lengthy exposures at ISO 3200, which is what I was utilizing, attempt one thing decrease like 1600.
Attempt not to run the exposures for longer than about 4 seconds, perhaps one to two seconds relying on your digicam and its response and do a good stack.
So I discovered for my… my Canon XS, a stack of 30 photographs was good for bringing up sooner. Probably you can get away with fewer,
however stacks of perhaps 10 to 20 photographs may be useful. And once more, I play round a bit as a result of you’ve bought some actually apparent information stars.
stars not like with Vesta the place you had to put round a bit making an attempt to discover precisely the place the information stars have been and making positive you bought in between the information stars on the 14th for Jupiter and on the twenty first for the pair of Chai and Omicron,
Omicron Tauri. They’re simple to see information stars and pretty simple to focus on some. So have a bit of a play round. Attempt some totally different publicity occasions and totally different publicity isos in order to get a really feel for what’s taking place.
Stack away and see if you can pull the comet out in opposition to the firelight. Now the photographs I’ve been seeing from northern hemisphere have been exhibiting some good fairly good tail.
tails, however once more, they’ll be taken underneath very darkish sky circumstances We’ll have the ready to stack tons of comparatively longish exposures to carry out the tail So it’ll be a bit of a problem to In the water to I like that is an hour sundown and attempt and pull out the tail in opposition to the background sky However it’s a nicely value it It’s going to be a new good little comet and hopefully all people can get to see it,
not solely in binoculars, perhaps probably with the unaided eye who bought a good eyesight and hopefully with your cameras you can choose up one thing very good.
Implausible, I look ahead to higher in. I’ve bought a very good view from the place I am as a result of I’ve bought ocean as my western horizon so I don’t have to fear. fear so a lot about timber and issues getting in the manner.
It provides me a fairly a bit of benefit however the marine layer issues get fairly excessive so it will get successfully so that the extinction of additional comet and stars is fairly vital even although you’ve bought a good distance above the horizon.
So I’ll get to play round and I’ll look ahead to seeing the comet and now having to react the identical. that, it’s most likely going to be weeks and weeks of cloud the place I’ll see nothing by any means.
Nicely I’ll be making an attempt that. I’ve bought a mirrorless digicam that I can connect to a six inch telescope and I’ve additionally bought a 400mm lens I can connect to a DSLR so I’ll be having a good shot at that so want me luck.
I want you luck, I want you clear skies and I’ll horizons. And having mentioned that, the whole southeast of Australia will now be softened for the subsequent month.
Of course. Nicely, thank you very a lot. The finish astro weblog should grave a fabulous preview of what’s up in the sky for April,
a nice tangent and an inspiring astrophotography. problem. I’ll be giving it my greatest shot. Implausible and let’s hope some extra folks are enthused and I don’t know are folks ready to submit images to the astrophys Fb website?
If not, they can submit it to the SunSkywatch website and I can share it from there to astrophys Fb. folks who have managed to get some images okay.
Glorious nicely thank you very a lot and good night time mate. Good night time and you have a nice Easter and hopefully you have time to look at the skies in between all household enjoyable and catch -ups.
See ya. See you later bye. And bear in mind Astrophiz is free and unstated. however we all the time suggest that you verify out Dr Ian Musgraves’ Astro Blogger web site to discover out what’s up in the night time sky.
And in two weeks, we’re bringing you a great interview from the latest Transience Down Beneath Convention in Melbourne, Australia, the place we spoke with Professor Katie Ocatell,
who is the Affiliate Professor of Astrophysics and Physics from Melbourne. Melbourne College. Her stellar analysis and science journeys are sensational.
Katie is an observational astrophysicist whose analysis focuses on the excessive dying of stars. You’ll love this subsequent episode and maintain trying up!
