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Hear: https://soundcloud.com/astrophiz/astrophiz187-march-skyguide
Dr Ian Musgrave brings us his March SkyGuide … telling us when, the place and what to search for within the night and morning skies this month.
He additionally offers us his ‘Tangent’ about ‘Quasi’ Moons.
Additionally Ian is constant his ‘Astrophotography Problem’ the place he presents us with an achievable and difficult activity to undertake with our cameras.
This month it’s imaging Vesta and studying easy methods to use the free *DeepSkyStacker software program
*Word that DeepsSkyStacker is Home windows solely software program … so these like me on Mac platforms may wish to be part of me in making an attempt out the free StarStaX (Mac) software program.
EDIT: It appears StarStax is for making star trails,which is precisely what I don’t need!
** or for extra skilled ppl, I perceive you’ll be able to set up ‘Wine’ on Macs and run Home windows functions with out having to make use of an emulator
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the 2024 season of the Astrophiz Podcast.
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 individuals, the conventional homeowners and custodians of Australia … the land we are on.
This episode is produced on Yorta Yorta and Kaurna Nation.
And we’d additionally like you to affect your native politicians to do extra to mitigate local weather change by shifting from fossil fuels to renewable vitality sources.
We’re now in our ninth yr of manufacturing with over 180 fabulous interviews with high scientists for all over the world. Every month we produce two fabulous episodes: On the first of every month, Dr Ian AstroBlog Musgrave offers 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 assume and conduct their wonderful analysis into precisely how our universe works.
Our audio information and transcripts are accessible on our web site at AstrophizDOTcom and MP3s can be freely streamed from SoundCloud and Apple podcasts … however proper now we’re zooming over to Adelaide in South Australia to converse with Ian.
Brendan: Howdy Ian …
Ian: Howdy Brendan, how are you going?
Brendan: Very effectively thank you regardless of the warmth … and I hope you cooled down a bit there over in Adelaide.
Ian: We haven’t wanted to … simply no longer stinking sizzling in the center of the night time. It’s additionally makes it worse for astrophotography, of course. It’s good and heat when you’re wandering out at the Fringe Competition, however when you’re making an attempt to picture the moon or the stars or something the sky dances round like loopy.
Brendan: Properly, I’m wanting ahead to listening to a bit of astrophotography information from you tonight, Ian. Can you inform us? What’s up in the sky for the month of March?
Ian: Okay … effectively not as a lot is occurring in March as in the earlier months … however as regular I’ll begin with the moon …. as a result of the moon is of course a information to planets as effectively as to the finest time to observe the sky …. so let’s begin with the moon … March the fourth is final quarter moon so now is a good time to look at the night sky with out the moon about.
March the tenth is the new moon … additionally very good for feint fuzzy watching.
March seventeenth is first quarter moon and March the twenty fifth is a full moon … this is one other Apogee mini moon like final month and it’s additionally a very unhappy penumbral eclipse.
The moon is at Perigee on March the tenth and on Apogee at the March the twenty fourth. Earth is additionally at Equinox on the twentieth so we’re undoubtedly heading into Autumn.
Brendan: Yep
Ian: So let’s transfer to the night sky.
Mercury returns to the night sky this month. Sadly not like the morning sky in the previous month it’s hazing the western horizon and by no means actually will get outdoors of the twilight.
Even on the twenty fifth when it’s furthest from the Solar it’s nonetheless deep in the twilight and in all probability solely about a couple of finger widths above the horizon at civil twilighr … So not a lot pleasure from Mercury this month. month.
Brendan: Yep …
Ian: Jupiter, which has been dominating the sky for the previous few months, is now reducing in the north-western night sky.
It’s nonetheless fairly straightforward to see and will be straightforward to see all of this month, however it’s going to be a tough telescopic object as it goes deeper into the twilight as the month goes on.
On the 14th, Jupiter and the Crescent Moon are very shut, not fantastically shut, however at seven levels aside, Jupiter and the Crescent Moon will be fairly beautiful to look at.
Brendan: Cool …
Ian: Now, Uranus has not been enjoying a huge position in our talks, however Jupiter and Uranus are coming nearer over the month, and they’ll be closest round about the finish of the month … however they’ll be very tough to see in the twilight. Properly, Jupiter received’t be tough to see however Uranus will be very tough to see even although it’s simply round bare eye visibility you’ll want binoculars to see it in the twilight.
Brendan: Okay.
Ian: By the finish of the month Jupiter and Uranus will be about 5 levels aside.
Now … let’s go to the morning sky. Venus nonetheless stays a beacon in the morning sky however it’s sinking additional into the twilight.
It’s in all probability a nautical twilight object at the starting of the month however by the finish of the month it’s coming into into civil twilight.
So on the ninth, Venus will simply be three levels from the crescent moon.
That’s about three fingerwidths and it’ll be a very positive binocular sight, you may even be in a position to get it into the discipline of view of broad angle telescopic eyesight.
Venus presently appears like the gibbous moon and heading in direction of full moon and form and shrinking as it’s getting prepared to disappear into conjunction with the Solar.
Brendan: Yep …
Ian: Now Venus and Mars you could bear in mind had a spectacular conjunction final month. They’re nonetheless shut collectively. So at the starting of March, Venus and Mars are round 5 levels aside. That’s about 4 finger widths to 5 finger widths aside in the morning twilight. And then they type of pull additional aside as Venus sinks and Mars arises into the morning sky.
Venus has additionally has a very shut encounter with with Saturn this month. So Saturn, which has been lurking shut to the Solar, enters into the morning twilight. However it’s very dim in the twilight.
From the nineteenth to twenty fifth, Venus and Saturn are fairly shut. And on the twenty second, they’re closest at 0.6 of a diploma. That’s simply a little bit underneath a finger width broad.
Nevertheless, as a result of they’re comparatively deep in the twilight, you’re going to want binoculars to see Saturn. So Venus will nonetheless be very straightforward to see, however Saturn is going to be a little bit tragic to get a maintain of.
Brendan: Oh …
Ian: Mars, as I’d mentioned, is climbing increased in the twilight. And on the eighth, the crescent moon at Mars and Venus kind a line that will look very good in the early morning sky. and that’s about it for the morning sky.
Brendan: Very good Ian and we’ve received that equinox to look ahead to as effectively. Now final month Ian, you gave us an astrophotography problem and I received a digital camera prepared …it was all primed, batteries charged, SD card already, I’ve received the appropriate lens … and then I was clouded out !!
So might you do two issues for us Ian? I was going to have one other shot in the March full moon however you’ve really helpful that I wait till June … might you inform us two issues … firstly why ought to I wait for June to have one other go at your first astrophotography problem?
And secondly … how did you go taking your images of the moon?
Ian: I’m going to reply your second query first. I went fairly effectively, though I was considerably tree challenged. And to reply why I was considerably tree challenged, I want to go again to your first query. The downside with the moon in summer time is that the ecliptic at night time is very low to the horizon.
So in summer time, the path of the solar is excessive in the sky right here in Australia.
And at nighttime, the path of the ecliptic is very low at nighttime.
In winter, it’s reversed … the path of the solar, and the ecliptic is very low, whereas the path of the ecliptic at nighttime is very excessive, which is why it’s higher for planetary oppositions to be noticed in winter as a result of the planets will be a lot increased in the sky … they’ll be in clearer air so you don’t get as a lot distortion of the planetary surfaces by the environment leaping about like a loopy factor.
This has been a fairly a problem which my makes an attempt to {photograph} Jupiter lately as a result of even although I’ve received a good clear view of Jupiter it’s comparatively shut to the horizon and it’s fairly sizzling right here in Adelaide so the environment dances round like a loopy factor.
Brendan: Oh …
Ian: So in June and July the ecliptic will be at nearly at their highest so if you wait till June or July we’ll see the moon come extra or much less straight up.
This offers us two benefits. And that’s as a result of it’s increased in the sky, you get a higher probability of seeing the discount in the moon’s diameter as it goes up.
And there’s much less likelyhood for issues to get in the manner. So for instance, though I received tons of images of the moon … I was in a position to {photograph} the moon at 15 minute intervals from bracketing the time when the moon was highest in the sky.
However I was very tree challenged and a moon was hanging out behind a tree for a substantial quantity of time. So for the finest decision, you need to get the moon not too far away from when it rises to when it’s highest in the sky.
If you’re too shut to moonrise then the distortion of the moon by the atmospheric shenanigans means your measurement of the diameter is going to be a bit off.
So it’s good to get the moon a little bit increased above the floor however it’s good to have a good huge journey between when it’s a first rate peak above the horizon to keep away from atmospheric distortion to the zenith the place it’s at furthest from the earth and additionally has much less atmospheric distortion
Brendan: Yep
Ian: So I haven’t analyzed my information but … we’ve received all the images … I simply have to run them by Python … however tons of different issues have been occurring since Saturday night time … so i will get round to it
Brendan: So watch this house …
Ian: Watch this house certainly …
Brendan: What else have you received for us for the month of March Ian?
Ian: Properly first … earlier than I go on to my tangent, I’d like to draw consideration to a unregarded open cluster … now each yr round about this time I wax lyrical about the Southern Pleiades which is a good little cluster of stars centred round Eta Carina and … Properly, they are very good … there’s an missed cluster with the unprepossessing identify of NGC 2516. Southern Pleiades sounds a lot cooler, however NGC 2516. If you bear in mind from the final speak, I guided you to the Southern Pleiades with reference to it being nearly instantly between the Southern Cross and the False Cross.
However … if you go up to False Cross itself, simply a little bit beneath a backside star of the False Cross is NGC 2516.
If you look with the unaided eye, if you see the kite form of the False Cross and the backside star of the lengthy axis has a fuzzy little nebulosity simply at the finish of it. And if you look at that in binoculars, you’ll see this great little cluster of shiny and shiny stars.
And if you look at it in a telescope, it’ll look actually fairly good. So once more, if you’re out from now until previous the new moon and you’ve received your binoculars on you, … Look up at the false cross and we have a tendency to ignore the false cross as a result of it simply confuses us about the southern cross. However have a look at the finish star of the stem of the false cross and you’ll see a beautiful little cluster of stars effectively price gazing at.
I was additionally going to speak about the penumbral lunar eclipse … besides for the huge majority of us. We’re not going to see it. It begins throughout the afternoon, the most eclipse is when the moon is nonetheless beneath the horizon, and so it’s not actually price our time. I do like penumbral eclipses as a result of you can see the refined shading of the outer earth shadow on the moon, however this yr it’s not actually price it.
Brendan: Yep.
Ian: And with that, let’s transfer on to this month’s tangent. So, I’ve been speaking a lot about the moon … about how we can measure the moon’s measurement, the disappointing penumbral eclipse … However did you know Venus has a moon?
Brendan: No.
Ian: That’s known as the ‘Zoozve’ … I don’t actually know how to pronounce that. So … Z double O, Z V, E. Properly… it’s type of a moon.
It’s a ‘quasi’ moon. Now, the saga of Zoozve began when Lattif Nassar seen that the wallposter of the photo voltaic system in his son’s bed room confirmed Venus for the moon, labelled Zoozve.
Now, Lattif was positive Venus had no moon and began asking round. He requested each NASA and the illustrator who made the poster, and he discovered that Zoozve was truly the asteroid 2002 VE. So the illustrator had made a typographic error in making the poster. However 2002 VE was a fairly fascinating object.
It’s a quasi -moon of Venus. Now, I’m not going to recount Latif’s journey as a result of he does a lot higher himself in his Radio Lab podcast. If you look up Radio Lab in your favorite internet looking machine, from twenty sixth January 2024, he’ll inform you all about his journey to discover Zoozve.
So …however a lot of you are asking, “What’s a quasi moon?” Now, you’re acquainted with customary moons, and many like Earth’s Luna, the Galileo moons of Jupiter, Titan, Miranda, and Charon … they might be planets in their personal proper. And … that’s a dialogue for one other day.
Brendan: Yep …
Ian: And there’s Phobos, Deimos, Pan, and the like, which are mainly grappled with angle. However all of these are united by the truth that they orbit their mum or dad physique.
And the mum or dad physique is orbiting the Solar, however all of these are orbiting their mum or dad physique.
Quasi moons don’t orbit their planet, however they orbit the Solar. However as a result of they’re orbiting interval matches the planet very intently … they’re known as quasi moons.
Brendan: Cool.
Ian: They’re usually in section and observe the trail of the planet fairly intently, … however they’re not gravitationally linked to the planet, they’re gravitationally linked to the solar.
Now Zoozve was truly the first quasi -moon discovered however they didn’t know it was a quasi -moon at the time it was discovered, it was solely after it was found …. two years later … that’s was a quasi -moon.
And it intently matches Venus’ orbit. Typically it leads it, generally it falls behind.
Now, whereas it’s intently matched to Venus’ orbit, it’s a bit eccentric and generally its orbit comes out as far as Earth’s orbit.
Now, as we’ve seen, it’s about 236 meters in diameter and it may be a contact binary. Now, there’s lots of these asteroids in the photo voltaic system which we assume are simply fascinating elongated objects however truly flip out to be contact binaries.
If you bear in mind the first goal of the Lucy mission turned out to be a contact binary.
Many of these quasi moons are fairly secure … for instance Zoozve is in its quasi orbit for at least the final 7 ,000 years.
Okay so that’s astronomical phrases, that’s not very lengthy at all. And it’s in all probability destined to be ejected from this orbit in about 500 years or so from now. Now Earth has six recognized quasi satellites.
Though the most well-known secondary moon of Earth, which that goes by the undistinguished identify of 3753 Cruithne is truly a co -orbiting object.
I’m not going to go into the distinction between a co -orbiting object and a quasi -moon.
The different true quasi -moons, apparently, are named 469219 Kamo’oalewa which was found by a Hawaiian observatory, is the most secure of our quasi satellites and round for many lots of of years.
And it’s about 40 to 100 meters in diameter. So not as flashy as Trinity or as Zoozve, however nonetheless fairly fascinating in its personal proper.
And there’s additionally the Trojan satellites, the Trojan asteroids, a bunch of asteroids that are in gravity, spatially secure orbits forward or behind the planet. Earth has a couple of Trojan asteroids. Jupiter has a entire bunch of Trojan asteroids and main and trailing Trojans. However once more, this is a story for one other time. Let’s go again to Zoozve.
So Seppo Mikkola, who was the discoverer of Zoozve, had a story so charming that he proposed the identify Zoozve on NASA’s behalf to the Worldwide Astronomical Union, particularly to their committee. And they have been additionally charmed by it. And it’s come to move that 2022, the ’68 is now formally 524522Zoozve. Hereafter, we will simply name it Zoozve. And so a charming topographical error on a baby’s poster is now enshrined in a good identify in the heavens. Good. Very good certainly.
Brendan: And Ian, do you need to do a problem for us for this month? I know I failed on the first one and I’m going to strive once more in June.
Yeah, effectively all of our quasi -moons are too small for individuals with abnormal gear to catch. However one factor you can do is {photograph} one other iconic asteroid and that is Vesta.
Now for Vesta is fading however it’s nonetheless inside the binocular view and it’s additionally inside the bounds of most modest cameras.
So Vesta is presently between the horns of Taurus the Bull, between the shiny Elnath and Zeta Tauri which mark the suggestions of the horns of the Bull so it’s simply comparatively straightforward to discover however for this you’re going to want a piece of software program.
I use DeepSkyStacker and what DeepSkyStacker does is it takes a bunch of images you’ve taken and stacks of all one on high of the different and so you can convey out very deep objects so if you simply caught your digital camera pointed it between the Horns of the Bull and took a {photograph}, you’re not probably to decide up Vesta simply with a abnormal on a regular basis digital camera.
However if you take your abnormal on a regular basis digital camera and say take 10 photographs in a row and stack them in DeepSkyStacker, you’ll be in a position to enhance the brightness of all the faint stars and if you play round with controls of it … cut back the darkness of the night time sky and you ll be in a position to convey Vesta out … you could want to do this over a couple of nights so you can see Vesta shifting … from the time this podcast comes out until we see the first quarter moon the skies will be fairly darkish and even up even underneath most suburban skies, with the assist of DeepSkyStacker, ought to it be, in precept, in a position to pull out, Vesta, and see it transfer in opposition to the background stars. So this is a little bit extra technical than the earlier problem the place you simply had to take tons of images of the moon.
You’ve received to take tons of images once more, however you’ve received to take tons of images of the sky between Elnath and Zeta Tauri. It’s nonetheless fairly excessive at Astronomical Twilight however the sky is very darkish as Taurus and the horns of the bull are fairly straightforward to discover and you don’t actually want to truly find the finest of with your eye or binoculars in order to do this you simply want to give you the chance to. take … do a little bit of zoom to get the house between the horns of the Bull and take a lot of photographs in a row … you could need to do 20 and then import them into DeepSkyStacker.
DeepskyStacker can be discovered by coming into the identify ‘DeepSkyStacker’ into your favourite web looking engine. engine and it’s free to obtain It doesn’t take up a lot house It’s very pc pleasant.
I’ve used in the selection of unhappy previous computer systems as effectively as my new flashy pc and by considered tweaking of the Circumstances you can get it to stack tens of photographs as an alternative of taking 48 hours to do so.
You could additionally discover it worthwhile taking a darkish picture the place you depart the cap on your digital camera, take a picture with the identical publicity circumstances as you would for your sky imaging and this will take, the background present from your photographs and this additionally helps convey the stars out. So that’s my problem for this month is to picture Vesta between the horns of the bull and it will additionally give you entry to a neat little piece of picture processing software program.
I use DeepSkyStacker fairly a bit to stack photographs of the Worldwide Area Station going over so that I can get some good good trails of the Worldwide Area Station going over and I’m positive you’ll discover that you’ll have tons of fascinating …. that you play round with that you’ll discover that you’ve received tons of fascinating makes use of for DeepSkyStacker.
I additionally use the GIMP for astrophotography as effectively and so what I typically do is output a DeepSkyStacker absolutely into GIMP, play round with the ranges a bit too change brightness and distinction.
So you know, even although it appears fairly good when you pull it out from DeepSkyStacker in the first place, you could discover that if you need to publish dream photographs on the web, you have to overexpose them a bit as a result of the algorithms for posting on Twitter or Fb mess up the background for a bit so that it turns into tougher to see issues that you can see fairly properly … turn into tougher to see when you publish it on social media.
So that’s my Astrophotgraphy Problem, which will expose you to a new piece of software program, which will broaden your Astrophotgraphy horizons. Once more, this is all with very modest gear. You don’t want fancy, fancy cameras. You don’t want fancy, fancy telescopes. So it’ll be all fairly straightforward to do with very modest gear and you don’t have to pay big quantities to get fascinating outcomes.
Brendan : Glorious. Properly, I’m definitely up for the Vesta Problem Ian and I’m wanting ahead to it. I’ll see what I can seize and I’ll ship it to you. You’ll discover it in your favourite e-mail inbox.
Properly, thank you very a lot. Ian ‘AstroBlog’ Musgrave. There’s tons for us to see in the sky and tons for us to do in our backyards.
Ian: Good night time Brendan, we’ll catch you later. I’ll additionally publish some spotter charts for Vesta later on in the week after this comes out okay?
Brendan: Oh sure we all the time ship individuals to go and test out Ian’s AstroBlogger web site.
Ian: Certainly certainly. certainly. Welcome everyone.
Brendan: See ya, Ian.
Ian: See ya, Brendan.
Brendan: And bear in mind, Astrophiz is free and unsponsored. However we all the time suggest that you test out Dr Ian Musgrave’s AstroBlogger web site to discover out what’s up in the night time sky.
And in two weeks. weeks, we’re bringing you a great interview from the latest Transients Down Below convention in Melbourne, Australia, the place we spoke with Professor Orsola De Marco from the Astrophysics and Area Know-how’s Analysis Centre at Macquarie College.
You’ll love her tales. Preserve wanting up. [MUSIC]
