Pictor Radio Telescope Observations.

Pictor radio telescope is a free to use open source radio telescope based in Athens Greece.

The web page is here:  https://www.pictortelescope.com/
On the webpage you will find all the information necessary to do a radio reading similar to that I will document below.

Using the scope I have done a reading to detect the 21 centimeter hydrogen line present in our Milky Way.

From Wikipedia :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_line#In_radio_astronomy
Further reading links can also be found on the Pictor radio telescope web page.

For the layman like myself this all means that we are able to detect the arms of the Milky way using  the 21 centimeter hydrogen line and map the shape of the spiral arms and our galaxy.

Pictor radio telescope allows us to make these reading for ourselves.

The Pictor webpage recommends making two reading knows as the "On/Off" technique.
The radio telescope is in Athens and pointed directly at Zenith.
So in order to conduct my "Off" reading I needed to choose a time frame when the plane of the milky way is off beam.

My "Off observation was done on the July 18 2019 at 17H49.30(UTC +3).
Below is a screen shot from SkySafari showing Zenith in Athens at the same date and time as the "Off" reading. As you can see the plane of the Milky way is completely of beam(About a 9 degree circle around Zenith).

And here are the technical details that I received from the Pictor radio telescope when doing the "Off" reading.

Your observation has been carried out by PICTOR successfully!

Observation name: King 3 Off 18 July 2019.

Observation datetime: 2019-07-18 17:49:30 (UTC+3)

Center frequency: 1420000000.0 Hz

Bandwidth: 2400000 Hz

Sample rate: 2400000 samples/sec

Number of channels: 2048

Number of bins: 1000

Observation duration: 1500 sec

Observation ID: 46875938

Your observation's averaged spectrum, dynamic spectrum (waterfall) and Power vs Time plot are attached in this email as an image.

And then the image with the plots.

Comparing this image to those on the Pictor web page this is a good "Off" reading.

In the plot you can see three evenly distributed peaks in a wavy pattern.

Now the screen shot from SkySafari showing the time and date of the "On" reading, the plane of the Milky way is arching through the Zenith here and should allow us a good "On" reading.

Then here are the details for the "On" reading.

Your observation has been carried out by PICTOR successfully!

Observation name: King 3 On 23 July 2019

Observation datetime: 2019-07-23 10:53:56 (UTC+3)

Center frequency: 1420000000.0 Hz

Bandwidth: 2400000 Hz

Sample rate: 2400000 samples/sec

Number of channels: 2048

Number of bins: 1000

Observation duration: 1500 sec

Observation ID: 41118127

Your observation's averaged spectrum, dynamic spectrum (waterfall) and Power vs Time plot are attached in this email as an image.

Below is the "On" reading.

As you can see there is now and additional peak at the 1420 Hz line, it is also clearly evident on the waterfall.

So we have now detected the 21 centimeter hydrogen line and a arm of the Milky way using the Pictor radio telescope!

Here is a GIF that illustrates the differences more clearly between the two ot images.

This was a super fun exercise that can be done by anybody with a internet connection and a is great way to do some introductory radio astronomy observations, all absolutely free on the Pictor radio telescope.

My thanks to the folks at the Pictor radio telescope for making this resource available for us to use.

Messier 17, NGC 6618, A Sketch.

NGC 6618 is better known from the famous Charles Messier catalogue as M17.

M17 is a bright diffuse nebula located between 5 and 6 thousand light years away in the constellation Sagittarius.  It is also known as the Swan, Omega Nebula and in the Southern hemisphere it is known as the Lobster Nebula.

M17 was first noted by the Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys de Cheseaux in 1746, it was also later seen by the French astronomer Charles Messier in the same year and he included it in his Messier Catalogue as M17.

M17 has a visual magnitude of +6.00 and is visible to the naked eye under very dark conditions away from city lights and no light pollution.
It is easily seen even in smaller scopes under moderately light polluted skies, due to my local light pollution, most of the Nebula is washed out, with only the bright core visible to me.
From my backyard the closest naked eye star is Mu Sagittarii, a third magnitude star, from there it is a easy star hop in the eyepiece. 
Once at M17 it is a easy star hop to M16, another bright nebula.

The star charts below are taken from Cartes Du Ciel and show the general location of M17 in the night skies(as seen from my southern hemisphere perspective) and a closer chart of the region.
These are purely posted as a guide and to give you an idea of where to locate M17 in the night skies.

This sketch of M17 was done on the evening of 6 July 2019 from my light polluted backyard in Durban, South Africa.
I used my Orion XT8 telescope with a 25mm(48X) eyepiece for the sketch.
The sketch is done on black A5 sketching paper with a white pastel pencil and thin paint brush.
The stars have been done with the pencil and the nebula is gently brushed on with the paint brush using some white pastel dust.

I took a photograph of the sketch and put that into photoshop.
The camera picks up the texture of the paper and gives it a mottled look or what astrophotographers refer to as "noise". So using photoshop I darkened the background a touch to hide the paper texture, if you take a closer look you can still see some of the texture.
Then I put the circle around the image and added the text.

Then for some fun I took the same original photo of the sketch and ran that through Startools as you would any other astro image.
This then allowed me to add star colours and sharpen and define the magnitudes a little better. Startools also lets me add star spikes which gives a nice effect.
And so I have a digital sketch from my original paper sketch. I like it, hope you do too!

First up is the original sketch, warts and all.

And then the fun bit.

Thanks for taking a look, comments are always welcomed!



 
 


 

Strawberry Moon sketch.

The strawberry moon derives it's name from ancient tribes across Europe and from Native American peoples, as this was the time when wild strawberries were ripe for picking.

From the more Northern latitudes the Moon appears much lower on the horizon as the orbit of the moon around the Earth is almost the same as the Earth's orbit around the sun, about 5 degrees off and since there is more atmosphere to see it through, this can give it a reddish tinge. It will also appear "full" for three days due to the position of the Moon appearing to be "opposite" the Sun.

From the Southern hemisphere it sits much higher and we do not see the red tinge that may be observed from further north.
This full Moon is also known in the Southern Hemisphere as a Oak Moon, Cold Moon or Long night Moon.
It is also the sixth full Moon for this year.

The sketch is done with white/grey pastel sticks on A4 black sketch paper, the sketch is roughly the size of hand fully extended. It is cropped, captions and border added in photoshop.
I also added some colour to the sketch since it is a strawberry Moon!

Thanks for looking.

IC 4665, Sketch.

This is a sketch I made of IC 4665 on the 31st May 2019.

IC 4665 is a easy to find Open cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus.
Visually, from my light polluted backyard,  it is well spread out with the brighter stars in the 7-8th magnitude, there are a sprinkling of 8th and 9th magnitude stars that fill out this cluster.

After some careful study of the field and star patterns in the cluster, I set about sketching it.
The sketch was initially done with  pen on white paper.  I then took a photo of the sketch and inverted it in photoshop.
After that I had some more fun with photoshop and tried to produce a digital version of the sketch with colour added to more closely match to the eyepiece view.

Hope you enjoy both.

NIGHT SKIES THIS WEEK 10-16 JUNE 2019.

With the Winter skies here in Durban we have seen many more clear and colder nights.
So let's take a look at what can be expected from our night skies this week.
The chart below is taken from Cartes Du Ceil, a link to the software is under the "Useful Links" tab in the right column of this blog.


THE MOON AND PLANETS.

The Moon will reach first quarter on Monday the 10th and it's effect on our skies is starting to be felt as it heads toward a full Moon by the following Monday.
On Sunday the 16th the Moon and Jupiter will pass within 1°58' of each other and will share the same right ascension also called a conjunction.
They will be to widely spread for a telescope FOV but can be seen in binoculars or the naked eye.

Jupiter will be at opposition on Monday 10th.
During opposition Jupiter is also at it's closest to Earth called it's perigee, this will make Jupiter seem larger and brighter than usual, the perfect time to see it in the scope. Opposition will occur at around 17H17, since it is Winter it will be dark shortly after and Jupiter should be easily visible low on your eastern horizon in the constellation Ophiuchus. Shortly after 2AM the Great Red Spot will also be visible in the telescope.

Mercury will be visible in your North Western horizon just before dusk and will remain visible for just more than an hour after sunset, Look toward the constellation Gemini to see Mercury.
Jupiter becomes visible in the early evenings not long after dusk and Saturn follows along after 20H00.
Then we have Neptune making a n appearance just before midnight and Uranus following along after 03H30. These two are both telescope only.
Venus will then become visible almost a hour before sunrise low on your Eastern skies.


DEEP SKY OBSERVING(DSO).

With a Moon heading toward full we turn our attention back to Open clusters since they are easier under the Moons glare.
This week I thought we might take a look at NGC 5460.

NGC 5460, Open Cluster in Centaurus, Magnitude +5.59.

NGC 5460 also carries the designations Collinder 280 and Mellote 123. It is a 5th Magnitude Open Cluster in the constellation Centaurus and was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826.
NGC 5460 lies at a distance of 2283 light years from Earth and is approximately 160 million years old.
It should be a easy star hop from the nearby 2nd magnitude star Zeta Centauri also known as Alnair.
The basic finder chart below will give an indication of where it is located in the night skies. The chart is taken from Cartes Du Ceil.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS).

This week we will see several passes from the ISS, only problem is you will need to rise early to catch them!
The list below is taken from Spot the Station, a link to the webpage is under the "Useful Links" tab in the right column of this blog.

Date	Visible	Max Height	Appears	Disappears	Share Event
Tue Jun 11, 6:00 AM	4 min	22°	10° above SSW	17° above ESE
Wed Jun 12, 5:12 AM	3 min	13°	11° above SSE	10° above ESE
Thu Jun 13, 5:58 AM	4 min	72°	13° above SW	38° above ENE
Fri Jun 14, 5:11 AM	2 min	34°	32° above SSE	25° above E
Sat Jun 15, 4:24 AM	< 1 min	11°	11° above E	11° above E
Sat Jun 15, 5:57 AM	4 min	28°	18° above W	11° above N
Sun Jun 16, 5:10 AM	2 min	47°	47° above N	11° above NNE

So get out there and enjoy yourself under your night skies and keep looking up!

NGC 6231 SKETCH.

NGC 6231 Sketch, 25 May 2019.

I had some clear skies Friday night the 25th May 2019 and decided to do a sketch of NGC 6231.

NGC 6231 Open cluster in Scorpius.
Magnitude +2.59
Orion XT 8 and 15mm eyepiece.
Black A5 Sketch paper.
White pastel pencils.
Moon at 56.8% illuminated approximately 7 degrees above horizon.
NGC 6231 lies at an approximate distance of 5,900 light years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius.
It was first discovered by the astronomer Giovanni Batista Hodierna in 1654. It was later also cataloged by Edmund Halley(1678), Philippe Loys De Cheseaux(1745-46) and Abbe Lacaille(1751-52).

This sketch was also a chance to try something fun and new.
Rather than only present just the original sketch I wanted to have some fun and inject some digital magic into the sketch. A way to make dull open cluster sketch come to life.

Once I had photographed the original sketch I put that into Star tools and did a crop and a bin on the image. From there I used the heal module to round up and tighten the stars a bit.
Then I used various star mask combinations to artificially colour the stars, from there I added the star spikes for effect.
The final product seems to leap off the page at you and is almost 3D, well to my eye anyhow, you decide.

First image is the original sketch itself.

Then the second image is how it turned out after the star rounding and tightening up.

And then the final image after all the dazzle had been applied.

I hope you have enjoyed this sketch and it's digital development as much as I did!

NGC 4755, The Jewel Box, Sketch.

Saturday May 11 2019.

I had some nice clear sky and felt the time was ripe for a sketch.
The naked eye limiting magnitude on the night was around 4. In the sketch itself the stars are down to the 9th magnitude using the 25/15 and 9mm eyepieces from a light polluted urban backyard in Durban, South Africa.

The Sketch is done with white pastel pencil on A5 black sketch paper.
The image has had the labels added in photoshop and the edges of the image cropped ever so slightly, so as you can see the sketch fills almost the entire A5 page.
I spent a roughly a hour on the sketch, I was careful to try get the stars well plotted and I think I got pretty close.  The orientation is that as seen in the eyepiece at the time. Sadly the sketch does not convey the colours in the stars that give it it's name. Maybe a Photoshop project at a later point.

NGC 4755 is a well known and viewed Southern Sky object in the southern constellation of Crux, also known as the Southern Cross.
The cluster was first discovered by the astronomer Nicholas Louis de Lacaille during his visit to South Africa from 1751-1752.
John Herschel described the cluster as "A casket of variously coloured precious stones", hence the name "The Jewel Box".

And here is my humble attempt at this open cluster.

NIGHT SKY THIS WEEK 13-19 MAY 2019.

Night Sky This Week 13-19 May 2019.

Already approaching the middle of May, the days seem to fly by. I have had several nights of clear sky the last week, this is to be expected with the Winter skies over Durban. Let's hope the trend continues. Especially now that we get to gaze into the heart of the Milky Way as it arcs high overhead.

So let's take a look at what to expect from your Southern night skies for this coming week.

MOON AND PLANETS.

The Moon is at quarter phase and will be ramping up to the full phase by Saturday the 18th.
It will also be a "Blue Moon", usually there are three full Moon's during each of Earth's seasons but occasionally there is a fourth, when this happens the third full Moon for that season is called the Blue Moon since the first,second and fourth are already assigned traditional names. These Blue Moons occur once every 2.7 years.
So, there you have it, "Once in a blue Moon!"

The Planets are once again plentiful and early risers here in the Southern Skies so plenty to see.

The Early Evening Planets.
First up is Mars(Planet in Taurus), it has a short window from dusk before it sinks below your western horizon shortly after 7PM.
Jupiter(Planet in Ophiuchus) starts to rise just before 8PM and Saturn(Planet in Sagittarius) follows suit by 10PM
The Early Morning Planets.
Neptune(Planet in Aquarius) starts to rise shortly before 2 AM and is a telescope only planet.
Then we see Venus about two hours before dawn as it slowly starts to move back toward the Sun.

DEEP SKY OBSERVING(DSO).

We have a ever brightening Moon starting to dominate our night sky, so back to Open Clusters(OC).
We take a look at two easy targets in NGC 6405 and IC 4665.

NGC 6405, Messier 6, Open Cluster in Scorpius, Magnitude +4.19.

The OC is included the the famous Charles Messier catalogue where it is designated as M6. It is also known as the butterfly cluster after Burnham described it as a charming arrangement of stars that appear as a butterfly with open wings.
The cluster lies at a distance of 1600light years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius.
The cluster itself consists of 80 stars spread over a 54 arc minute area.
It should be a easy star hop away from the nearby naked eye star Lambda Scorpii in the constellation Scorpius.

IC 4665, Open cluster in Ophiuchus, Magnitude +4.19.

This cluster was first discovered by the Swiss astronomer Phillippe Loys de Dheseaux in 1745.
It is missing from the NGC catalogue and is a rather large, open and coarse cluster with 30 stars.
It is however easily seen in binoculars and wide field scopes.
The cluster lies about 1300 light years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus.
It is a easy star hop from the close by naked eye star Beta Ophiuchi.

Image from Cartes Du Ceil.

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS).

This week will see a few early evening passes, the table below shows the dates and times for Durban and is taken from the "Spot the station" website, a link to the webpage is under the "Useful Links" tab in the right hand column of this blog. There you can find the dates and times for your city or town.

Date	Visible	Max Height	Appears	Disappears	Share Event
Fri May 10, 6:13 PM	2 min	15°	10° above S	15° above SSE
Sat May 11, 6:58 PM	2 min	29°	10° above SW	29° above SW
Sun May 12, 6:07 PM	5 min	39°	10° above SSW	23° above E
Mon May 13, 6:55 PM	2 min	25°	23° above WNW	16° above N
Tue May 14, 6:02 PM	6 min	57°	10° above SW	10° above NNE
Thu May 16, 6:00 PM	1 min	16°	16° above NW	10° above NNW
Thu May 23, 5:28 AM	6 min	32°	10° above NNW	10° above ESE

So get out there under the night skies and look up!

NIGHT SKY THIS WEEK 6 MAY TO 12 MAY 2019.

Night Sky This Week 6 May to 12 May 2019.

Winter is now making itself felt here in the Southern Hemisphere with cooler evenings and some clearer skies. In the last week I managed two nights observing, reports to follow later.
Here in Durban we usually have clear Winter nights although climate change has brought more clouds in the last two Winter seasons. Let's hope for better skies this Winter.
So let's take a look at what we can expect from the night skies in the coming week.

The images are taken from SkSafari 6 Pro and Carted Du Ceil, links to both webpages are under the "Useful Links" tab in the right column of this blog.

MOON AND PLANETS.

The Moon will slowly start creeping back into our night skies this week and will be at first quarter on Sunday the 12th when it will set by midnight.
Down south we have plenty of planets to take a look at.
Mars is the first early evening planet that can found in the constellation Taurus in your North Western skies just after dusk were it will be visible for a short period before it sinks below the horizon.
Jupiter starts to rise shortly after 7PM with Saturn following along after 9PM.
Looking at our early morning planets, Neptune rises a little after 2AM and is only visible in the scope.
Then we see Venus, Uranus(Telescope only) and Mercury all showing up just before dawn.

THE ETA AQUARIDS METEOR SHOWER.

This meteor shower is associated with the periodic comet 1P/Halley. We see these in the first week of may.
The meteor shower can peek at a rate of 1 per minute, but this will be a under dark clear skies, the shower radiant appears in the constellation of Aquarius hence the name.
They are best seen in the early hours just before dawn, look for the constellation Aquarius in your North Eastern skies.

Image from SkySafari 6 Pro

DEEP SKY OBSERVING(DSO).

This week I have picked out two easy targets. Both sit close to the stars Theta Scorpii and Eta Scorpii make for a easy star hop from there.
We will take a look at a open cluster(OC) and a globular cluster(GC).

NGC 6322, Open Cluster in Scorpius, Magnitude +6.00.

A easy star hop from Eta Scorpii, this cluster lies at a distance of 3249 light years from Earth. The cluster has a few 9th magnitude stars that stand out well with a sprinkling more in the 10-14th magnitude.
While the cluster itself is not very remarkable it is framed by a triangle of 7th magnitude stars in HD 156189(7.6), HD 156292(7.5) and HD 156234(7.7) and that gives it a pleasing visual aspect, especially at lower magnifications.

NGC 6388, Globular Cluster in Scorpius, Magnitude +6.71.

Another easy star hop from the star Theta Scorpii, this GC is at a distance of 32,600 light years from the Earth and 10,400 from the galactic center.
NGC 6388 was first discovered by James Dunlop on the 13th May 1826 using a 9 inch reflector telescope.
This is  a nice bright and compact globular cluster that holds up well to magnification.

Image from Cartes Du Ceil

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS).

This week we see three passes late in the week, all early evenings. The table below is from the "Spot the station" website, a link to the website is under the "Useful links" tab in the right hand column of this blog.
So get out there and catch the station is it passes high overhead.

Image courtesy of NASA.

Date	Visible	Max Height	Appears	Disappears	Share Event
Fri May 10, 6:13 PM	2 min	15°	10° above S	15° above SSE
Sat May 11, 6:58 PM	2 min	29°	10° above SW	29° above SW
Sun May 12, 6:07 PM	5 min	39°	10° above SSW	23° above E

Enjoy the week ahead and get out under the stars and look up!