Qualia

Some Doubles in Andromeda Perhaps there are some who think doubles are merely two stars close together and they may be right, just as one may be right in saying great music is only a bundle of notes strung together or that literature is just a large collection of words. But as with most things in life, if you spend time with doubles, hunting them out and learning from them, you come to realise that the grand majority radiate an aesthetic beauty quite unlike anything else. As with any art, there need not be any purpose in splitting stars, just as there need not be any necessary purpose in strolling through a forest at dawn, viewing a beautiful sunset or writing a poem to your loved one, but we can also highlight some of the more utilitarian reasons for undertaking such a pursuit: star systems are among the very few objects in the night sky to show you any real colour, in some cases majestically bright and vibrant. This gives the pursuit a rather pleasing aesthetic appeal. tracking down doubles gives you excellent practice in the art of star hopping and in reading and using star maps and charts. seeing conditions will often influence your success, so by observing doubles on different nights you can gain familiarity with how how appear in your telescope under varying conditions. like lunar and planetary observing, you can observe doubles from your own garden or roof top under quite heavy LP, so you don’t need to be hanging around for perfectly dark nights or sites. searching for double stars teaches you something about your telescope’s resolving power, its ability to provide you sharp and detailed viewing, even of objects that upon initial appearance come across as a single source of light. by comparing the double and multiple star systems you can practice your understanding and skills at recognizing differing star magnitudes. Andromeda is a fascinating constellation in itself with many beautiful objects to discover. The following are a few sketches of some of the wonderful double stars it conceals. I hope you enjoy them and I will see you all after a little holiday break. Should be back at the end of the month. Bye for now.

Forgot to mention the orbital times for the 4 Galilean Moons, so here goes: Orbital Period Ganymede: 7.15 days (about 7 days, 3 hours and 36 minutes). Callisto: 16.69 days (about 16 days, 16 hours and 33 minutes). Io: 1.77 days (about 1 day, 18 hours and 28 minutes). Europa: 3.55 days (about 3 days, 13 hours and 12 minutes).

Jupiter Jupiter hardly needs an introduction. It is the largest planet in the Solar System with over two and a half times the mass of all the other planets combined and in which you could fit as many as 1,300 Earths. In times of yesterday, Jupiter was the supreme god for the Romans (in Greek he is known as Zeus). He was the King of Kings, personifying the divine right of rule and authority, law, justice and government. He was typically identified with a thunderbolt and the eagle, the Aquila, which the Roman Legion adopted as the symbol for their own war flag, or standard. Although much has been written of Jupiter, we can point out the following highlights: Orbit Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in the Solar System and lies anything between 925 (Aphelion) to 630 (Perihelion) million kilometers from Earth. Due to its slight axis tilt, neither of its hemispheres points markedly towards or away from the sun and in consequence, Jupiter does not appear to have any obvious season. Structure We can imagine Jupiter as essentially a huge ball of gas with four main structures. The outer layer is a gaseous state made up of mainly hydrogen (90%) and helium (9%) where temperatures fall to around -110ºC. As we move downwards, pressure, density and temperature increase, so by about 7,000km deep the hydrogen and helium acts like a liquid gas reaching temperatures of about 2,000ºC and by about 14,000km deep, they have risen to over 5,000ºC and the hydrogen has compacted into molten metal. Deep inside, at a depth of about 60,000km, there is probably a solid core of metal and rock compounds. Atmosphere The mass of Jupiter’s atmosphere is made up of about 75% hydrogen, 24% helium, with the remaining one percent consisting of other compounds and elements, such as methane, ammonia and water. As these elements and compounds condense, different coloured clouds are formed giving Jupiter its distinctive appearance. As the circulating air falls, for example, it heats up creating those rusty brown regions known as belts, as it rises again it begins to cool giving Jupiter those creamy bands known as zones. Weather As already suggested, due to Jupiter’s tilt, the planet doesn’t appear to have any distinct season. Nevertheless, the rising and falling air produces winds which reach in the excess of 400kph. Solar heat, the winds and Jupiter’s spin combine to produce huge storms, the smallest of which would be apocalyptic on Earth. Some of these storms last only days, others endure for centuries, like the Great Red Spot, a high pressure storm. Rings and Magnestic Fields Jupiter’s ring system was discovered in 1979 by images taken by Voyager 1. It is thin and very faint and is composed of dust strewn from Jupiter’s four inner moons of which Io is one. Jupiter’s magnetic field is the strongest of any planet, about 20,000 times that of Earth’s.

Moons Jupiter has around 60 moons most of which have been discovered since 2000. Only 38 of them have been named and in all cases after the god’s descendents and those who attended him well, including his many lovers. The four largest moons were the first moons to be discovered after the Earth’s in 1610. That chilly January evening, Galileo pointed his small refractor at Jupiter and in that moment the 2,000 year old Aristotelian truth that all worlds revolved around the Earth essentially fall apart. The Four Galilean Moons Ganymede Ganymede is the largest of Jupiter’s moons with a diameter of just over 5,000km, meaning that it is bigger that either Pluto or Mercury and just a little smaller than Mars. It is made up of mainly rock and ice, orbits at a distance of about 1 million km from Jupiter and is named after the cupbearer of the Olympian gods. Callisto Callisto is the second-largest moon and again is made up mainly of ice and rock. Its distance from Jupiter is just under 2 million km and was named after one of Zeus’ lovers. Io Io is just a little larger than our own moon and orbits Jupiter at just a little greater distance, about 422 thousand km. Close up images of Io show it looking like a pizza, a highly coloured world of volcanic eruptions, pits, lava flows and high-reaching plumes. At its volcanic hotspots, temperatures can reach to over 1,200ºC whilst elsewhere, in less active terrain, they can drop to as much as -150ºC. Io was named after another of Zeus’ lovers whom he changed into a cow to hide from his wife, Hera. Europa Europa is another ice-covered ball of rock with a diameter of about 3,000km and a distance from Jupiter of about 670 thousand km. Although the smallest of the moons, it is probably one of the most fascinating objects in the solar system. Below its covering crust of ice are seas and oceans estimated to contain more liquid than Earth’s combined and is believed to be potentially a haven for life, so much so, that when it was known that the Galileo space probe at the end of its mission in 2003 could collide with the moon and possibly contaminate or destroy life, it was put on a collision course with Jupiter. In ancient Greek myth, Europa was another lover of Zeus.

Lunar Observations and Sketches This week, I've decided to wake up early and view Jupiter. This has been far from an easy task, but surprisingly, seeing has been rather good at these early hours of the morning and Jupiter’s two great bands and Giant Red Spot were easily visible every observing session. I drew an image of what I saw at around 4am, returned to Jupiter about an hour later to draw another field sketch and then wound the practice down as the sun rose around 6am. With these sketches in hand, I divided the total angular movement perceived into 15 minute frame shots. Often, between these smaller sketch-shots, there was very little observable movement, so I cheated a little and used Sky and Telescope's program to help me find some of the slower moons’ orbital movement and direction. Nevertheless, with that said, what you see is very much what was perceived in the entirety of the observing session between the two hours. I have tried to sketch Jupiter as accurately as possible but was compromised between either drawing it to seeing scale or colouring it to what was seen. With the free program I use (Piant.net), it wasn’t possible to do both, so in the end, I opted for accuracy in size. Jupiter, as seen from the eyepiece, should have its bands just a little darker, with a more rusty feel to them and with more observable lines seen within both its belts and zones. I have placed the sketches from the most recent session to those conducted the previous week. Of particular interest has been those drawn today, 30th July, which show Io’s shadow cast over Jupiter’s surface. If you open up the sketches and save them, you will be able to flick through each seeing session quickly and by doing so, like an old fashion film, you will be able to perceive the four Galilean moons’ general orbital movement.

Of course I don't mind, Lawrence. Thank you for taking the time to post. It is always a pleasure to read and even more so when what is supplied is as informative and thoughtful as your own post. The thank you, then, is all mine :-)

Ay, it does make viewing a pleasure when evening temperatures are really quite mild and the winter months don't fill up with clouds too often. Thank you for your kind comment, Folkert.

Thanks for the comment, Scoobee and I'd be interested to hear what you did see when viewing NGC 7510. I found it quite easy to find and very bright and was shocked at first at just how much of that nebula-like cloud shines forth. Nothing at all like a nebula itself. Are you sure you came across the same object? Anyway The set up is nothing more than is written. I view from a high-rise roof top in a Spanish city which is surrounded by desert lands and mountain tops at about 2am/3am in the morning. I'll spend a good hour or so just observing and jotting dots on a piece of paper and more often than not, return to the site the following evening to make sure I've captured everything. I'll scan the image into the computer and tidy up the stars and shadings. Basically, that consists of rubbing out the irregular star-blobs and making them into single focuses of light. I've played around with different techniques and although a very fine tipex type of pen and chalked brush on black paper looks better in the original when it comes to scanning it in, a lot is lost. So with these type of star-shots, I just do it in pencil on white paper and invert the positive image. Light grey shadings come out as clouds, fine black pencil dots come out as white stars! And that's about it. I'm also blessed with deep blue skies during most of the year and a gentle cooling breeze running under cloudless and super dry evening skies, night, after night, after night. Hope that helps. If you need anymore info on this, just drop me a line.

Thank you for your kind words, TingTing. It's a sketch I made at the eyepiece; pencil in hand, bike torch gritted between my teeth, and other hand keeping the scope aligned as the stars drift away to the west. Quite a fun game, but I like it. Later I scan it into the computer, and make a few touches with Paint.Net a free software program.

Great stuff, gentlemen and thank you for the input. I especially liked your report, Ldunn and will try again when darker nights begin. And Mark, once again, thank you so much for your kind support. Your comments and attention make everything that bit more special. Thank you.

NGC 7510 - Open Cluster NGC 7510 is a young, open cluster in Cepheus just a couple of degrees below M 52. It is estimated to contain anything between 30 to 60 member stars, scattered across 10 to 15 light years of space and ranging from a magnitude of about 8 to 15. It is about 107 years old and although relatively unknown, its distance from Earth has been valued from anything between 7,000 to just under 17,000 light years. Putting this into some perspective, as the cluster's light reaches you, it began its lonely voyage while the Neolithic era was still in full swing, rice has probably just been domesticated and the wheel is more than likely still a promise for the future to discover. NGC 7510 is a gorgeous cluster and to some extent resembles an arrow's head. The whole area is faintly tinted with a huge nebulous haze, a great cloud of ionized hydrogen subtly concealing a background of fainter stars trying to emerge from the quiet and solitary darkness and carve out their own brilliance in the night sky.

Not sad at all, Carl! I spend moments of everyday thinking about what you guys say and relate to each other. It's a healthy way of learning, I think. With some stuff I guess I'm quite quick but curiously, when it comes to stargazing everything slows down for me. I like to sit back, role myself a smoke and admire a single sighting, or two at most, on each session. I don't know, maybe living in a city cuts back on given compromises, I mean, just seeing something is the challenge. Thank you for your kind and thoughtful thoughts, Carl.

Jules, you're a gent and always very supportive. Thank you.

Thanks, Carl. You're a gent and they are good fun these doubles.

Epsilon (ε) Lyrae & Struve (Σ) 2470 & 2474 Epsilon (ε) Lyrae, HIP 91919 - The Double Double Along with Albireo in Cynus, the Double Double in Lyra is probably one of the most viewed multiple star systems in amateur astronomy; it is relatively easy to find, makes a good test for one's optics and scope and is rather beautiful to behold. It is estimated that the star system is some 162 light years away from Earth, separated by billions of miles and orbiting each other over a period of hundreds of thousands of years. ε1 (to the right in the sketch) and ε2 (to the left) can be split themselves into two further binary star systems which again are orbiting each other. The component stars of ε1 have magnitudes of about 4.5 and 6, and ε2 about 5 and 5.5 and again are separated by billions of miles, each orbiting their partner over a period between 1,200 and 600 years respectively. The two binary pairs are probably Type A, dwarf stars, something similar to Sirius, Deneb or Vega, with a mass of about 1.5 to 2 times that of the Sun. Typically, dwarf stars are young stars with just a few hundred million years of age. It is understood that there are also a number of other stars which could be part of the Epsilon star system. ε2, for example, might have another star orbiting its binary pair and collectively, ε1 and ε2 could have a total of ten other stars held by the same gravitational pull. A City Observation Although Epsilon Lyrae is easy to find and split into the two distinct components, splitting these again is very difficult. As can be seen from the sketch below with the 4” at about 140x, a clean separation wasn’t possible. Perhaps I will need to re-observe and re-draw the Double Double over the winter months when seeing conditions in the city are better, but, perhaps, this isn’t the real answer. I feel that resolving this particular double doesn’t only depend upon atmospheric steadiness and dark skies, but also on my own vision which these days may not be up to scratch. Struve (Σ) 2470 & 2474 – The Other Double Double Σ 2470, the more northern one to the right, appears to consist of a bluish-white primary and a fainter blue companion at about 6 and 8 magnitude whilst Σ 2474, again at about a 6 and 8 magnitude, appears to consist of a reddish-yellow primary with a fainter, lighter yellow companion. Σ 2474 is said to be another binary star system in itself, whilst a 11 magnitude orbital partner, known as the C component, can be seen just left of it at about 120º. Σ 2474, like the sun, is believed to be a Type G star about 160 light years away. Σ 2470, on the other hand, is thought to be a Type B star with about 16 times the mass of the sun and over 1,300 light years away. It follows that collectively, this ‘Other Double Double’ in Lyra, although a stunning visual binary, are not physically related and so are not true double binary systems. A City Observation Although not nearly as well know as their Epsilon partners, aesthetically speaking I find Struve Σ 2470 and Σ 2474 far more appealing. The double is an easy, low power split, lying parallel rather than perpendicular to each other and being less a magnifying challenge than Epsilon Lyrae, the double appears somewhat brighter whilst offering the observer a richer field of stars as a gorgeous backdrop to the colourful binary system.

Very beauiful and very inspirational. They really are fantastic sketches. I can't seem to open up the given link, so if possible can you forward it again? Look forward to seeing more of your work and thank you for posting up your art work, Gliderpilot.

M 39 M 39 is a rather unassuming open cluster about 101 thousand lights years away and estimated to be about 9 light years across. The vast majority of brighter stars are Type A, Dwarf stars, something similar to Sirius, in their main sequence stage (burning hydrogen at their cores), whilst the brightest star is a Type B with a magnitude of about 6. This understanding has lead to an age estimate for M 39 of about 240 to 280 million years; a long time, but as things go in the universe, M 39 is almost a baby, especially if you start comparing it with globular clustsers. M 39 is one of the closest and smallest Messier clusters which helps explain its rather loose and angular visual appearance and even in a small aperture viewfinder, it is obvious that it is composed of stars, making it a wonder why Messier placed M 39 in his list of pseudo-comets in 1764. Other astronomers have been equally less-impressed. Herschel noted that it was 'coarsely scattered', Rosse of 'little concentration' and Smyth observed that it was a 'little splashy'. City Observations It is said that M 39 can be seen with the naked eye from a sufficiently dark site, appearing as a brighter spot within the rich star field of the Milky Way but in the city it is invisible and with no clear, nearby stars to guide you, it can be quite a challenge to find. Nevertheless, contrary to Herschel et al, I think it is well worth the effort. In the viewfinder, M 39 looks like a triangle filled-in and surrounded by a relatively rich field of sparklers, making it a perfect observation for owners of low f/ratio scopes or low magnification eyepieces of about 32mm. I have no idea what stars should be included in the cluster, nor, let it be said, whether the sketch I have included is M 39 or one of the other rich clusters found in and around Cygnus. I have read that about 20% of the stars brighter than 10th magnitude do not even belong to the cluster, so probably what I have included in the sketch will be a tad misleading. If anyone could guide me here, I would be most grateful. A useful tip for this given cluster is to sit with her for a while and let the different star colours become evermore apparent. I have tried to include the differing colours seen, but obviously this will be quite a subjective experience.

I'm sorry if this looks like I'm repeating myself, but the original 'Part III Space' entry had set up an entire blog of its own, so this entry wasn't with Part II and I. I've ammended the error, I hope, but now it looks like I'm double posting which wasn't the intention. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Here I will conclude this little three part series. You can find the other two parts here: Part I: http://stargazerslou...3-part-i-space/ Part II: http://stargazerslou...-part-ii-space/ Up to this point, every wave known to science travelled relative to some medium, so where was the substance for light? Experiments were failing to find the Aether and Maxwell’s own equations did not conjure up such a substance, so what was going on? It was simple, argued a young Einstein, light, unlike any other wave does not need a medium. Light's speed is relative to anything and everything. It doesn’t matter if you are travelling towards or away from light, for it will always be measured at a constant speed of 671 million mph. The upshot So what exactly is being said if we conclude that the speed of light is a constant? As we have seen: velocity is a measure of space (distance travelled) divided by a measure of time (duration of journey) and, space and time were generally considered absolute. With these two premises in place, it was concluded that any measurement between two spatially separated objects, any measurement in space, would always be absolute. It didn’t matter if you, I or some cosmic entity did the measuring, because, in principle, we should all agree on the measurements taken. And exactly the same argument followed for time. It didn’t matter who measured how much time it took for something to happen, because, once again, in principle, all would agree on the measurements taken. But according to Einstein, the old generations assumed too much with that second premise. People moving relative to each other will not find identical values for time and space and this follows from the premise: the speed of light is a constant. Accordingly, if you chase light at 670 million mph, I will measure the light racing away from you at 1 million mph and you will measure the light running away from you at 671 million mph. The speed of light in either case has remained constant, yet space and time are rendered completely relative just as Kant had informed us more than a hundred years earlier. Namely, that each of us carries our own measuring rods of space and time. Special Relativity Before Einstein, it was generally believed that time and space were two very distinct entities, but, for argument’s sake, Einstein found them to be two sides of the same coin. Imagine you’re driving your car in a straight line and all your car motion is going into that straight line. Imagine now that you take a curve up ahead and you do nothing to compensate for the curve, then some of your original straight line velocity will go into that curve, leaving you a little less for the straight line. By analogy, if time and space are different sides to the same coin, then we can imagine a parked car which isn’t moving through space and so this means all of its motion is going through time. But if that car suddenly speeds away, some of its time motion will now be directed into space motion, meaning that there’s a little less motion for time, so it will literally slow down for the car. In other words, just as some of the car’s straight line velocity was directed into the curve in the first example, in the second example, some of the car’s space motion is diverted into time motion. And it is this very curious feature that Special Relativity is arguing; namely, that the combined velocity of any object through space and time is always equal to that of the speed of light. Thus, motion is a combination of motion through space and time and these two motions are absolutely complementary. It follows that the faster you move through space, the slower time will pass and to give some idea of this ratio, for every three hours we pass at rest, two hours will pass at about 500 million mph and at the speed of light, when all your motion is directed into space motion, time should, in principle, stop. The light from the stars and the planets you gaze upon at night have never aged when their pretty coloured photons hit your enquiring eye. And this is one reason why it is considered that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. It is simply because there is no more time motion to draw upon, its all used up. Travelling at such a speed leaves no more time for time. And that, for now, is the end of our little wander into space. I hope you enjoyed the read. You can find the other two parts here: Part I: http://stargazerslou...3-part-i-space/ Part II: http://stargazerslou...-part-ii-space/

Thanks, Ken. Let me know how you get along. I think I'll pop up on the roof tonight, the first time in over two weeks!