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practical astronomy
1. ISSN 2042-2687
Practical Astronomy
The Alan Young Telescope
November 2009
Reborn: The Alan Young Telescope
Registax: New Version
Astronomy Recipe Of The Month
Observers’ Delights
Sky View November
3. Reborn: The Alan Young Telescope
Photography and text: Kevin Brown
They’ve worked hard for the last three years..
After much restoration work, this well-known
22.5 inch reflector from the past, has been
reborn.
It’s now rebuilt and installed at the CADSAS
(Cranbrook Astronomy Society) observatory in
Kent, England.
Having spent many years dismantled and stored
in a private garage, the magnificent telescope is
now operational and capturing astro images
again.
However, it’s not yet finished..
Further improvements to the motorised drive
systems are planned for the near future.
The Telescope’s History
Built by Alan Young in the 1970's and housed in
his observatory at Burwash in Kent, this was The Alan Young Telescope - October 2009
one of the largest amateur telescopes in the UK.
He used it extensively in the 1980's and did
important published work. A good example was successfully
photographing the recently discovered
supernova SN 1985H, at around magnitude 16.
Photographic Achievement This was published in The Astronomer.
The telescope's large diameter primary mirror, Other published photographic achievements
together with use of specially sensitized include captures of Halley's comet in 1985,
photographic film, enabled investigation of faint and confirming the existence of a distant
deep-space objects such as supernovae. quasar (QSO 0716+332) in 1986, after initial
Before the days of CCD imaging devices, this reports from the United States.
was of course very difficult.
As new discoveries were reported by observers Jigsaw Puzzle
all over the World, Alan directed the telescope at
these distant objects and tried to confirm their As you can see from the "before and after"
existence, or otherwise. images here on this page, the dismantled
telescope was in a poor state when acquired
by CADSAS.
Practical Astronomy November 2009 3
4. Reborn: The Alan Young Telescope
Photography and text: Kevin Brown
Dedicated by Astronomer Royal
Polar (RA) Axis Worm Drive
Using just a single photo of the complete
instrument from the 1980’s, the
Society members have pieced the
telescope back together, cleaning
and fettling each component on the
way.
Purpose-Built Observatory
With such a large telescope, a
dedicated observatory is essential.
Luckily, the CADSAS observatory
was purpose-built to house it.
It's new custodians now look forward
to the Alan Young telescope doing
good astronomical work again, in the
very near future.
BEFORE: “Jigsaw” Puzzle Of Parts
More details on CADSAS and the Alan Young
telescope may be found at www.CADSAS.com
Practical Astronomy November 2009 4
5. Practical Observing: Guide To The Autumn
Night Sky By Rod Smith
This is the script for a guided Autumn
observing session for astronomy beginners, The second brightest thing in the sky is the
starting at dusk. Times given are for late-Oct/ Moon, shining in reflected sunlight. Again its
early-Nov. brightness makes it difficult to see some of the
stars, but if it is in its first or third phase it
Guide to the Autumn Night Sky - Looking cannot cause too many problems.
South
The Moon orbits the Earth at a distance of
The aim of this exercise is to help you learn nearly 400,000 km, meaning that light (and
the names and positions of a few of the radio messages) from the Moon take about
objects visible on the Ecliptic. 1.25 sec to reach us.
Mentioned here are solar system objects and Before we go any further, if the Moon is visible
first magnitude stars, which are the brightest in the sky you should make a mental map of
and so the first to be seen after dusk. Thus if where it is right now.
you begin your study of the sky shortly after
sunset during the evening, you will be able to Of the planets visible to the naked eye:
locate the objects mentioned here. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn,
only Mars,Venus and Jupiter are visible in the
You will need a location fairly free from light sky at present. Jupiter will be the first object
and atmospheric pollution, and with an you will see, Venus and Mars will be visible in
unobstructed view to the South. the early hours of the morning if you care to
wait that long, or get up early enough.
The first thing to remember is we live on the
surface of a sphere, which means that we Look South. Notice where the Sun has set
cannot see all of the stars at the same time. (just South of West) and trace an arc from that
bit of the horizon, up about 50 degrees when
In fact, some we can never see from the looking due South and then back down
Northern hemisphere, one must move South (passing the Moon if it is in the sky) to the
of the equator. eastern horizon. The line you have traced is
called the Ecliptic and is the path followed by
the Sun, Moon and all the planets. They are
The second thing to remember is that we live
always on or close to this line, as are the
very near to a star. Our star is the Sun, so
constellations of the Zodiac.
close to us that its light takes only about 8
minutes to reach us and from where we live,
it seems to be very bright. So bright that Moving along the Ecliptic from West to East,
when it is in the sky, it is impossible to see the there are few easy objects to recognise. Very
other stars even though they are there. The low in the West is the constellation Sagittarius.
Sunʼs light swamps them. This contains no really bright stars, but a
group of 2nd magnitude stars can be seen
close to the horizon as it becomes dark.
Itʼs now dusk and the Sun has just gone
These soon slip down below the horizon and
down; as the minutes tick by, the sky will
are hard to see.
gradually get darker and stars will become
visible.
Practical Astronomy November 2009 5
6. Practical Observing: Guide To The Autumn
Night Sky (cont.)
You will soon find Jupiter quite low in the sky to
the South. With binoculars or a small telescope
you will easily see some of the Jovian moons Pleiades
and maybe even the bands of gas on the planet
Taurus, Aldebaran and Pleiades, rising in
the East
Jupiter in Capricorn, to the South above the Eastern horizon. Train your
telescope or binoculars onto this cluster of stars
and you will be amazed to see just how many
surface. Successive nights of observing will
there are.
convince you that the Jovian moons are
orbiting the planet, as their positions will shift.
Just below the Ecliptic you will see the Red
Giant Aldebaran, the eye of the Bull, Taurus.
Jupiter is the most obvious object and is in
Aldebaran is 65 light years away and is one of
Capricorn. Watch it for several weeks and you
the brightest stars in the sky with a magnitude of
will notice that it has changed its position
0.87
relative to the other stars around it; by
Christmas it will have moved from Capricorn
into the next zodiac constellation - Aquarius. Later on, around midnight, below Taurus you will
find the constellation Orion, not on the Ecliptic
but easily recognizable as it contains more
The Moon is the next easy object. Towards the
bright stars than any other constellation in the
end of October, it will be seen moving between
sky. Most noticeable is Betelgeuse (top left),
the constellations Aquarius and Pisces; neither
like Aldebaran a red giant, and Rigel (bottom
of these constellations contain any bright stars.
right).
The Moon is waxing and gibbous (i.e. between
first quarter and full). On the 31st October, it will
be almost full and seen slap in the middle of Again train your binoculars or telescope onto the
Pisces. belt and sword of Orion and you will see an
amazing sight of stars and vast dust clouds
filling your field of view. To see these properly it
At about 9pm, the constellation Taurus will have
is best to wait for later in November, when the
risen and the bright star cluster The Pleiades,
Moon is no longer visible in the evening sky.
commonly known as the Seven Sisters, is
visible just above the Ecliptic still low in the sky
Practical Astronomy November 2009 6
7. Practical Observing: Guide To The Autumn
Night Sky (cont.)
After midnight the brightest star Sirius (the dog objects, stand out clearly as most other stars will
star) rises. This is several degrees below the not be visible early in the evenings.
Ecliptic but is unmistakable as it is so bright.
On a dark frosty night, Sirius can be a Once it gets truly dark, with so many stars
spectacular object as its scintillation flashes the visible things can be more confusing.
spectral colors at you.
You remember the mental map you made of
Next to rise, just before 10pm is the where the Moon was? Go back and look at the
constellation Gemini with its two 1st Magnitude Moon; you should notice itʼs in a slightly different
stars, Castor and Pollux, then the constellation position.
Cancer appears and sitting in it, is the planet
What has happened is that because the Earth is
spinning on its axis, our viewpoint has changed
and we are actually looking in a new direction,
but as we think we have stayed still, it seems to
us that the sky has moved above us carrying the
Moon and stars with it.
Also the Moon has moved slightly against the
background of the stars due to its motion around
the Earth, movement which is very noticeable by
marking the position of the Moon on a daily
basis.
Mars and Regulus, rising in the East
Another thing to notice is that as the year
Mars, bright and reddish, with a magnitude of progresses, the stars here rise progressively
0.44 and so brighter than Aldebaran. earlier in the evening and by midwinter the
constellations of Leo, Taurus and Orion will
dominate the Southern sky.
Around 2am you will see the 1st magnitude star
Regulus, slap on the Ecliptic and then around
5am Saturn appears with a magnitude of about Good luck. I hope that you can find the objects
1, still quite dim for a planet. mentioned.
Finally, just before dawn, Venus rises shining
brightly at magnitude -4, but soon to be
swamped by the light of the rising Sun. By Rod Smith
These are the objects you should learn to
recognise in the Autumn. You will then be able
to use these as signposts to guide you around Times given are for late-Oct/early-Nov. Objects rise
earlier each evening, as the year progresses.
the sky.
In general, learn to find stars as darkness falls
as the bright ones, being first magnitude
Practical Astronomy November 2009 7
8. Readers Image Gallery
We welcome your images for publication. Beginner, advanced or expert, just send to: editor@practicalastronomy.com
Two Comparison Images
Of The Bubble Nebula By
Mitch Fry
Bubble "A" is a summed
(averaged) image (100 x
30sec) taken unguided with
a 80mm Williams Optics
doublet apochromatic,
F4.48 (field of view is 79.4 x
105.9min);
M52 (lower left) can be seen
in the same field of view.
Bubble "B" is a summed
(averaged) image (3 x
10min) taken autoguided
with a 132mm Williams
Optics Flourite triplet
apochromatic, F5.6 (field of
view is 41.2 x 55min). Image A: The Bubble Nebula (NGC7635), and M52
In both cases, the camera is
an SGIB ST2000XM, the
mount a Celestron CGE,
and both employed an H-
alpha filter and 0.8 reducer.
Other than an automatic
dark frame subtraction,
neither image has been
further processed.
Mitch comments..
“Aesthetically I prefer
Bubble A, a sharper "faster"
image with the additional
interest of M52, but Bubble
B has great potential and
awaits further data!”
Mitch offers access to the
FITS files. Email the editor
and your message will be
forwarded.
Image B: The Bubble Nebula (NGC7635)
Practical Astronomy November 2009 8
9. Readers Image Gallery
We welcome your images for publication. Beginner, advanced or expert, just send to: editor@practicalastronomy.com
M13 By Herbert Fritsche
M13, captured in Zwettl, Austria on 19
August 2009
Equipment:
Syntha ED80/600, HEQ5, Canon
EOS350D unmodified.
Exposure time 3 min., focusing with
DSLR-Focus.
Guiding with a second Syntha-70/500
telescope and Guidemaster.
Image processing with IRIS.
Herbert comments..
“My first try to guide the telescope, but I
think it worked well!”
I think so too!
Globular Cluster M13 (NGC 6205) in Hercules
December Issue Out 17 November
Next Month...
• Christmas Present Ideas
• Binocular Observing Challenge - 12 Objects, 12 Days
• Plus much more...
Practical Astronomy November 2009 9
10. Astronomy Recipe Of The Month
From a co'ection of recipes, specia'y created to inspire you for observing sessions this month!
“Regulus” Chicken And Tomato 3. Add the chicken and ground sea salt. Fry for
2 mins
Ingredients
- 250g chicken, boned and diced
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- 2 medium onions, sliced
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- black peppercorns, cumin seeds, sunflower
seeds, turmeric
- olive oil, mixed herbs, sea salt
4. Add the tomatoes, 1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs
(serves 2 - double quantities for 4) (or fresh herbs, if you have them) and 1/4 tsp
turmeric.
Preparation (35 mins) 5. Bring to boil, cover with a lid and simmer for
20 mins, stirring occasionally. Add water if it
1. Heat a cast iron casserole pot for 1 min. Add
1 tsp fresh ground black peppercorns, 1/2
tsp cumin seeds and 2 tsp sunflower seeds.
Dry fry gently for 2 mins.
2. Add 2 tbsp olive oil, then the onions, garlic
and carrots. Fry gently for 5 mins (to release
sugars from the vegetables).
becomes too thick.
6. Taste to check seasoning, adding salt if
necessary.
7. Serve with plain, boiled rice of your
preference (I like brown rice), and a salad
garnish.
Practical Astronomy Magazine Websites UK Astronomy Equipment Supplier
IYA2009.com Astronomy Blog I got good service and prices recently (ed)
First Light Optics
YouTube Channel Please mention “Practical Astronomy
Main Site Magazine ”
Practical Astronomy November 2009 10
11. Software Review: New Version Of Registax
Graphics and text: Kevin Brown
What Is Registax?
It's a free software to
align and stack a
number of images of
the same object,
combining them into a
better-quality
composite, final
image.
What Images Can
Registax Work With?
Registax is designed
for stacking and
processing, Lunar and
Planetary astro-
images.
You can load two
types of images:
Registax main screen, showing a single alignment box set over Moon crater
1. Collections of single Theophilus
frame sub-images (eg
jpg, bmp, fits, raw 3. Aligning
format files from a single-shot ccd device or
digital camera) 4. Optimizing
2. Files containing many frames (eg AVI video 5. Stacking
files from a webcam). 6. Processing with wavelets (to adjust quality)
7. Saving the final image
For the demonstration images here, I used a
couple of webcam AVI files of the Moon, There is good news for new users... once you
captured with a Philips Toucam. have done steps 1 and 2, Registax can do
steps 3 to 6 AUTOMATICALLY, if you choose.
(This is what I used for this test)
How Do You Use Registax?
As you get more proficient at stacking and
There are 7 steps..
optimizing, you'll find there's a huge wealth of
1. Loading images manual settings and controls to adjust, to
2. Setting align points (for this test, I used just a produce that perfect final image.
single align box, as you can see in the
screenshot above)
Practical Astronomy November 2009 11
12. Software Review: New Version Of Registax (cont.)
Graphics and text: Kevin Brown
How Can You Get The Software?
Simply download for free from..
http://www.astronomie.be/registax/
A detailed user manual is also available.
What's New In Latest Version 5?
There's quite a few useful enhancements, but
notably:
• Supports RAW format, digital SLR images
• Handles large (over 1GB) AVI video files
• Up to 500 alignment points and user-defined
align boxes Stacked and optimized crater trio -
Theophillus, Cyrillus and Catharina
Summary
Excellent software that will improve and inspire
your astro imaging. And you can’t argue with
the price!
Think of all the fun you can have reprocessing
those old image files, with this latest version of
Registax.
Mare Criseum area of the Moon
Moon crater Copernicus and the Appennine Mountains
Practical Astronomy November 2009 12
13. Sky View Mid-November (lat. 51N)
Looking South
Looking West
These maps show the sky view looking in different directions at 20.00 GMT in mid-November,
for an observer at latitude 51 degrees North. Further South? Objects are higher above your
local horizon, but patterns are the same. Local time zone not GMT? The view will be much the
same at 20.00 hrs, in your local time.
Practical Astronomy November 2009 13
14. Sky View Mid-November (lat. 51N)
Looking North
Looking East
These maps show the sky view looking in different directions at 20.00 GMT in mid-November,
for an observer at latitude 51 degrees North. Further South? Objects are higher above your
local horizon, but patterns are the same. Local time zone not GMT? The view will be much the
same at 20.00 hrs, in your local time.
Practical Astronomy November 2009 14
15. Observers’ Delights November 2009
MOON Full New Full
2nd Nov 16th Nov 2nd Dec
Very Favourable
LEONIDS See IYA2009.com
METEORS Peak 17th Nov Date Range 15-20th Nov soon for details
JUPITER SATURN VENUS MARS
Still very bright in Possible before Bright before dawn, but Rises around
the South evening dawn. Less becoming lost in dawn midnight.
sky (in Capricorn) than splendid twilight Brightening
Close to Neptune throughout the
rest of 2009
DEEP SKY Starts ~ Ends ~
“WINDOW” 11th Nov 2009 21th Nov 2009 Make the most of it!
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Practical Astronomy November 2009 15
