Starry Monday at Otterbein

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Starry Monday at Otterbein
Welcome to

• Astronomy Lecture Series
• -every first Monday of the month-
• February 7, 2005
• Dr. Uwe Trittmann

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Todays Topics

• Famous Telescopes
• Objects worthy to be observed
• The Night Sky in February

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Feedback!

• Please write down suggestions/your interests on
  the note pads provided
• If you would like to hear from us, please leave
  your email / address
• To learn more about astronomy and physics at
  Otterbein, please visit
• http//www.otterbein.edu/dept/PHYS/weitkamp.asp
  (Obs.)
• http//www.otterbein.edu/dept/PHYS/ (Physics
  Dept.)

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Telescopes

• From Galileo to Hubble

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Telescopes

• Light collectors
• Two types
• Reflectors
• (Mirrors)
• Refractors (Lenses)

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Famous Telescopes - Galileo

• Galileos first telescope was 3x magnifying
• his last one 32 x

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Famous Telescopes -Newton

• First Reflector ever
• Built around 1670
• After this gargantuan
• Telescopes!

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Famous Telescopes - Hevelius

• Rooftop observatory of Johannes Hevelius (1670)

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Famous Telescopes - Hevelius

• 60 inch
• 140 inch ?

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Famous Telescopes - Herschel

• Herschel detected Uranus (1781)

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Famous Telescopes Lord Ross

• 72 inch Reflector
• built during potato famine in Ireland
• Largest Telescope until Mt Wilson (1917)

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Famous Telescopes Yerkes

• Largest Refractor Telescope ever
• 40 inch lens
• Built 1897

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Famous Telescopes Mt Palomar

• 5 Meter Telescope Huge and heavy mirror
• On Mt. Palomar in California

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Famous Telescopes Hubble Space Telescope

• In orbit around earth
• No limitations due to earths atmosphere
• Brilliant pictures

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Famous Telescopes Arecibo Radio Telescope

• Located in Puerto Rico
• 300m diameter
• Receives Radio waves
• Built 1963
• SETI

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Famous People

• Hubble in prime focus of Einstein
  visits Mt Wilson Mt Palomar.
• Hubble detected the Expansion of the Universe
• ? Proof of Einsteins General
  Relativity Theory

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Largest Earth-Based Telescopes

• Keck I and II, Mauna Kea, Hawaii
• 36 ? 1.8 m hexagonal mirrors
• equivalent to 10 m
• Above most of atmosphere
• (almost 14,000 ft ASL)
• Operating since 1993

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Visiting Mauna Kea
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Mauna Kea

• Elevation 14,000 ft.
• Oxygen 60
• Freezing on top, snorkeling at sea level
• Road strictly 4 wheels!

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Mauna Kea
Maui

• 325 observing days per year!
• Darkest skies on the planet!

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The biggest Telescopes in the World
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Sunset on Mauna Kea
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Classifying Objects

• Sun and Moon
• Planets and their moons
• Stars and Constellations
• Variable stars
• The Milky Way
• Deep Sky Objects
• Star Clusters (Open and Globular)
• Bright and Dark Nebulae
• Galaxies (used to be called nebulae also)

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When to observe which Objects

• The surface features on the Moon are best seen
  when the Moon is not full (nor new ?)
• Observe Jupiters four Galilean moons with
  binoculars whenever Jupiters up
• Small telescope will show Saturns rings
• Milky Way can be seen under dark skies
• (but already in Madison county)

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Deep Sky Objects

• Usually faint and/or small
• Best observed under dark skies/ moonless nights
• Some are binocular objects, some require sizeable
  telescopes

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Deep Sky Objects Open Clusters

• Classic example Plejades (M45)
• Few hundred stars
• Young just born
• ?Still parts of matter
• around the stars

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Deep Sky Objects Globular Clusters

• Classic example Great Hercules Cluster (M13)
• Spherical clusters
• may contain
• millions of stars
• Old stars
• Great tool to study
• stellar life cycle

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Observing Stellar Evolution Example
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From the Rooftop

• ?Plejades in Taurus,
• Open Cluster

M92 in Hercules, Globular Cluster ?
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Deep Sky Objects Nebulae

• Classic example Orion Nebula
  (M 42)
• hot glowing gas
• Temperatures 8000K
• Made to glow by
• ultraviolet radiation
• emitted by young
• O- or B-type (hot)
• stars located inside
• Color predominantly
• red, the color of a
• particular hydrogen
• emission line (H?)

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Friday Night

• 27 seconds exposure

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Friday Night

• 87 seconds exposure

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Dark Nebulae

• Classic Example Horsehead Nebula in Orion

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Trifid Nebula (M20) Good example for
dark dust lanes in front of an emission nebula
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Deep Sky Objects Planetary Nebulae

• Classic Example Ring nebula in Lyra (M57)
• (Here Eye of God Nebula)
• Dead, exploded stars
• We see gas expanding
• in a sphere
• In the middle is the
• dead star, a
• White Dwarf

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Friday Night Eskimo Nebula
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Eskimo Nebulaclose up
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Deep Sky Objects Galaxies

• Classic example Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
• Island universes
• Made out of billions
• of stars and dust
• Very far away
• (millions of lys)
• Different types
• Spiral, elliptic, irr.

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Deep Sky Catalogues

• Some of the best deep sky objects can be found in
  the Messier Catalogue (e.g. M 31)
• Messier (around 1770) catalogued the objects not
  to confuse them with comets
• There are 110 Messier Objects
• Other catalogues
• NGC new general catalogue (1880) lists 7800
  objects
• Caldwell list 109 best non-messier objects
• Herschel 400 from Herschels famous list, early
  1800s

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The Night Sky in February

• The sun is still very low in the sky -gt long
  nights!
• Winter constellations (Orion, Gemini, Taurus,)
  contain many bright stars and objects
• Saturn was in Opposition last month (i.e. at its
  brightest)

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Moon Phases

• Today (Waning crescent, 2)
• 2 / 8 (New Moon)
• 2 / 15 (First Quarter Moon)
• 2 / 28 (Full Moon)
• 3 / 3 (Last Quarter Moon)

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Today at Noon

• Sun at meridian, i.e. exactly south

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10 PM

• Typical observing hour, early January
• no Moon
• Saturn!

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Midnight

• Jupiter

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Zenith

• High in the sky
• Perseus and
• Auriga
• with Plejades and the Double Cluster

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North-East

• Big Dipper points to the north pole

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Due South

• The Winter Constellations
• Orion
• Taurus
• Canis Major
• Gemini
• Canis Minor

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East

• Spring Constellations
• - Cancer
• - Leo
• - Hydra
• Deep Sky Objects
• - Beehive Cluster (M44)

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Mark your Calendars!

• Next Starry Monday at Otterbein March 7, 2005, 7
  pm
• (this is a Monday
  )
• Well talk about Mars Missions and more
• Web pages
• http//www.otterbein.edu/dept/PHYS/weitkamp.asp
  (Obs.)
• http//www.otterbein.edu/dept/PHYS/ (Physics
  Dept.)