26 OCTOBER 2016 @ 19H00:
West Rand Astronomy Club Meeting
- Dutch Reformed Church,
- 844 Corlette Avenue, Witpoortjie
- GARY ELS
- TBA
Cost: Donation of R10 for the use of the venue which includes tea and coffee.
Telescopes will be set up for viewing (weather permitting). Members are encouraged to bring along telescopes, you can bring along observation sheets and any of your favourite astronomy books for discussion. Ask questions, share information and enjoy!
WRAC OCTOBER STAR PARTY
VENUE: Brookwood Lodge
DATE: Sundown on 8 October 2016.
Bring along a telescope if you have one, A supper basket including crockery and cutlery a blanket to sit on, or chairs.
Braais are permitted. If you have a braai you are welcome to bring that too.
Please remember, while star gazing the use of white light is not encouraged. Please bring a torch covered with red cellophane or a red headlamp. Also, as part of the star gazers etiquette, please do not litter.
On Line Shopping and walk in shop
Notice to members:
Wrac does on going Outreach programs from month to month throughout the year.
Any members who have telescopes and who wish to enjoy the excitement of showing others the night skies, please leave your name and number with Jess by e-mail so that you can be included in the program.
- Secretary@wrac.org.za
- sales@telescopeshop.co.za
NEXT VIEWINGS
Club members show, talk, tell and help: schools, clubs, old age homes and many who wants to know about astronomy and view the night skies.
School of Merit Edenvale – Saturday, 5 November 2016
MSP: for Club members only – to entertain a church group with the stars on the Saturday evening. Club members can go and make a weekend of it.
IN THE NEWS:
WORLD SPACE WEEK: 4-10 October
This is an international celebration of science and technology and their betterment of the human condition.
InOMN: For the duration for the month of October.
This is : International Observe the Moon Night. A world wide celebration of our nearest solar system neighbour – the Moon!
All aspiring astronomers, families and friends should get together on visible moon nights and hold moon watch gatherings.
Enjoy the occasions and let WRAC know all about it. Photographs for our gallery too.
16/10/2016 Full moon Rise: 05:45 Set: 18:43
30.10.2016 New moon Rise 05:16 Set 18:14.
Sky Happenings
- Rosetta’s Mission: 67P Churymov Gerasimenko has been put to rest. After the 30th. September we shall hear no more except for any scientific feedback ESA shall receive post cut-off date due to time differences between the comet and Earth and allowances of time for analysis and understanding.
- Water has been found on Titan – Cassini’s observations of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, have given scientists a glimpse of what Earth might have been like before life evolved. They now believe Titan possesses many parallels to Earth, including lakes, rivers, channels, dunes, rain, clouds, mountains and possibly volcanoes. https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/overview/
3. In 1920, two famous astronomers held what’s come to be called The Great Debate. At that time, spiral galaxies were called spiral nebulae, and no one knew if they were relatively near us or exceedingly far away. During the 1920 debate, Heber D. Curtis argued that the spiral nebulae were very distant, vast galaxies like our Milky Way, composed of stars. Harlow Shapley argued that our universe had just one galaxy – our Milky Way – and that the spiral nebulae were nearby gas clouds, perhaps forming solar systems. Over the decades, Curtis has been seen as correct; the spiral nebulae have turned out to be not nearby solar systems, but distant galaxies with their own billions of stars. But nature loves spirals. And now astronomers are beginning to find spiral structure in forming solar systems.
This color view from NASA’s Juno spacecraft is made from some of the first images taken by JunoCam after the spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on July 5th (UTC).
THE SUN IN OCTOBER
DATE SUNRISE SUNSET LENGTH OF DAY
01/10/2016 5:47 18.08 13:23
05/10/2016 5:43 18:09 13:24
15/102016 5:33 18:14 13:44
20/10/2016 5:28 18:17 13:52
30/10/2016 5:24 18:20 13:56
Looking at the sun through a telescope or binoculars without the necessary equipment or protection Will Blind You.
Moon in 0CT0BER
| Oct | Moonrise | Moonset | Moonrise | Time | Distance (km) | Illumination | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 1 |
06:05 | ↑ (92°) | 18:37 | ↑ (266°) | – | 12:19 | (66.2°) | 402,526 | 0.2% | |
| 2 | 06:40 | ↑ (96°) | 19:28 | ↑ (262°) | – | 13:02 | (70.1°) | 404,441 | 2.0% | |
| 3 | 07:16 | ↑ (100°) | 20:18 | ↑ (258°) | – | 13:45 | (73.6°) | 405,683 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | 07:53 | ↑ (104°) | 21:09 | ↑ (255°) | – | 14:29 | (76.7°) | 406,094 | 11.0% | |
| 5 | 08:32 | ↑ (107°) | 22:00 | ↑ (252°) | – | 15:15 | (79.2°) | 405,518 | 17.8% | |
| 6 | 09:14 | ↑ (109°) | 22:50 | ↑ (250°) | – | 16:01 | (81.0°) | 403,821 | 25.9% | |
| 7 | 09:59 | ↑ (110°) | 23:40 | ↑ (249°) | – | 16:49 | (82.0°) | 400,925 | 35.0% | |
| 8 | 10:46 | ↑ (111°) | – | – | 17:38 | (82.2°) | 396,834 | 44.8% | ||
 9 |
– | 00:28 | ↑ (250°) | 11:38 | ↑ (110°) | 18:28 | (81.3°) | 391,660 | 55.1% | |
| 10 | – | 01:16 | ↑ (251°) | 12:32 | ↑ (108°) | 19:18 | (79.5°) | 385,643 | 65.5% | |
| 11 | – | 02:02 | ↑ (253°) | 13:29 | ↑ (105°) | 20:10 | (76.6°) | 379,153 | 75.5% | |
| 12 | – | 02:47 | ↑ (256°) | 14:28 | ↑ (102°) | 21:02 | (73.0°) | 372,678 | 84.7% | |
| 13 | – | 03:31 | ↑ (261°) | 15:29 | ↑ (97°) | 21:55 | (68.6°) | 366,786 | 92.2% | |
| 14 | – | 04:15 | ↑ (266°) | 16:32 | ↑ (92°) | 22:48 | (63.7°) | 362,052 | 97.4% | |
| 15 | – | 04:59 | ↑ (271°) | 17:37 | ↑ (86°) | 23:43 | (58.7°) | 358,971 | 99.8% | |
 16 |
– | 05:45 | ↑ (276°) | 18:43 | ↑ (81°) | – | – | – | ||
| 17 | – | 06:32 | ↑ (282°) | 19:50 | ↑ (76°) | 00:40 | (54.0°) | 357,862 | 99.0% | |
| 18 | – | 07:23 | ↑ (286°) | 20:57 | ↑ (72°) | 01:38 | (49.9°) | 358,803 | 95.0% | |
| 19 | – | 08:16 | ↑ (289°) | 22:01 | ↑ (70°) | 02:38 | (46.8°) | 361,614 | 88.1% | |
| 20 | – | 09:12 | ↑ (291°) | 23:02 | ↑ (69°) | 03:37 | (45.0°) | 365,905 | 79.0% | |
| 21 | – | 10:10 | ↑ (291°) | 23:57 | ↑ (70°) | 04:36 | (44.5°) | 371,170 | 68.4% | |
 22 |
– | 11:08 | ↑ (290°) | – | 05:32 | (45.3°) | 376,885 | 57.2% | ||
| 23 | 00:48 | ↑ (71°) | 12:05 | ↑ (287°) | – | 06:26 | (47.1°) | 382,593 | 46.0% | |
| 24 | 01:34 | ↑ (74°) | 13:02 | ↑ (284°) | – | 07:16 | (49.8°) | 387,947 | 35.4% | |
| 25 | 02:15 | ↑ (78°) | 13:56 | ↑ (280°) | – | 08:04 | (53.2°) | 392,724 | 25.7% | |
| 26 | 02:54 | ↑ (82°) | 14:49 | ↑ (276°) | – | 08:50 | (56.9°) | 396,806 | 17.3% | |
| 27 | 03:31 | ↑ (86°) | 15:41 | ↑ (272°) | – | 09:34 | (60.9°) | 400,157 | 10.4% | |
| 28 | 04:06 | ↑ (91°) | 16:32 | ↑ (267°) | – | 10:17 | (64.9°) | 402,789 | 5.2% | |
| 29 | 04:41 | ↑ (95°) | 17:23 | ↑ (263°) | – | 11:00 | (68.8°) | 404,732 | 1.7% | |
| 30 |
05:16 | ↑ (99°) | 18:14 | ↑ (259°) | – | 11:43 | (72.5°) | 406,008 | 0.2% | |
| 31 | 05:53 | ↑ (103°) | 19:05 | ↑ (256°) | – | 12:27 | (75.8°) | 406,614 | 0.6% | |
| * All times are local time for Johannesburg. Dates are based on the Gregorian calendar. Illumination is calculated at lunar noon. | ||||||||||
- http://www.timeanddate.com/moon/south-africa/johannesburg
Planets in OCTOBER:
Our big Planets are still in the sky but moving westward and soon Jupiter, Mercury and Venus will disappear from sight until they rise again. Moving westward together with constellation Scorpious, Mars and Saturn are good to see in the centre going westward.
After midnight it might be possible to see Uranus low on the north eastern horizon.
The speciality this month is still Juno traveling around Jupiter and gathering information for the scientists to study and let the world know all about. In 1920, two famous astronomers held what’s come to be called The Great Debate. At that time, spiral galaxies were called spiral nebulae, and no one knew if they were relatively near us or exceedingly far away. During the 1920 debate, Heber D. Curtis argued that the spiral nebulae were very distant, vast galaxies like our Milky Way, composed of stars. Harlow Shapley argued that our universe had just one galaxy – our Milky Way – and that the spiral nebulae were nearby gas clouds, perhaps forming solar systems. Over the decades, Curtis has been seen as correct; the spiral nebulae have turned out to be not nearby solar systems, but distant galaxies with their own billions of stars. But nature loves spirals. And now astronomers are beginning to find spiral structure in forming solar systems.
http://apod.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/debate_1920.html
Deep-sky objects:
The Large Magellanic Cloud – The Sword in Constellation Dorado
The small Magellanic Cloud
The Sword on Dorado
M47 The Toucan in Constellation Tucana.
The Triangulam Galaxy in Constellation Triangulam Australis
NGC 55 The Sculptor in constellation Sculptor
NGC 6744 in Constellation Pavo
M8 – NGC 6523 (Sagittarius) The Lagoon Nebula
M6 – NGC 6405 (Scorpious) The Butterfly Cluster
M20 – NGC 6514 ( Sagittarius) Trifid Nebula
Meteor Showers:
The ORIONIDS will be visible from 2 October, peaking around 20 October, visible until 7 November. The best viewing time will be right before dusk in the evening and then again just after midnight.
The DRACONIDS will be visible around 7 and 8 October.
Most important: A dark sky, is what is needed to observe meteors.Moonlight is a chaser. A dark sky is important so patch in to see what the moon is doing and schedule your dates and times for meteor sightings.
Meteor, Meteoroid or Meteorite?
Whenever a meteoroid enters the atmosphere of the Earth, it generates a flash of light called a meteor, or “shooting star.” High temperatures caused by friction between the meteoroid and gases in the Earth’s atmosphere heats the meteoroid to the point where it starts glowing. It is this glow that makes the meteoroid visible from the surface of the Earth.
Meteoroids generally glow for a very short period of time – they tend to burn up before hitting the surface of the Earth. If a meteoroid does not disintegrate while passing through Earth’s atmosphere and hits the Earth’s surface, it is known as a Meteorite. Meteorites are thought to originate from the asteroid belt, though some meteorite debris has been identified as belonging to the Moon and Mars.
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/
What is a Meteor Shower?
Sometimes, meteors occur in clusters known as a meteor shower. Meteor showers occur when a comet comes close to the sun and produces debris – meteoroids – that spread around the comet’s orbit. Anytime the Earth’s and the comets orbit coincide, the Earth experiences a meteor shower.
Since meteoroids that create a meteor shower all move on a parallel path, and at the same velocity, they seem to originate from a single point in the sky to observers on Earth. This point is known as the radiant. By convention, meteor showers, especially the regular ones are named after the constellation that the radiant lies in.
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/
Comets:
COMETS
9P/ TEMPEL 1 In the Southern Hemisphere, it keeps observable in good condition for a long time.
Date(TT) R.A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. m1 Best Time(A, h)
Oct. 1 16 32.49 -27 19.7 1.847 1.648 62 12.8 19:07 ( 43, 12)
Date(TT) R.A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. m1 Best Time(A, h)
Oct. 1 12 28.96 2 10.9 4.865 3.869 5 13.4 4:30 (257,-15)
http://www.space.com/16149-night-sky.html
Satellite movement:
Satellite movement can be viewed on:
All your photographs are uploadable on our WRAC website and your photos are memories worth keeping, so share happiness with others. send your photos to our website manager, Neil. e-mail: sales@telescopeshop.co.za
Unfortunately there are no current wrac website pictures to up load : Come on members, Please send in your pictures!
Jupiter has gone to rest, but he will be with us in a couple of months again. Get ready to take photographs of this beautiful. mysterious planet again, while Juno clicks away and returns some of its secrets – to be a secret no more!
“it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Aristotle
Regards Wrac.