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The First Image Of A Black Hole - At The Centre Of Galaxy M87

Chair: Peta Jellis e-mail: enquiries@neneastro.org.uk

Events Co-ordinator: Kevin Burton e-mail: events@neneastro.org.uk

Membership: Paul Blackman e-mail: membership@neneastro.org.uk

Treasurer: David Jones

Nene Valley Astronomical Society

Stargazer NewsletterNovember 2021

neneastro.org.uk

Web Site Editor: Tony Stock e-mail: webmaster@neneastro.org.uk

Newsletter: Steve Williams e-mail: newsletter@neneastro.org.uk

Committee Member & Refreshments: Alec Parker

Facebook & Twitter: Steve Williams

Society Officers

The Sinus Iridum & The Mare Frigoris Imaged By Steve Williams

Forthcoming Society Meetings

Our meetings at Chelveston Village Hall take place on the first and third Monday of each month beginning at 8pm.We are also continuing to stream meetings via Zoom, so those who are unable to join us in person at Chelvestoncan still participate in our meetings. To join meetings via Zoom visit www.zoom.us. Enter our meeting code of 819-9022-9368 and password of 091963.

Forthcoming meetings are:

Monday 1st November - Club Night meeting featuring the night sky guide and the chance to catch up with fellowmembers and discuss observations. Contributions welcome from all. £2 admission.

Monday 15th November - ‘Binocular Astronomy’ by Mark Radice. £3 admission. Mark has been active inAstronomy since watching Comet Hykutake cross the sky while working in Canada in 1996. This sparked off aninterest that led him across the moon, through the solar system and out into deep space. He enjoys visualobserving, sketching, lunar and planetary imaging, solar observing and widefield photography.

Mark has a website, refreshingviews.com which is worth a look.

Monday 6th December - Club Night meeting featuring the night sky guide and the chance to catch up with fellowmembers and discuss observations. Contributions welcome from all. £2 admission.

Monday 20th December - Christmas Social Meeting and Quiz. £2 admission.

All meetings take place at Chelveston Village Hall, Caldecott Road, Chelveston NN9 5AT and start at 8pm. Thehall is ventilated throughout the meeting and air quality monitored.

Other Meetings

Tuesday 9th November Dynamic climates: what can other planets tell us about the Earth?

18:00 – 19:00. This event will be online, or delivered physically in the Berrill Theatre, The Open University,Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA. Arrangements will be reviewed for the physical event nearer the time inview of COVID-19. The event will also be livestreamed.

Stephen Lewis, Professor of Atmospheric Physics, will deliver his inaugural lecture on the atmospheres, weatherand climate of other planets in the Solar System.

He will discuss what weather and climate mean on these different planets. The atmospheres of our neighbouringplanets are fascinating physical systems to study and test our ideas. Our ability to forecast conditions is now vitalfor safe exploration by spacecraft. Can the knowledge gained about other worlds help us to understand our ownclimate better?

To book your free place go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dynamic-climates-what-can-other-planets-tell-us-about-the-earth-tickets-169855413113

Tuesday 16th November Meeting of The Virtual Astronomy Club at 7pm. For details visit https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/WebPage/virtual-astro-club/

Friday 26th November HAPP DISCUSSION PANEL ON “SEARCHING FOR EXTRATERRESTRIALINTELLIGENCE ACROSS A CENTURY” from 5-7 pm GMT online by Zoom.

Confirmed panellists are:Professor Lord Martin Rees OM FRS (UK Astronomer Royal), Dr Jill Tarter (Co-founderand Emeritus Director, SETI Institute),Dr Andrew Siemion (Director of Breakthrough Listen, University of Berkeley)& Professor Tong-Jie Zhang (Beijing Normal University).

Attendance by Zoom is free, although registration is required at the following webpage:https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/happ-discussion-panel-searching-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence-across-a-century

Hubble Views

This observation from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases Arp 86, a peculiar pair of interactinggalaxies which lies roughly 220 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Arp 86 is composedof the two galaxies NGC 7752 and NGC 7753 – NGC 7753 is the large spiral galaxy dominating this image, andNGC 7752 is its smaller companion. The diminutive companion galaxy almost appears attached to NGC 7753,and it is this peculiarity that has earned the designation “Arp 86” – signifying that the galaxy pair appears in theAtlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by the astronomer Halton Arp in 1966. The gravitational dance between thetwo galaxies will eventually result in NGC 7752 being tossed out into intergalactic space or entirely engulfed byits much larger neighbor.

Hubble observed Arp 86 as part of a larger effort to understand the connections between young stars and theclouds of cold gas in which they form. Hubble gazed into star clusters and clouds of gas and dust in a variety ofenvironments dotted throughout nearby galaxies. Combined with measurements from ALMA, a gigantic radiotelescope perched high in the Chilean Andes, these Hubble observations provide a treasure trove of data forastronomers working to understand how stars are born.

These observations also helped sow the seeds of future research using the NASA/ESA James Webb SpaceTelescope. Due to launch later this year, Webb will study star formation in dusty regions like those in thegalaxies of Arp 86.

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey, J. Dalcanton

Hubble Views

NGC 4666 takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This majestic spiralgalaxy lies about 80 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo and is undergoing a particularly intenseepisode of star formation. Astronomers refer to galaxies that rapidly form stars as starburst galaxies. NGC 4666’sstarburst is likely due to gravitational interactions with its unruly neighbors – including the nearby galaxy NGC4668 and a dwarf galaxy, which is a small galaxy made up of a few billion stars.

NGC 4666’s burst of star formation is driving an unusual form of extreme galactic weather known as a superwind– a gigantic transfer of gas from the bright central heart of the galaxy out into space. This superwind is the resultof driving winds from short-lived massive stars formed during NGC 4666’s starburst as well as spectacularlyenergetic supernova explosions. Two supernovae occurred in NGC 4666 within the last decade – one in 2014 andthe other in 2019. The star that led to the 2019 supernova was 19 times as massive as our Sun!

Though the torrent of superheated gas emanating from NGC 4666 is truly vast in scale – extending for tens ofthousands of light-years – it is invisible in this image. The superwind’s extremely high temperature makes it standout as a luminous plume in X-ray or radio observations, but it doesn’t show up at the visible wavelengths imagedby Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Graur; Acknowledgment: L. Shatz

Generated using Stellarium (Stellarium.org),the above starchart shows how the evening night sky willlook on November 1st at 10pm, November 15th at 9pm and November 30th at 8pm.

At the time of our chart,the mighty winter constellation of Orion has already risen above the south-eastern horizon, howeverbefore this magnificent constellation gets all the attention, the November evening sky has a wealth of other celestial delights toenjoy.

Lieing high towards the south is the famed Square of Pegasus, the celestial winged horse. Whilst the stars making up the fourcorners of the square are not particularly bright, they are perhaps made more conspicuous by the lack of naked eye stars withinthe square. Counting the number of stars that you can see with the unaided eye within the square is a good test of how goodyour observing site is. Four stars is considered an average, seven is good, whilst eight or more is indicating a very good site.In order to make this test worthwhile you need to be suitably dark adapted and with no moonlight in the sky.

Follow a line from the two westernmost (right) stars of the Square of Pegasus, right down towards the southern horizon and ifyou do not have too many local buildings in the way, you’ll come across the first magnitude star Fomalhaut. Fomalhaut lies inthe constellation of Piscis Austrini, the southern fish and is the southernmost first magnitude star which you can see from theUK. At 25 light years distant, it is also one of our closer stars.

Nene Valley Night Sky - November 2021

Nene Valley Night Sky - November 2021

New Moon: 4th November Full Moon: 19th November

The Sun is continuing to show a number of active regions in visible white light. Use either the solar projectionmethod or a suitable safe solar filter. If in doubt then one of the groups experienced members will be happy toanswer any questions at one of the Club Night meetings. At the time of writing at the end of October, a largeactive region has just rotated onto the visible solar hemisphere, so this is worth keeping on eye on during thefirst ten days of November to see how this develops.

Mercury continues, from last month, it’s excellent show in the south eastern pre-dawn sky. At the beginning ofNovember, the innermost planet shines at magnitude -1, rising shortly before 5.30am. You will however need tomake the most of any observing opportunity during the first week or so of November as Mercury will rapidly dropback towards the Sun after this. As the below Stellarium chart shows, the very thin waning crescent Moon willappear above Mercury on the morning of 3rd November, with the star Spica in Virgo joining the scene as well.

Venus is becoming a bit more of an accessible early evening sky object. Look towards the south-west duringmid twilight for the magnitude -4 beacon of light. At the start of the month, Venus sets by 6.15pm a positionwhich remains largely unchanged throughout November. The waxing crescent Moon will reside to the upper leftof Venus on the evening of 8th November.

Mars passed through solar conjunction last month and remains unsuitably placed for observation for much ofNovember. Die hard martian observers may be able to catch a glimpse of the planet in the south-eastern dawnsky right at the end of the month when it rises at 6.15am. At magnitude 1.6 it’s certainly not going to be theeasiest of targets.

Jupiter remains the main planetary attraction this month, visible toward the south as evening twilight fades. Nowthree months past it’s August opposition, observing time of the planet is now starting to diminish noticeably. Atthe beginning of November, Jupiter sets in the south-west by 11.30pm, by month end it vanishes before 10pm.Nevertheless there is still a good observing period to be had and planetary observers will be keen to view theever changing cloud belts and spot the Great Red Spot. The first quarter Moon passes to the lower left of Jupiteron the evening of 11th November.

Saturn lies to the right of Jupiter and lower down. Being further westward along the ecliptic than Jupiter,theobserving time for Saturn is even less. To catch your views of Saturn you need to be observing as soon as theevening twilight fades as this is when the ringed planet is at it’s highest. At the start of November, Saturn sets at10pm, while by the end of the month it is below the horizon by 8.30pm

Nene Valley Night Sky - November 2021

Uranus reaches opposition on 4th November amongst the stars of Aries and can therefore be observed formuch of the night. At magnitude +5.7, Uranus is one the fringe of naked eye visibility, however for most of us apair of binoculars will be needed. Through a telescope, Uranus appears as a small disc 3.7 arc seconds across.

Neptune can be found in the south-western evening sky in the constellation of Aquarius. At magnitude +7.8, apair of binoculars or a small telescope will be needed to pick up this distant world. Best views, will be had duringthe early part of the evening, before Neptune gets too low in the south-west.

Ceres, the largest of the asteroids comes to opposition on the 27th November when it will lie on the fringe of theHyades star cluster in Taurus. At magnitude 7, a pair of binoculars is all that you will need to pick up this 473kmdiameter world.

Above: Stellarium Chart Showing The Position of Ceres On The Night Of Its Opposition

Comet 29/P Schwassmann-Wachmann is still visible in the lower part of Auriga. At the time of writing (end ofOctober) it’s reasonably bright at 10th magnitude so should be detectable through most telescopes.

Comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is of similar brightness at the current time as 29/P. Made famous by theRosetta spacecraft mission, at the start of November, 67/P is amongst the stars of eastern Gemini, rising duringthe latter part of the evening in the north-east. The comet will be closest to Earth on the night of 11th/12thNovember when it will appear to the south east of the first magnitude star Pollux in Gemini.

Meteor wise, we have a couple of meteor showers during November. First up are the Northen Taurids, whichlike last month’s Southern Taurids, are a rather minor meteor shower. They are active throughout the month, butreach a maximum on 12th November, when you may be able to see a handful of slow moving meteors each hour.

Next up are the Leonids, active from the 5th through to the 29th November, they reach maximum on the night of17/18th November. Associated with Comet Temple-Tuttle, this shower is famous for reaching ‘storm levels’around every 33 years of so. Unfortunately, the next enhancement for this meteor shower is not due until earlynext decade, and with the near Full Moon washing out this years prediction of around 15 meteors per hour at thetime of it’s maximum, it is unlikely many meteors will be seen.

Steve Williams