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A warm welcome to 2019 And a happy New Year to all Members of the Wadhurst Astronomical Society

MEETINGS

COMMITTEE MEETING Members of the Committee are respectfully reminded that there is a meeting of the Committee at Jim’s house on Tuesday the 8th of January 2019 starting at 1930.

DECEMBER MEETING Our December meeting was led by Phil Berry who welcomed members and visitors to our 232nd meeting. He mentioned that the library was at the back of the room where a number of interesting books were available to borrow including a book about Isaac Newton, which has recently been donated. He said that during the break we would be able to have Stollen and other seasonal cakes and biscuits provided by Jan Drozd, mince pies made by Geoff Rathbone’s wife, Gill and Viennese biscuits provided by Eva Gerber with tea and coffee provided by our dedicated catering manager, Jim Cooper with grateful thanks to them all. Following an overview of the evening, Phil introduced the speaker, our Chairman Brian Mills. He said Brian and he had been involved in a number of Outreach talks and events over the past year, promoting astronomy and the Society. More Local Astronomers Brian Mills FRAS Back in December 2016 Brian gave the first of his talks about local astronomers and the report on that talk can be found in the January 2017 issue of the Newsletter, available on the website. In this talk he began by briefly looking back at a few of those astronomers he had spoken about, beginning with Arthur Philip Norton. Norton had been a teacher in the north of England but later came to live locally and taught at the Judd School in Tonbridge. He is famed for originating the Norton’s Star Atlas, which he updated regularly. In the late 1880s Dr Charles Leeson Prince bought a piece of land in Crowborough where he made observations from his observatory. He sold some of the land to Isaac Roberts who had made a fortune in the building trade in the north of England. Roberts also built an observatory and he and his second wife, an American astronomer, made many observations. He is particularly remembered for taking a photograph of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, in 1888 using a plate camera. Roberts’ employed William Sadler Franks to do much of his observing. Sometime after Roberts’ death Franks went to work for Frederick Hanbury who had an observatory in East Grinstead. Franks used to show people around the observatory and amongst those who came to visit was a young Patrick Moore. Following Franks’ death after a cycling accident, Patrick Moore took over the running of the observatory at a very young age. Tonight Brian continued his look at local astronomers, beginning with Captain William Noble who had known both Prince and Roberts.

Wadhurst Astronomical Society Newsletter

January 2019

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Noble became interested in astronomy at the early age of fourteen after looking at the Moon through a borrowed 2¾ - inch refractor. This was when he was living in Berwick-on-Tweed. Following his marriage in his 20s he bought a 6¾ - inch achromat refracting telescope, which Brian said would have been a very expensive instrument at the time although he later sold it to Charles Prince. An achromat telescope uses a compound lens of glasses with different refraction index to reduce the effect of chromatic aberration. Following his army career Captain Noble came to live in a large house called Forest Lodge at Nutley where he built a wooden observatory with a dome lined on the outside with zinc. He bought a 4¼ - inch achromat with an equatorial mount and clock drive. He also acquired a 2¾ - inch transit scope and Brian said that in those days, amateur astronomers often did a lot of work using their transit telescope to refine star positions. In 1855 Noble became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and was also involved in the formation of the British Astronomical Association, becoming its first President in 1890. He observed occultations including one of Mars. His interests also included sunspots and the planet Jupiter, of which, we were told he made some very detailed cloud formation drawings. He died in 1904 and was buried in Nutley churchyard. Sir John Herschel was the son of William Herschel and was born in 1792 when his father was living in Slough at Observatory House. He was educated at home and was found to be a very bright student.

Captain William Noble at his house in Nutley RAS/Science Photo Library

John Herschel as a young man

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Brian told us that William Herschel had built two huge telescopes in the garden at Slough. The first was a reflecting telescope with a 20 feet long tube and an 18-inch speculum mirror. He later built another telescope with a 40-foot long tube and a 48-inch mirror but was never really satisfied with it.

John was surrounded by science and astronomy and was particularly clever at maths. He was also good at languages. At the age of seventeen, John Herschel went to St John’s College, Cambridge and we were told that he attained the highest marks among those who achieved first class degrees in maths and was known as the Senior Wrangler. At 21 John Herschel got a fellowship to St Johns and taught there until at 22 he trained for the Bar at Lincolns Inn. Brian said that at this time he seemed to avoid astronomy, saying his main interest was in optics. In 1816 his father William was then 78 and in need of assistance so John moved back to his fathers house in Slough where he rebuilt the 20-foot telescope, building a new speculum for it. A speculum is a metal mirror made out of a mixture of tin and copper and highly figured and polished, but as Brian told us, it tarnished easily and had to be refigured again before being re-polished. John helped his father continue to observe nebulae but he himself was more interested in what they actually were. He generated an interest in binary and triple star systems and measured their movement using an equatorial refractor. Following the death of his farther, John continued to live at Observatory House and after his mother died ten years later, married his cousin. Now free from his parent’s interests, John began to concentrate on the southern skies and in 1833 took his family to Cape Town where he stayed for four years, covering the southern skies. He took with him the 20-foot telescope with three mirrors so that his observations would not be interrupted. During his time in Cape Town, he swept the southern hemisphere for nebulae and observed the Magellanic Clouds where he found over a thousand nebulous objects. He also found a large number of planetary nebulae although he didn’t know what they were. Whilst he was in Cape Town he tried to calculate star Absolute Luminosity, the brightness of a star as it would appear at a fixed distance. We were told that his father, William Herschel had insisted that all stars were the same brightness and their appearance was only due to their distance from us, but John thought differently. He believed that stars had different luminosities as well and he was right. Whilst there, John also formulated his “Construction of the Heavens”, noting that the Sun wasn’t the centre of the Universe and by looking at the spread of stars in the Milky Way and seeing that it wasn’t an even distribution, determined that they were part of a much larger structure. He also met Charles Darwin when the Beagle called in at Cape Town during its voyage and they remained friends from then on.

William Herschel’s 20-foot long reflecting telescope

William Herschel’s 40-foor long reflecting telescope

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In 1838 he and his family returned to Observatory House in Slough, but he was finding that his family now needed more space so in 1839 he moved to Collingwood House in Hawkhurst where he spent some time writing up the observations he had made in Cape Town. These were eventually printed with the help of the Duke of Northumberland, a keen patron of the sciences who paid the production costs. The books were printed in large quarto volumes.

John Herschel was highly involved in the early days of photography and Brian said he produced some of the chemical processes used and was responsible for the use of hypophosphate to ‘fix’ images which he called ‘Hypo’. He also coined the words “photography”, “negative”, “positive” and “emulsion”. The very first photograph he ever took was of the 40-foot telescope.

It is unclear why, but Herschel took on the duties of Master of the Royal Mint from 1850 to 1855. Isaac Newton had held this post between 1700 and 1727 but it had later become highly politicalised. During Sir John’s time at the Royal Mint he also served on the Royal Commission on the curriculum at Cambridge University and also the Royal Commission on scientific instruments for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Sir John Herschel bought Collingwood House in Hawkhurst in 1839 for £10,500 but which sold recently for £4 million.

The first photograph that John Herschel took was of the 40-foot long telescope structure in his garden at

Slough

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In 1864 he published his and his father’s work on cataloguing nebulae and clusters, and also published works in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. His “General History of Double Stars” was never published but remains in 24 cardboard boxes within the RAS Archive.

Brian concluded by telling us that Sir John Herschel died in 1871 at Collingwood House aged 79, was given a national funeral and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Amongst the pallbearers were Charles Darwin and George Airy the seventh Astronomer Royal. His tomb is only feet away from that of Sir Isaac Newton. He has two craters named in his honour. One is on Mars called ‘Herschel’ and another on the Moon called ‘J Herschel’. Following the break, John Wayte invited us to take part in his Quiz.

JOHN WAYTE’S CHRISTMAS QUIZ 2018 Once again John Wayte devised another of his quizzes to entertain and challenge the December meeting. There were prizes to win with questions from many aspects of astronomy. Here is a selection of some of the questions:

1. What is the hottest place in the known universe?

2. What do the letters N A S A stand for?

3. What is the name of the body that is supposed to have crashed into the Earth billions of years ago causing the Moon to eventually form?

4. Not all planets in the Solar System rotate in the same direction. Which is the planet that rotates in the opposite direction

to all the others?

5. What was Copernicus famous for?

6. Which is the least dense planet in our solar system?

7. Which planet is the densest?

8. Which is the largest moon in our solar system?

9. What was the date of the first satellite to be placed on our Moon?

10. How many constellations are there? The answers are at the end of the newsletter.

Sir John Herschel in 1867 at the age of 75

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JANUARY MEETING 16 January 2019 – There will be a short AGM followed by a talk by our Treasurer, John Lutkin, entitled “Imaging with a DSLR Camera” Meetings will take place at Uplands College, Lower High Street, Wadhurst and are held in classrooms IL5 and IL6, which are in the blue walled classroom block at the far end of the drive from the main gate and up by the tennis courts. Signs will direct you. There is car parking near the block although this needs to be cleared before 2230 when the main security gates close. The Post Code is TN5 6AZ, Meetings begin at 1930 prompt although members are invited to arrive anytime after 1900, as this is a good time to exchange ideas and discuss problems and also help set things up before the meeting starts. Anyone is welcome but visitors are asked for a small fee of £3.

FUTURE MEETINGS 20th February 2019 – Our Founder, Rob Cray is welcomed back to speak about “Chariots for Apollo: The Development of the Lunar Module” 20 March 2019 – The always popular William Joyce FRAS tell us about The Search for Intelligent Life in Deep Space”. 17 April 2019 – TBC 15 May – We welcome back Colin Stewart who talks about “How we’ll live on Mars” 19 June 2019 – Brian Mills FRAS asks “How Did We Get to Where We Are?” 17 July 2019 – TBC There is no August meeting

SKY NOTES FOR JANUARY Planets Mercury was at greatest western elongation in mid December so although it is still a morning object it now rises just over an hour before the Sun making it difficult to find in the twilight. On the first of the month it is just 3° high in the southeast at the beginning of civil twilight (Sun 6° below the horizon) when it is magnitude -0.4. It will next be visible as an evening object in late February when it will be better positioned for observation. Mercury reaches superior conjunction on January 30th. Venus is also visible in the morning skies but is better placed and also much brighter. At the beginning of 2019 it rises at 04:00, which is four hours ahead of the Sun. At sunrise it shines at magnitude -4.5 with an altitude of 23° not far from due south and is so bright it is impossible to confuse it with any other object. The planet reaches greatest western elongation on January 6th when, in angular terms, it will be 47° from the Sun. A thin crescent waning Moon is just west of Venus on the morning of the 2nd and then on the 22nd the brightest of the planets passes just 2.5° north of a considerably fainter Jupiter though the gas giant is actually a very commendable magnitude -1.8. On the last day of the month the slim crescent Moon intervenes again as it poses in a photogenic manner between Venus and Jupiter with Saturn just starting to put in an appearance. This is shown in fig 1 which is drawn for the beginning of civil twilight.

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Earth reaches perihelion on January 3rd at 05:20. At that moment in time we will be at our closest to the Sun at a little over 147 million kilometres. Mars is on the meridian at an altitude of 39° just after 17:00 on the first of the month and positioned just below the Square of Pegasus. It actually lies within the borders of Pisces for the whole of January despite moving rapidly eastwards. The distance between the Earth and Mars continues to grow, resulting it the red planet becoming both apparently smaller and fainter. By the end of the month its angular size has fallen to just 6.2ʺ (6.2 arc seconds) and its brightness has dropped to magnitude +0.8. Its position on January 1st is shown in fig 2.

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Jupiter is now appearing as a morning object having passed through solar conjunction at the end of November. At the beginning of 2019 it rises a little over two hours before the Sun and will be 10° high in the south east at the start of civil twilight. As the month progresses Jupiter rises earlier as it moves away from the Sun. However, because of its negative declination, currently -22°, it is never very far from the horizon and in fact this becomes slightly more negative as the year passes. The result is that when Jupiter reaches opposition in mid June, it culminates (crosses the meridian due south) at an altitude of just 16°. The good news is that things improve, declination wise, in subsequent years. The gas giant’s brightness grows gradually towards opposition (currently -1.8) as does its apparent size, which, during January is just over 32ʺ (32 arc seconds). It spends this month moving direct (eastwards) in the southern part of Ophiuchus. Its position on the last day of January at 07:00 is shown in fig 1. Saturn is in conjunction with the Sun on January 2nd and consequently is not observable until late in the month. It then appears in the morning skies and may be glimpsed low down in the southeast just before sunrise. Its position is shown in fig 1 where the brighter planets can be used as a guide to the considerably fainter ringed planet. Its brightness is fairly constant at +0.5 so it hardly stands out in the way that Venus and Jupiter do. It also suffers from negative declination and will, like Jupiter, culminate on the day of opposition (July 9th) at just 16°. The tilt of the planet’s axis varies by a few degrees throughout the year but never falls below 23° which means that we continue to be presented with excellent views of the upper surface of the rings. Uranus is still well place if comparatively faint at magnitude +5.9 though it should theoretically be a naked eye object from a dark sky site. This prompts one to ask why the ancients didn’t know of its existence given that light pollution would not have been an issue for them. Its location on the boundary between Pisces and Aries is shown in fig 2. Pisces has been its home since April 2009 apart from brief dalliances with the borders of Aquarius, Cetus and Aries. Lunar Occultations In the table below I’ve listed events for stars down to magnitude 7.0 that mostly occur before midnight although there are many others that are either of fainter stars or occur at more unsociable hours. DD = disappearance at the dark limb, RD = reappearance at the dark limb and RB = reappearance at the bright limb. The column headed “mm” (millimetres) shows the minimum aperture telescope required for each event. There are many tens of events that occur during the total lunar eclipse of January 21st but predictions are only provided for the two brightest that occur whilst the Moon is in the umbral shadow. Times are in GMT.

Jan. Time Star Mag Phase % illumination mm Jan 10 17:46 ZC 3356 5.8 DD 18 40

Jan 12 21:06 ZC 60 6.9 DD 36 60

Jan 14 19:16 ZC 291 6.8 DD 55 60

Jan 15 16:52 ZC 405 4.3 DD 65 40

Jan 15 17:15 ZC 405 4.3 RB 65 180

Jan 16 17:17 ZC 526 6.7 DD 75 70

Jan 17 17:06 SAO 94019 6.7 DD 84 80

Jan 21 04:11 ZC 1223 7.7 Disappearance during eclipse

Jan 21 05:08 ZC 1223 7.7 Reappearance during eclipse

Jan 21 22:25 ZC 1340 6.6 RD 99 90

Jan 21 23:04 ZC 1343 6.3 RD 99 80 Phases of the Moon for January

New First ¼ Full Last ¼ 6th 14th 21st 27th

ISS Below are details for evening passes of the International Space Station (ISS) this month where its brightness is -1.0 or above. The details of other passes, including those visible between midnight and dawn, can be found at www.heavens-above.com. Please remember that the times and directions shown below are for when the ISS is at it’s maximum elevation, so you should go out and look at least five minutes beforehand. Times are in GMT.

Jan. Time Mag. Alt° Az. Jan. Time Mag. Alt° Az. 23rd 18:55 -1.6 18° S 28th 17:47 -3.3 49° SSE 24th 18:05 -1.9 17° SE 28th 19:22 -2.0 31° W 25th 17:12 -1.3 11° SE 29th 18:30 -3.9 89° NNW 25th 18:48 -2.9 39° S 30th 17:38 -3.8 74° SSE 26th 17:56 -2.6 29° SSE 30th 19:13 -2.7 43° WNW 26th 19:30 -1.3 22° WSW 31st 18:21 -3.9 79° N 27th 18:39 -3.9 68° SSE

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Iridium Flares The original constellation of Iridium satellites are gradually being de-orbited so as their numbers are decreasing I have included some events for the early mornings. These predictions are location specific so if you wish to see a complete list, or obtain timings for somewhere other than Wadhurst go to www.heavens-above.com . When one of these events is due, it is sometimes possible to see the satellite before and after the “flare” although, of course, it will be much fainter then. Times are in GMT.

Jan. Time Mag Alt° Az.° Jan. Time Mag Alt° Az.° 4th 07:14 -3.3 33° 61° (ENE) 21st 06:12 -2.3 20° 155° (SSE) 5th 07:08 -1.1 33° 61° (ENE) 21st 18:45 -0.7 40° 29° (NNE) 7th 06:46 -0.4 26° 57° (ENE) 22nd 18:43 -4.5 42° 29° (NNE) 7th 06:47 -6.7 28° 57° (ENE) 25th 18:30 -4.0 49° 29° (NNE)

10th 06:10 -5.0 19° 50° (NE) 28th 18:11 -0.8 52° 34° (NE) 16th 06:16 -5.4 11° 143° (SE) 28th 18:16 0.0 55° 29° (NNE) 19th 06:15 -3.2 17° 151° (SSE) 31st 06:18 -6.1 20° 57° (ENE)

Meteors The Quadrantids usher in the new observing year and run from January 1st to 6th with peak activity on January 4th at 03:00. The ZHR at maximum is predicted to be in the region of 80 although the peak is usually very narrow. However, it is worth looking from the late evening of the 3rd onwards. This year the Moon is almost new so it will have no effect on fainter events. Fig 3 shows the position of the radiant at midnight on January 3rd.

Lunar Eclipse A total lunar eclipse will occur in the early morning of January 21st when the Moon passes through the northern section of the Earth’s umbral shadow as shown in fig 4.

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The times for the various phases of the eclipse are as follows: P1 - first penumbral contact at 02:36 U1 - first umbral contact at 03:33 U2 - full immersion in the umbra begins at 04:41 Maximum immersion occurs at 05:13 U3 - Moon begins to leave the umbral shadow at 05:43 U4 – Moon has fully left the umbra by 06:50 P4 – Moon leaves the penumbra at 07:48. As seen from Wadhurst the Moon will be approximately one degree in altitude at this time. Although the Moon is well past the meridian when this event begins it is still almost 40° in altitude at the start of the umbral phase. It is unlikely that you will notice any appreciable decrease in illumination during the penumbral phase, which lasts almost one hour. It will be interesting to see whether the northern portion of the Moon remains light because it is so close to the edge of the central shadow. The Night Sky in January (Written for 22.00hrs GMT mid month) Looking south Orion is now on the meridian with the Great Orion Nebula (M42) at an altitude of 34°. The hunter can be useful as a signpost to many other bright stars, and thus constellations, so now would be an excellent time to become acquainted with the area.

As you can see from fig 5, with Orion at its maximum elevation all the brilliant winter constellations can be easily identified. See if you can identify the line of stars that make up Eridanus (the river), which starts just north of Rigel. Capella lies 6° from the overhead point (zenith) which itself is within the boundaries of Auriga. In the west Pegasus is about to set and with it Pisces which currently is home to both Mars and Uranus. Despite the proximity of the winged horse to the horizon, Andromeda and more especially M31 are still moderately well placed with the galaxy being just over 40° degrees high. The stars that form Andromeda point northwards to Perseus and ultimately to the zenith at this time of year. The double cluster in the sword handle is very well positioned and an inviting target for binocular users.

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Towards the north Ursa Major is to the east of the pole and standing on its tail. The body of the dragon winds between the two bears with its head pointing down on the meridian and just 15° high. Cassiopeia lies roughly opposite the larger of the bears and contains a number of open clusters as well as the “Heart and Soul” nebulae. The bright star Deneb in Cygnus is still visible just to the west of the meridian, and from the south of the UK is circumpolar. To the east we see that Leo, and above it Leo Minor, have fully risen. Ahead of the lion is Cancer with that large open cluster M44 known as the beehive or Praesepe, which contains a number of red giants and white dwarfs which are stars in the later stages of stellar evolution. At 1.5° across it covers an area three times that of the full Moon. There is another open cluster in Cancer, designated M67, which lies south of M44 and is considerably fainter at magnitude +6.9. South of Cancer can be found the head of Hydra, the sea serpent whose body, at this time of year, disappears below the eastern horizon. Comet Wirtanen Comet Wirtanen is now well placed although it is essentially a binocular or photographic object. Its position between Auriga and Ursa Major is shown in fig 6.

Highlights for 2019 February 2nd – Occultation of Saturn June 10th – Jupiter at opposition July 10th – Saturn at opposition July 16th – Partial lunar eclipse November 11th – Transit of Mercury November 28th – Occultation of Jupiter Brian Mills FRAS

IET SEMINAR ON AMATEUR RADIO ASTRONOMY Peter Hills has sent a note regarding an IET event on the 8th of January 2019. It is free to all. Date and time: Tuesday 8th of January 2019 starting at 1845 Event: “Amateur Radio Astronomy on a Budget” Speaker: Peter East Venue: Hawth Crawley The evening is free but you will need to register if you wish to attend. Follow the link below: https://localevents.theiet.org/register.php?event=6cbd8b&trk=c-778e1a

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2019 SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions to the Wadhurst Astronomical Society ARE due from the 1st of January 2019. At the October Committee meeting it was felt that we could keep our subscriptions unchanged for the coming year. The subscriptions remain at £20 per adult member and £27 for two family members at the same address. Members under 17 years of age and students remain free. Subscriptions can be paid either by cheque made payable to Wadhurst Astronomical Society or as cash at the meetings or by post to: John Wayte Members Secretary Wadhurst Astronomical Society 27 Pellings Farm Close Crowborough East Sussex TN6 2BF The Subscriptions can also be paid via electronic banking to: Wadhurst Astronomical Society Account Number 35104139 Sort Code 60-22-15 Putting your name as the Reference so we know who is paying.

ANSWERS TO JOHN WAYTE’S QUIZ These are the answers to John’s questions:

1. The hottest place in the known universe is a lot closer than we might think. It is in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN when gold particles are smashed together. The temperature reaches a staggering 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hotter than a supernova explosion.

2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

3. The name of the body that is thought to have collided with the Earth billions of years ago is Theia.

4. The planet that rotates in the opposite direction to all the others is Venus.

5. Copernicus established that the planets orbit around the Sun rather than the Earth in what is called the Heliocentric System.

6. Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system. It is made up mostly of hydrogen and has a density much less than

water.

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7. The Earth is he densest planet in the solar system.

8. The largest moon in the solar system is Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons. It is 8% larger than Mercury.

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9. The date of the first satellite to land – or crash on the Moon was the 13th of September 1959. It was the Russian Luna 2 satellite.

10. There are 88 officially recognised constellations covering both the northern and southern hemispheres.

CONTACTS

General email address to contact the Committee wadhurstastro@gmail.com Chairman - Brian Mills FRAS 01732 832691 Secretary - Phil Berry 01580 291312 Treasurer - John Lutkin Membership Secretary - John Wayte Newsletter Editor - Geoff Rathbone 01959 524727 Observing Director - Ian McCartney Librarian - Phil Berry Catering Manager - Jim Cooper SAGAS Representative - Eric Gibson Wadhurst Astronomical Society website: www.wadhurstastro.co.uk SAGAS website: www.sagasonline.org.uk Any material for inclusion in the February 2019 Newsletter should be with the Editor by January 28th 2019

Lunar landing sites