Mississauga Astronomical Society

Fortythird Meeting

Members’ Night

 

Day:                Friday, June 24, 2005

 

Chair:         Phil Mozel

 

Speakers:   Terry Hardman

Ian McGreggor

Phil Mozel

                    

                              

SLOOH

Terry Hardman described SLOOH (www.slooh.com), robotically controlled telescopes (C11 and C14 with SBIG cameras) on Tenerife in the Canary Islands that allow subscribers to have a virtual live observatory experience over the internet. Current trends show a proliferation of internet and automation of observing. The mission statement of SLOOH states that only 1 in 20 new telescope owners have experience in looking up objects and that SLOOH is for the other 19. The real time celestial images can be viewed prescheduled with a new image every 5 minutes, or observers can purchase 5 minute slots to observe the object of their choice ($50 per year for unlimited group observing plus three 5 minute time slots). Members can save their own images.

Because SLOOH shows live images; occultations, transits and solar system bodies can be seen in real time. Supernovae, comets etc. can be searched for. All sky wide field or high magnification views are available. Terry demonstrated the interface which includes live radio, and showed real time images of objects coming in. SLOOH was founded in March 2003 with first light in December of that year. By February 2005, there were 4000 members. At present there are 3 full time employees. Future plans include advanced imaging with stacking which will enable supernova, comet and minor planet searches, an image library, solar H alpha imaging, and multiple sites including the southern hemisphere.

 

Five News Notes

Ian McGreggor noted that things are constantly changing in the sky and he commented on five recent news items.

Stonehenge in England has long been considered to be an observatory showing the summer solstice. A recent find of pigs’ feet less than 1 year old suggests that the pigs were consumed by gatherings of people during the winter because pigs are born in springtime. Ian suggested that this is evidence that Stonehenge may have been used to observe the winter solstice.

Canada is losing the magnetic north pole which has been within the current Canadian boundaries since the 1600’s. In the last century, the pole has been drifting NW at 10km per year, and most recently at 40km pre year. It is already probably already located within international waters and should be in Siberia in the 2050’s. Ontario should then also experience fewer auroral displays.  

A new extrasolar planet has recently been discovered only 7 times as massive as the Earth orbiting the star Gliese 876 at a distance 1/10 that of Mercury from the Sun. It is almost certainly a rocky planet in contrast to the other 150 extrasolar planets known which are gas giants.

On July 4 at 1:52 EDT, a probe from the Deep Impact spacecraft will crash into the Comet Temple 1.There is a great deal of debate as to what will happen.

Ian described the close grouping of the planets Saturn, Venus and Mercury which will take place in the evening sky On Sunday/Monday.

 

Historical Vignette

Phil Mozel described the history of the constellation Pegasus as an upside-down horse. The Phoenicians used a horse on the ship’s prow and the Greeks imagined a horse emerging from a watery spring. Thus the constellation is located in a “watery” part of the sky. In mythology, Perseus killed Medusa. Pegasus sprang from Medusa’s body. When the warrior Bellerophon attempted to ride the horse to Olympus, Zeus had a fly sting Pegasus’ belly causing the warrior to fall to Earth. Pegasus continued to fly alone into the sky. Greek pottery shows a sun halo around Bellerophon’s head while riding the winged horse. 

Pegasus was first mentioned in Greek literature in the 7th century BC. Before 1000 BC, the Sumerians used a square or icu as a standard of measurement. Babylonian seals show a square with a horse being sacrificed. Phil then suggested that the icu or hippo = horse was the equivalent to a square. Another reference to this is a Persian pot showing a square and horse. The Greek Aratus in the 3rd  century BC was the first known to describe the constellation of a horse with the stars of the square. In the 1st century AD, the Roman Germanicus called the constellation Pegasus, stating that only the front part of the horse is visible.

In many ancient cultures, the horse was thought to pull the sun across the sky. Horses would be sacrificed to bring the sun farther north in the winter. In 4000 BC, in fact, in the dawn in the winter, the inverted Pegasus was suspended above the eastern horizon.

Finally, Phil gave his theory that in the 2nd or 3rd millenia BC, Pegasus stood above the winter sunset point suggesting that a horse could be sacrificed to bring back the sun. The horse is inverted by a stinging fly – the fly may be the naked eye Andromeda galaxy.

 

Summer Constellations

Ian McGreggor showed the monthly sky map for July and described the constellations and features of the map including direction points. He encouraged audience participation using the star chart. He recommended learning the bright stars first then the constellations based upon these stars.

 

Ostrander Ramsey Award

Tony Ginder from the Toronto Centre RASC presented the 2004 Ostrander Ramsey Award for publications to Phil Mozel for his articles ‘A Moment with …” printed in the Journal. Tony acknowledged Phil’s contributions to the journal and to Scope.  The first award in 2003 was awarded to Randy Attwood.

 

Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary  Chris Malicki, Secretary                               back to M.A.S. meeting reports page
Mississauga Astronomical Society