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Look for Gassendi, the Moon's "Sea of Moisture," the westernmost star in Orion's belt, Mintaka, and the Orion Nebula on the weekend of January 10-12, 2014.

Friday, January 10 - Robert W. Wilson was born this day in 1936. Wilson is the co-discoverer, along with Arno Penzias, of the cosmic microwave background, and in 1978 he won the Physics Nobel Prize. While we're "listening in," on this day in 1946, the US Army's Signal Corps became the first to successfully bounce radar waves off the Moon. Although this might sound like a minor achievement, let's look just a bit further into what it really meant!

Known as "Project Diana," scientists were hard at work to find a way to pierce the Earth's ionosphere with radio waves - a feat believed at that time to be impossible. Headed by Lt. Col. John DeWitt, and working with only a handful of full-time researchers, a modified SCR-271 bedspring radar antenna was set up in the northeast corner of Camp Evans. The power was cranked up and it was aimed at the rising Moon. A series of radar signals were broadcast, and in each case, the echo was picked up in exactly 2.5 seconds - the time it takes light to travel to the Moon and back. The significance of Project Diana cannot be overestimated. The discovery that the ionosphere could be pierced, and that communication was possible opened the way to space exploration. Although it would be another decade before the first satellites were launched into space, they were later followed by manned rockets. Project Diana paved the way for all those achievements.

Tonight let's spend some of our observing evening with the beautiful Moon as we begin with the ancient and graceful landmark crater Gassendi standing at the north edge of Mare Humorum.

Gassendi - Credit: Damian Peach

The mare itself is around the size of the state of Arkansas and is one of the oldest of the circular maria on the visible surface. As you view the bright ring of Gassendi, look for evidence of the massive impact which may have formed Humorum. It is believed the original crater may have been in excess of 462 kilometers in diameter, indenting the lunar surface almost twice over. Over time, similar smaller strikes formed the many craters around its edges and lava flow gradually gave the area the ridge and rille-overed floor we see tonight. Its name is the "Sea of Moisture," but look for its frozen waves in the long dry landscape.

Saturday, January 11 - Tonight in 1787, Sir William Herschel discovered two of Uranus' multiple moons - Oberon and Titania. If you'd like to see Uranus for yourself, it can be found just east of the circlet of Pisces (RA 0h 32m 52s - Dec 2°47'57") not long after skydark. It can be captured with mid-sized binoculars, but even a small telescope will reveal its slightly greenish orb!

As the Moon nears Full, it becomes more and more difficult to study, but there are still some features that we can take a look at. Before we go to our binoculars or telescopes, just stop and take a look. Do you see the "Cow Jumping over the Moon"? It is strictly a visual phenomenon-a combination of dark maria which looks like the back, forelegs and hind legs of the shadow of that mythical animal.

Mintaka - Credit: Palomar Observatory courtesy of Caltech

Tonight return again to Orion's belt as we have a closer look at its westernmost star - Mintaka. Located around 1500 light-years away, Delta Orionis usually holds a magnitude of 2.20, but orbiting it in a clockwise orbit of 5.7325 days is a nearly equal star around 8 million kilometers away. Mintaka is a prime example of an eclipsing binary star, and although visually you won't really notice a .2 magnitude drop in light, let's take a closer look with binoculars. As one of the few easy binocular double challenges, Mintaka will easily reveal its 6.7 magnitude companion star to its north. For over 100 years, the eclipsing physical AB pair has been closely watched and no movement between the half light-year apart physical pair has been detected. For those with larger telescopes - power up - and see if you can discover the 13th magnitude C star southwest of the primary.

No matter how you look at Mintaka, this fascinating star has been a part of history. It was the very first to display stationary spectral lines which proved the existence of interstellar matter!

Sunday, January 12 - Today in 1830 celebrates the founding of what, in 1831, would become the Royal Astronomical Society. The RAS was conceived by John Herschel, Charles Babbage, James South, and several others. The RAS has published its Monthly Notices continuously since 1831. Believed to have been born today in 1907 was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. While few people recognize Korolev's name, he was a Soviet rocket engineer whose contributions to the science made him as important to the Russian space program as Robert Goddard was to that of the United States. His developments led to Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod, and eventually the Soyuz programs.

Tonight the Moon will look nearly full and it is a good time to spot yet another lunar asterism, "The Rabbit in the Moon." Since the dawn of mankind, we have been gazing at the Moon and seeing fanciful shapes in large lunar features. The "Rabbit" is a compilation of all the dark maria. The Oceanus Procellarum forms the "ear" while Mare Humorum makes the "nose." The "body" is Mare Imbrium and the "front legs" appear to be Mare Nubium. Mare Serenitatis is the "backside" and the picture is complete where Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Fecunditatis shape the "hind legs" with Crisium as the "tail." See the Moon with an imaginative mind and new eyes -- and find the "Rabbit." It's already out of the hat and in the heavens!

Orion - Credit: John Chumack

Despite bright skies, let's take a brief look towards the three stars that form Orion's belt. Starting with just our eyes, look around a thumb's length south to discover an asterism of stars referred to as the "sword." On a clear, dark night away from city lights you can spot a glowing cloud of dust and gas surrounding Theta that has long held a place in astronomy history. It was first noted only one year after Galileo first used his telescope, and the discovery is credited to Nicholas Peiresc in 1611. It wasn't until Christian Huygens sketched it in 1656 that it became well known for containing a "heart of stars."

Now, take out your binoculars and have a look. Stars are still being born in a dense cloud behind the nebula, and hundreds of them are less than a million years old. Compared to our own Sun's age of over four billion years, these would seem almost new! But think again at what you are looking at: the light you see tonight left this area around 1900 years ago.

So magnificent are the many details that can be seen in the Orion Nebula, that chapter upon chapter could be devoted to its riches. For now, feast your eyes upon this 30 light-year expanse of dust, neutral and ionized hydrogen, and doubly-ionized oxygen illuminated by the ultraviolet starlight of this stellar nursery. It is more than 20,000 times larger than our own solar system and its mass could form 10,000 stars like our own Sun!

Until next week. Wishing you clear skies!

It's official. Someone on an exoplanet has obviously bought a new telescope because it's cloudy there... with a chance of more clouds. Thanks to the powerful range of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to study two of the most common types of planets in the Milky Way and discovered that both are probably swaddled in clouds.

Image: This is an illustration of the hypothetical appearance of the exoplanet GJ 1214b, which is known as a "super-Earth" type planet because it is slightly more than six Earth masses. Spectroscopic observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope provide evidence of high clouds blanketing the planet. These clouds hide any information about the composition and behavior of the world's lower atmosphere and surface. The composition of the clouds is unknown. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

As far as distances go, the two planets aren't very far away. The first, GJ 436b, is located approximately 36 light-years away in the constellation of Leo and the second, GJ 1214b, makes its home in the constellation of Ophiuchus and is about 40 light-years distant. Try as they might, the researchers had been unable to pinpoint the makeup of the planet's atmospheres--until now. The latest findings are an incredible advancement to understanding the potentially habitable planets similar to Earth which reside beyond our solar system.

Just what are these planets like? According to the researchers, "the two planets fall in the middle range in mass, between smaller, rockier planets such as Earth and larger gas giants such as Jupiter. GJ 436b is categorized as a "warm Neptune" because it is much closer to its star than frigid Neptune is to the Sun. GJ 1214b is known as a "super-Earth" because of its size. Both GJ 436b and GJ 1214b can be observed transiting, or passing in front of, their parent stars. This provides an opportunity to study these planets in more detail as starlight filters through their atmospheres."

This new research includes an atmospheric study of GJ 436b founded on such transit observations with Hubble, led by Heather Knutson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. The Hubble spectra were featureless and revealed no chemical fingerprints whatsoever in GJ 436b's atmosphere.

"Either this planet has a high cloud layer obscuring the view, or it has a cloud-free atmosphere that is deficient in hydrogen, which would make it very unlike Neptune," said Knutson. "Instead of hydrogen, it could have relatively large amounts of heavier molecules such as water vapor, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, which would compress the atmosphere and make it hard for us to detect any chemical signatures."

If at first you don't succeed, try again. Observations much like those obtained for GJ 436b had also been documented beforehand for GJ 1214b. The initial spectra of this planet also showed no features, but indicated GJ 1214b's atmosphere was dominated by water vapor or hydrogen, with high-altitude clouds. Using Hubble, astronomers led by Laura Kreidberg and Jacob Bean of the University of Chicago took a closer look at GJ 1214b. A eureka moment? Quite possibly. They discovered what might be evidence of high clouds shrouding the planet and hiding information about the composition and behavior of the lower atmosphere and surface. The new Hubble spectra also revealed no chemical fingerprints in GJ 1214b's atmosphere, but the data sets were so precise they could rule out cloud-free compositions of water vapor, methane, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, or carbon dioxide for the first time.

"Both planets are telling us something about the diversity of planet types that occur outside of our own solar system; in this case we are discovering we may not know them as well as we thought," said Knutson. "We'd really like to determine the size at which these planets transition from looking like mini-gas giants to something more like a water world or a rocky, scaled-up version of the Earth. Both of these observations are fundamentally trying to answer that question."

Original Story Source: Hubblesite News Release

It was in the early morning of September 12th, 1758, when French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier, by accident, located a very faint nebula in the constellation of Taurus. This object would later come to be known as the the "Crab Nebula," or Messier 1, the first of over 100 galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters recorded in a catalog to prevent other comet seekers from confusing them as comets.

We kick off 2014's monthly challenge with none other but Messier 1: the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant from a star that exploded in A.D 1054. It was first observed by both Chinese and Arabic astronomers, and was visible to the naked-eye, even during the daytime, for weeks.

The Crab Nebula can be seen in a small telescope, and my first view came many years ago using a 60mm refractor. In recent times, I've enjoyed observing this object with my son and granddaughter, using her 76 mm (3-inch) Orion FunScope Dobsonian, from Las Vegas. It appeared as a faint elongated gray smudge, however, it was very surprising to be able to see the Crab at all from the severely light-polluted location.

When using my 10-inch reflector, from my moderately light polluted backyard, located in the foothills of western North Carolina, the Crab appears pretty bright, with a brighter more concentrated central region. The NW section is much more broad than the SE, which I call the tail. The nebula is elongated in a NW-SE orientation. On a good night, and using averted vision, it can be fairly easy to see the 'S' shape in the brighter sections, as described by Skiff & Luginbuhl in The Observing Handbook And Catalog Of Deep-Sky Objects. One of the more difficult features is seeing the faint notch on the SE edge which takes a bite out of the nebula. I've seen this only one time on a night of excellent seeing and transparency using the 10-inch.

There's a faint triangle of stars on the NNE edge, and several faint stars touching the nebula on the SSW. I find the best overall magnification for this object is around 100X, and an Orion SkyGlow filter seems to improve the contrast. When using a 14.5-inch reflector, there are several very faint stars which can be seen embedded within the nebula.

The following sketch was made with a No. 2 pencil and a blank 5 x 8 note card, and the colors were inverted using a scanner.

Many have observed all 110 Messier objects, using telescopes as small as three inches, and you can too. If you haven't observed the Messier Catalog, why not let 2014 be your year to see all 110 objects? It has always been my opinion that an observing goal can be a great motivator. I often refer to this as "observing with a purpose."

There's nothing quite so rewarding as having a detailed note, and if possible, a simple pencil sketch of all the deep-sky objects you observe. If you're fortunate enough to see and document the entire list, consider pursuing the Astronomical League Messier Certificate. Just go to the AL website and find out what's required to be eligible to join the thousands of other amateurs who've achieved this feat. Be sure to spend plenty of time with each and every object. With careful observing and patience, you may be surprised at the faint details which will begin to emerge. This should not be a hurried quest, but of one of patient solitude and contemplation. Let it be a fun project and enjoy every object, to the fullest. It just might put you on the path to more difficult objects, maybe even the Herschel's. The more serious you are with your observing, the more likely you'll continue for many years to come. Let your pursuit of the heavens become a lifelong endeavor, and you'll gain much joy and satisfaction as the years pass. The changing constellations will become good friends as the seasons come and go.

Of course, one of the most interesting parts of observing carefully and recording what you see is comparing your notes to others. No two observations are ever exactly the same. Here are a few observation notes about M1 from notable observers in various locations:

Sue French from New York: Although the Crab Nebula is quite challenging for novice observers, it can be spotted as a ghostly little smudge through 7 X 50 binoculars under semi-rural skies. A 130mm refractor at 37x showed an oval nebula that was fainter around the edges and narrower at one end. At 102x, the Crab's interior appeared mottled, and the edges looked frilly. An O-III nebula filter considerably dimmed most of the nebula, but with study, it unveiled vague traces of the filaments that are so prominent in photographs. At 164X, the nebula's interior was strongly patterned, and its edges were faint.

Maria Grusauskas of Orion, from California: Using a 127mm f/7.5 refractor, at very low power (23X), the Crab Nebula was a promising smudge of white in a relatively starless area, with no stars resolved within the nebula that I could see. To the southeast, it was anchored by the bright blue star Zeta, and a hook-shaped asterism of six stars. At higher power (56x), the Crab "body" began to be more apparent, shaped very much like the body of a Dungeness crab, with a star flanking each side of the greatest distance across, to the northeast and southwest. A brighter central region was apparent with averted vision. A week earlier, in an 18-inch telescope, observing M1 resolved definite suggestions of spindly legs and a heightened dimension of nebulosity (with a high contrast multi-band nebula filter).

The Crab was also just barely detectable in 10 X 70 binoculars as a faint smudge, but only with averted vision. Observed on a frosty 32º night at a dark site known as Deep Sky Ranch in Paicines, California.

Kevin Ritschel of Orion, from California: In a 127mm f/7.5 refractor, at (56x), M1 preceded a fairly bright field star to the southeast of the nebula. The nebula, I would say, was of medium brightness, but not uniform in texture. It had a brighter irregular core, and fainter extensions. The nebula was oval shaped. It was somewhat mottled, with hints of filamentary structure, but very subtle. This observation was made with the Crab Nebula near the meridian, and without the use of any filters.

In an Orion StarBlast 62mm telescope at (21x), it appeared as a rather faint smudge, about half the field away from Zeta, as, again, mostly even, but brighter in the central region, with an oval shape.

Using a 12-inch f/8 reflector, on the morning of December 13, 2013, at 149X, the Crab definitely had two components, a smooth 'S' shaped inner core and a slightly less bright outer shell that, while oval, was far more circular than the smooth inner core. At higher power, the Crab filled between 1/2 and 1/3 of the field of view. The outer shell was on the verge of resolving into filaments and would likely have done so with the aid of an O-III or UHC narrowband nebula filters. With a 33-inch f/5 Newtonian, and an O-lll filter, the filaments were obvious, even to inexperienced observers who had never seen them before.

Jaakko Saloranta from Finland: Using an 8-inch Orion DSE Telescope at 300X with a UHC narrowband filter: "Bright, NW-SE elongated diffuse little peanut. Slightly brighter in the middle with several 14th magnitude stars visible in the vicinity."

Fred Rayworth from Nevada: The Crab Nebula usually appeared as a fat 'S' shape, though when seeing was superb, it would fill in as a ragged oval shape. During those moments of superb seeing, I could pick out mild mottling and filaments within the core and along the edges. However, nights of great seeing were rare, so mostly it was just the fat 'S' shape. An O-III narrowband nebula filter made the nebula worse, almost blocking it out, as did the H-beta, which blocked it out completely. Years ago, I tried an LPR filter (SkyGlow) filter and it helped just a tad. The best view, by far, is unfiltered. Magnifications ranged from 70-220x with the best views at 102x. Most observations were made with either a home-built 16-inch f/6.4 reflector or a commercial 16-inch f/4.5.

Jay Thompson from Nevada: Using a 17-inch Newtonian and a magnification of 227x on an exceptionally clear and steady night, in Meadview, Arizona, I was able to discern filaments superimposed on the oblong nebula. The glow from the main body is fascinating since it arises from synchrotron radiation.

The following image was made by Dr. James Dire from Wildwood Pines Observatory in Earl, North Carolina, using an 8-inch f/7 reflector:

M1 by Dr. James Dire. See it on his website here.

Take some time to observe M1 with us. Come back and leave your observation notes in a "Review" of this article, below!

Do you enjoy using your tablet or laptop computer? Many folks nowadays are taking the Internet with them wherever they go, but did you know that you can contribute to citizen science at the same time? Let's try a hunt for black holes while you're carpooling, riding the bus or taking the train to work!

The first Zooniverse project, Galaxy Zoo, was started by astronomers Chris Lintott and Kevin Schawinski in 2006 when they were both at Oxford University. Now there is "Radio Galaxy Zoo" - a brand-new project which just launched and allows anyone with computing power and an Internet connection to become a cosmic explorer.

Just what is Radio Galaxy Zoo? It's a project to help astronomers discover supermassive black holes observed by the KG Jansky Very Large Array (NRAO) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (CSIRO). It works by matching galaxy images with radio images taken by CSIRO, to work out if a galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center or not.

"It takes about a minute to learn what to do," said CSIRO's Dr. Julie Banfield, an Australian coordinator of the international project.

Centaurus A (purple): A giant galaxy with a supermassive black hole, typical of the galaxies in Radio Galaxy Zoo, super-imposed with CSIRO Image (radio) I Feain et al. (photo) S. Amy.

We know that almost all - if not all - galaxies have a black hole at their hearts. We also know that the larger the host galaxy is, the larger the black hole should be. These huge black holes have wide ranging effects on the galaxy in which they are contained. The supermassive variety can swallow up nearby materials and grow to billions of times the mass of the Sun! These monsters are known to produce incredible jets of material, which spew out at the speed of light. There are circumstances where these jets can't be observed in visible light, but can be detected in the radio end of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers can use your help locating these jets and associating them to their host galaxies.

"To actually work with the images takes only a few seconds each - perhaps a couple of minutes for the really tough ones," says Dr. Banfield. "You just need match up a couple of pictures and look for what you think is the galaxy at their center."

Why do astronomers need your help in sifting through all this radio data? Imagine the hundreds of thousands of galaxies out there just waiting to reveal their secrets. Because not even light can escape a black hole, they cannot be directly observed, yet they have a huge impact on their immediate surroundings. There are many methods for detecting black holes in their neighborhoods, but the supermassive types are fairly easy. While optical and infrared light is usually blocked by copious amounts of dust and gas, the target of the project - those tell-tale jets - are readily apparent at radio wavelengths.

"There is a great deal of valuable information that can be obtained from the radio images of these jets, but we need to understand the host galaxy too," says the Radio Galaxy Zoo team. "For instance, observing the host galaxy allows us to determine its distance, which is critical to understanding how big and how luminous the black hole actually is."

Join up at Radio Galaxy Zoo and you'll be part of a community of almost a million people who work in the 'Zooniverse' - a set of citizen-science projects covering everything from galaxy shapes to cancer data and whale songs.

"Galaxy Zoo and the other projects have been producing real science, science that gets published," said CSIRO's Dr. Ivy Wong, who has also been working to set up Radio Galaxy Zoo. "Everyone, literally everyone, can now help to make discoveries."

Go ahead, team up! Instead of just aimlessly wandering around the Internet while waiting on an appointment, commuting, or site surfing for the fun of it, you could be contributing to a real science project and assisting astronomers in locating black holes!

Only the Hubble Space Telescope could deliver a "card-worthy" image of a distant star. In this case it's a Cepheid variable cataloged as RS Puppis, a star 200 times larger than our Sun and ten times more massive. As the Hubble watched over a five week span, this superstar grew brighter and then dimmed as it pulsated and created the illusion of a festive holiday wreath adorned with sparking lights. These stellar heartbeats are breathtaking examples of a phenomenon known as a light echo, where the light generated from the star plays across the nebula surrounding it.

NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-Hubble/Europe Collab.

RS Puppis is an unusual star. There are very few Cepheid variables which are encased in gaseous clouds of dust. However, its environment allows for observations of light echoes to be captured with immense clarity. As the star intensifies and expands, we can record the light after it is reflected from edge to edge of its dusty envelope, thus capturing the illusion of the gases moving outward. Since this reflected light must travel a greater distance, it arrives at our observation point slightly later than the light from the star itself. To understand that, think of the sound from a single car horn bouncing off tall buildings down a quiet street. This causes an audible echo and light can sometimes react in the same fashion. It's no little candle either: RS is 15,000 times more luminous than the Sun!

RS Puppis is well known to astronomers. Just five years ago they utilized the light echo around it to measure its distance, giving us the most accurate measurement of Cepheid variable so far known. The distance to RS Puppis has been narrowed down to 6,500 light-years (with a margin of error of only one percent). Even though the cloud around RS seems small, it's incredibly large. Even at a distance of around 6,500 light-years away from us, the light echoes can be captured in motion as they cross the nebula!

Video: Time-lapse of observations from NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon (STScl), the Hubble Heritage Team (STScl/AURA) - ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and H. Bond (STScl and Pennsylvania State University.)

"This effect can make it appear that this propagation of light is happening at speeds greater than the speed of light," says the Hubble Team. "But this is just an illusion."

For the most part, stars stay pretty stable most of their lives, consuming the fuel at their cores quietly as they evolve. However, in some stars when the hydrogen is gone, they may turn into very different creatures - like pulsating stars. As they become unstable, brightening and dimming, expanding and contracting over a period of hours, days or weeks, they leave us with some very unusual findings. In the case of RS Puppis, it's finding incredible beauty and enjoying it during an incredibly beautiful time of year!

Happy holidays!

Original Story Source: NASA/Goddard News Release

About Tammy Plotner - Tammy is a professional astronomy author, President Emeritus of Warren Rupp Observatory and retired Astronomical League Executive Secretary. She's received a vast number of astronomy achievement and observing awards, including the Great Lakes Astronomy Achievement Award, RG Wright Service Award and the first woman astronomer to achieve Comet Hunter's Gold Status.

When introducing a child to astronomy, having a well written, informative, and imagination-inspiring book (or two) on hand can go a long way in the educational process. Astronomy books make for great reading on cloudy or subzero nights, and can serve as invaluable reference on observing nights with your family.

Orion's Staff has put together a top ten list of favorite titles that are great for children just starting to learn about the sky. But we've also thrown several titles with parents in mind.

Here are our favorite books to have on hand while learning the night sky.

Stars, personified. By Meredith Hamilton, in the book A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky.

1.   Randy Riley's Big Hit, written and Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen.

Get young children thinking about the night sky with this adventurous story about Riley and his work to deflect an asteroid back out into Space.

Age Level: Picture book, great for young kids up to 8 years of age.

2.   A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky, written by Michael Driscoll, illustrated by Meredith Hamilton.

Children will love the beautiful illustrations and wealth of information about the night sky this book has to offer in its 92 pages of colorful, fact-packed pages. The best part about this book, though, is that parents will indefinitely learn something too. A recipient of the Parent's Choice Award, A Child's Introduction of the Night Sky comes with a star wheel and glow in the dark stickers of the solar system.

Age Level: Young children & elementary school students.

3.   Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey (Curious George author)

A classic children's book with wonderful illustrations that will nurture their curiosity about the night sky.

Age Level: 8 - 12

4.   Discover the Stars, by former long-time editor of Astronomy Magazine, by Richard Berry.

A good beginner book with an observing orientation, with thorough coverage of the sky, and charts on every page to accompany the text.

Age Level: Aimed more at beginning adults than kids.

5.   The Backyard Astronomer's Guide, by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer.

A complete guide to getting started in amateur astronomy, from the equipment you'll need, to the celestial panorama and advanced tips.

Age Level: Teens & up.

6.   Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope - and How to Find Them, by Guy Consolmagno and Dan M. Davis.

This excellent reference book was designed for use with Dobsonian telescopes, and is one of the most popular observing books of all time. One object per spread layout makes for clear and concise learning. An excellent reference, geared more towards adults or parents than children.

Age Level: Beginning adults and their children.

7.   The Stars: A New Way to See Them by H.A. Rey (Curious George author)

Not just for children! The Stars is another classic to add to your collection, and a fantastic beginning astronomer's guide to the night sky. It's filled with star charts, constellation guides and details about observing seasons and the movement of objects in the sky.

Age Level: 12 and up.

8.   Discover: Astronomy (Usborne Discovery) by Rachel Firth

Practical advice about how to find stars, constellations, planets, features of the Moon, this introductory book is packed with interesting facts and is a great one for the classroom. It's a perfect companion to a pair of binoculars.

Age Level: 7 and up

9.   NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe by Terence Dickinson

Written by the renowned Terence Dickinson, this was the world's top selling stargazing guide for the past twenty years, complete with star charts for both the northern and southern hemispheres. The fourth edition boasts a complete update of the equipment section, with guides to computerized telescopes, as well as an enlarged and updated photography section.

Age Level: Young adults to Adult.

10.  Observer's Handbook 2020, by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Edited by James S. Edgar

Compiled by an experienced staff of more than 60 professional astronomers of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, the Observer's Handbook of 2020 is THE reference book for any serious observer. It will tell you exactly what will be in the sky and when, from sunrise and sunset times to lunar phases, eclipses, solar transits, occultation's, and much, much more. 352 pages of meticulously edited and updated sky events.

Age Level: Adults, serious observers, and parents of beginners who want to help teach.

For years, Ham radio operators around the world have been aware that they could send a signal into space. Such projects reach as far back as 1961 when the satellite OSCAR I (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio) built by amateurs on the U.S. west coast was launched. It held a simple radio beacon and worked successfully for 22 days and 570 amateurs in 28 countries picked up its signal.

Now, thousands of amateur radio heads were able to say "Hi" to NASA's Juno spacecraft when it made its recent slingshot around Earth and headed toward Jupiter.

Tony Rogers, the president of the University of Iowa ham radio club, mans the equipment used to send a message to the Juno spacecraft in October. The simple message "Hi" was sent repeatedly by ham radio operators around the world. Photos by Tim Schoon.

According to Donald Kirchner, University of Iowa research engineer on Juno and one of the coordinators of the all-volunteer "Say Hi to Juno" project, all licensed amateur radio operators were invited to participate by visiting a website and following posted instructions. "The idea was to coordinate the efforts of amateur radio operators all over the world, and send a message in Morse code that could be received by the University of Iowa-designed-and-built instrument on the Juno spacecraft," he says. "We know that over a thousand participated, and probably many more than that."

Although the greetings were sent to the spacecraft, no replies were sent back. What's more, Juno didn't decode the message itself. After receiving the October 9 signal from amateur radio operators, the Juno team then surveyed the Waves instrument data. They found what they were looking for: The message sent from Earth was visible early in the fly-by when Juno was still over 37,000 kilometers, or about 23,000 miles, away. According to Kirchner, earlier space missions were able to detect shortwave radio transmissions as they passed Earth, such as Galileo on its way to Jupiter and Cassini as it sailed toward Saturn. Even though these messages were received, it wasn't possible to decode the transmissions from the data.

According to Bill Kurth, UI research scientist and lead investigator for the Waves instrument: "We believe this was the first intelligent information to be transmitted to a passing interplanetary space instrument, as simple as the message may seem," he says. "This was a way to involve a large number of people -- those not usually associated with Juno -- in a small portion of the mission. This raises awareness, and we've already heard from some that they'll be motivated to follow the Juno mission through its science phase at Jupiter."

Artist depiction of Juno passing in front of Jupiter. Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech

Just where did the "Say Hi" ideas come from? Kirchner says the project first started when then public outreach staff at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California became curious about the UI receiver. Would it be possible for it to detect a voice message? Even though this idea wouldn't work, Kurth and Kirchner brainstormed that a slow Morse code transmission just might fulfill the requirements.

According to the news release, Kirchner is also an amateur radio operator and took the lead in designing the project. His routine ham radio activities include being an assistant emergency coordinator with the Johnson County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, which works closely with the Johnson County Emergency Management Agency to provide backup and auxiliary communications. To facilitate the message to the Juno spacecraft, he turned towards the students, in particular, the UI Amateur Radio Club. The group then designed a temporary station on the roof of Van Allen Hall. Operating for a few days up to the flyby, he and other club members engaged hundreds of stations in 40 states and 17 countries to raise awareness of the project.

The "Say Hi" project was made possible by the fact that Juno passed within 350 miles of the Earth's surface on October 9, 2013, in a maneuver to gain momentum for its July 2016 encounter with Jupiter. If all goes well, Juno will orbit the giant planet 33 times. Plans for the mission include flying directly above Jupiter's poles and encountering both its northern and southern aurora regions to investigate the electrical current systems that cause them. What an amazing greeting that will be!

Original Story Source: University of Iowa News Release

In winter, even just a casual glance at the sky will register the Pleiades star cluster. For northern hemisphere observers, the cluster is like winter's beauty mark, arriving with the darkening months and sitting high in the constellation Taurus, preceding the bright red star Aldebaran across the sky. It is easy to find, and punctuates the end of a beautiful sweep of stars beginning in Perseus with first magnitude Mirfak, along the eastern leg of the constellation.

The Pleiades rises in the east.

This eye-catching cluster is quite young by astronomical standards, having emerged from the Merope Nebula within the last 100 million years, and some estimate it is as young as 20 million years, meaning it did not shine in the skies when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The cluster is our close neighbor, about 380 light years distant in our local arm of the Milky Way galaxy, and has about an 8 light year diameter. For perspective, only Alpha Centauri and Sirius are bright stars within 8 light years of Earth.

As Walter Scott Houston said of the Pleiades, "Even on the coldest of winter nights, when time spent at the telescope is better measured in minutes than hours, it would be a very un-amateur act not to look in on the Pleiades."

The cluster makes an excellent target for binoculars or a wide-field telescope, but require nearly two degrees to see all members in one field of view. The nebulosity is fleeting, and can be faintly glimpsed under excellent conditions, primarily around the star for which the nebula is named, Merope (the bottom star in the image below). In Deep Sky Wonders, Walter Scott Houston wrote of this fleeting nebulosity, saying: "On an ordinary night, there are usually a few wisps of nebulosity seen around the Pleiad Merope. But on really exceptional nights (or more likely, half hours), the glow swells out to encompass the entire cluster in a big cocoon."

Charles Messier catalogued the Pleiades as Messier 45, or M45, but he was not the first to notice the Pleiades. The cluster goes by many names, and its fame crosses many cultures. Ancient Greeks called it The Seven Sisters and the Japanese call it "Subaru" - you can see it as the logo of the car company. Ancient Persians used "Soraya" - which was also the name of the former Iranian empress. The British and Germans called it the Chick with Hens. Many people today see it, and mistake it for the Little Dipper. Perhaps we should refer to it as The Littlest Dipper? There are many variations, but the cluster is part of human records reaching as far back as Babylonia. It was mentioned in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, referenced three times in the Bible, shows up in the Quran and in ancient Hindu mythology as well. This may be history's most famous star cluster!

Bright Members of the Pleiades in the Merope Nebula.

On average, the naked eye sees the six brightest stars of the cluster. I've read reports of people counting up to fourteen members, naked-eye. My best is nine. The above chart shows the brightest members and magnitudes. How many can you see? Make a sketch then come back and compare it to the chart.

Despite the number of stars you're able to see, remember this: the cluster is actually comprised of over 1,000 confirmed members with a "tidal radius" of around 43 light years and total mass of around 800 suns. That's a big group of stars!

The Pleiades is an open cluster. Open clusters are comprised of young star systems. There are thousands of examples of these throughout our own Milky Way galaxy. They tend to occur in the spiral arms of galaxies, as that's where star formation is predominant.

In your pair of binoculars or telescope, you can see hundreds of open clusters, varying greatly in size, shape, density and brightness. Some, like the Pleiades, do not require anything other than your eyes and interest to see them. The Hyades in Taurus is an example of an older dispersing open cluster that can be seen without a telescope, as are the stars around Mirfak in Perseus. The stars of The Big Dipper are a highly dispersed old open cluster. Like children, growing up in their family home (their nebula, per se), the stars of open cluster eventually disperse - and move on, to new homes across our night skies.

The winter Milky Way is a fine sight, with many bright stars against a black background. The Pleiades are a jewel among them. Beautiful at the casual gaze, spectacular in almost any astronomical instrument, and should you try to discern the nebula, a challenge as well. Even on the coldest nights, take a few minutes to go outside and enjoy the great sight of Winter's Littlest Dipper.

Clear skies,

Mark

Constellation chart courtesy Starry Night Pro - sold by Orion Telescopes and Binoculars. Pleiades image from the Digital Sky Survey. Pleiades detail chart from The Sky software.

It's the University of Arizona's first discovery of an exoplanet and wouldn't you know - it's one that's breaking all the rules! An international team of astronomers led by a UA graduate student have picked up the signature of a planet orbiting a single, sun-like star. While that's nothing new, the planet's position most certainly is: it's more than 650 times the average Earth-Sun distance away from its host!

Weighing in at about eleven times the mass of Jupiter, this non-conformist planet cataloged as HD 106906 isn't like anything in our solar system and defies conventional planet formation theories. "This system is especially fascinating because no model of either planet or star formation fully explains what we see," said Vanessa Bailey, who led the research. Bailey is a fifth-year graduate student in the UA's Department of Astronomy.

Image: This is an artist's conception of a young planet in a distant orbit around its host star. The star still harbors a debris disk, remnant material from star and planet formation, interior to the planet's orbit (similar to the HD106906 system). (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

But just what are the "rules" of planet formation? For the most part, astronomers believe that planets similar to ours form relatively close to the parent star, taking shape from the disk of primordial gases and dust which envelope it. This formation is slow and doesn't lend itself well to giant planets forming at great distances. However, other theories postulate that giant planets could be the result of a quick, direct collapse of disk material. While this is a good notion, primordial disks aren't really known to house enough mass at their periphery to permit a planet like HD 106906 to form. In this instance, many alternative hypotheses have been suggested - including the formation of a "mini" binary star system.

"A binary star system can be formed when two adjacent clumps of gas collapse more or less independently to form stars, and these stars are close enough to each other to exert a mutual gravitation attraction and bind them together in an orbit," Bailey explained. "It is possible that in the case of the HD 106906 system the star and planet collapsed independently from clumps of gas, but for some reason the planet's progenitor clump was starved for material and never grew large enough to ignite and become a star."

According to Bailey, one problem with this scenario is that the mass ratio of the two stars in a binary system is typically no more than 10-to-1. "In our case, the mass ratio is more than 100-to-1," she explained. "This extreme mass ratio is not predicted from binary star formation theories -- just like planet formation theory predicts that we cannot form planets so far from the host star."

What really makes this rule-breaking discovery incredible is the fact that researchers can still detect the remnant debris disk of material left over from planet and star formation. "Systems like this one, where we have additional information about the environment in which the planet resides, have the potential to help us disentangle the various formation models," Bailey added. "Future observations of the planet's orbital motion and the primary star's debris disk may help answer that question."

Just how did the UA research team discover this unruly planet? Because it is only around thirteen million years old, it still glows red-hot with embers left over from its formation. It measures at approximately 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit - much cooler than its host star - and emits most of its energy in the infrared spectrum rather than in visible light. To get a direct image with the quality of the Hubble from the ground requires some very specialized equipment - adaptive optics. The team used the new Magellan Adaptive Optics (MagAO) system and Clio2 thermal infrared camera - both technologies developed at the UA - mounted on the 6.5-meter-diameter Magellan telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile to take the discovery image.

UA astronomy professor and MagAO principal investigator Laird Close said: "MagAO was able to utilize its special adaptive secondary mirror, with 585 actuators, each moving 1,000 times a second, to remove the blurring of the atmosphere. The atmospheric correction enabled the detection of the weak heat emitted from this exotic exoplanet without confusion from the hotter parent star."

"Clio was optimized for thermal infrared wavelengths, where giant planets are brightest compared to their host stars, meaning planets are most easily imaged at these wavelengths," explained UA astronomy professor and Clio principal investigator Philip Hinz, who directs the UA Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics.

Of course, all new discoveries require confirmation. In this case, the researchers were able to confirm the planet is gravitationally locked to its parent star by utilizing Hubble Space Telescope data taken eight years ago for another research program. Using the FIRE spectrograph, also installed at the Magellan telescope, the team confirmed the planetary nature of the companion. "Images tell us an object is there and some information about its properties but only a spectrum gives us detailed information about its nature and composition," explained co-investigator Megan Reiter, a graduate student in the UA Department of Astronomy. "Such detailed information is rarely available for directly imaged exoplanets, making HD 106906 b a valuable target for future study."

"Every new directly detected planet pushes our understanding of how and where planets can form," said co-investigator Tiffany Meshkat, a graduate student at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. "This planet discovery is particularly exciting because it is in orbit so far from its parent star. This leads to many intriguing questions about its formation history and composition. Discoveries like HD 106906 b provide us with a deeper understanding of the diversity of other planetary systems."

Known to the online world as "AstroTanja," 34-year-old Tanja Sund of South Africa is a magazine editor by day, and a devoted astrophotographer by night. Oh, and she's also the mother of a 2-year-old daughter.

Though Sund admits to a "continual state of sleep deprivation," her images and blog have begun to impress a worldwide audience, and she shows no signs of slowing down. Sund counts an 8" Orion Astrograph and Autoguider among her gear, a fact that makes us immensely proud. Here is our interview of Tanja Sund, South Africa's hottest new Astrophotographer:

Orion: As publisher and editor of Fitness Magazine, SA, how was it that you got into astrophotography, and has it really been only 20 months since you started shooting the night sky?

AstroTanja: I've always been interested in science and astronomy, and yes, it's been 20 months since I first started imaging. I became a publisher in an industry that I'm passionate about, the fitness industry, due to my background in art, design and entrepreneurship. Starting the business just over 10 years ago now allows me a lot more freedom to chase my other passion, astrophotography.

Orion: What was the first night sky image you shot, and were you happy with it?

AstroTanja: First image I ever shot was the Orion Nebula, M42. At the time I was ecstatic, just to be able to capture something in the sky that's unseen to the naked eye. As first images go, it wasn't anything spectacular, but it got me absolutely hooked.

Orion: What are your favorite objects to image these days?

AstroTanja: Nebulae most definitely. The colors and structures fascinate me, and they all look different - each with its own challenges.

Orion: Have you noticed that there are very few women in the astronomy and astrophotography field, or is that not the case in the southern hemisphere?

AstroTanja: Yes, there aren't many women in the astrophotography field. I think it's mostly due to science and astronomy not being such a highlight for a lot of women, but also because it's quite technical and potentially physically strenuous (well my setup is anyway). There are imaging couples, and women mainly stick to post-processing rather than image acquisition, however I take pride in every aspect of my imaging. From packing up the scope, transporting, setting up, acquisition to post editing. I'm proud of my images because I know what went into capturing them, from start to finish. This statement is more of a generalization, but I think most ladies would rather spend an evening relaxing (or shopping) than being out in the dark all night.

Orion: What is the greatest lesson you've learned through your work?

AstroTanja: To put proper focus and time into setting up, prepping for an imaging session, and to be extremely precise with polar alignment. Don't overlook the small things - they make for a better end result.

Orion: How dark are the skies over Johannesburg, and is that where you do most of your imaging?

AstroTanja: Jozi is the most light polluted spot in Africa. That said, it's not impossible to image here. Having the right equipment and shooting shorter exposures, but many, many, more of them help increase SNR. I'm switching to narrowband imaging soon, so the light pollution won't bother me. But for the most part, I try and get away to image. My favorite spot is a 2400km round trip drive, Sutherland in the Northern Cape. It's a truly dark sky there. Sutherland is the home of SALT (South African Large Telescope)

Helix Nebula. Credit: AstroTanja. Shot with a 10" Orion Astrograph. Full blog post about capturing this image here.

Orion: Any must have equipment?

AstroTanja: A must have for superior images, is a guide scope/cam. Post editing software has come a long way to bridge the gap between average and superb optics, yet everything is irrelevant if you can't have long exposures and round stars. Even with excellent polar alignment you're not going to be able to get a 5min exposure on an entry level/average mount. I currently use the Orion's SSAG, (Star Shoot Auto Guider). It's easy to use, cost effective and works wonderfully with PHD Guiding and my Celestron mounts.

Orion: Has observing and astrophotography changed your life or sense of self in any way? If so, how?

AstroTanja: It's changed everything in my life. It's a challenging form of photography and I'm always striving to better myself. I'm indeed slightly obsessed with improving my images, and I'll chase dark skies all over the world to photograph the sky. It's awakened my sense of adventure and I see imaging opportunities as a way to explore the world. Whether it's driving 12 hours to get to a dark sky in South Africa, flying to the USA with my APO to image the northern sky, or getting to Iceland to capture some aurora - it's all a big adventure. Furthermore, astrophotography is the reason I found that one person I couldn't live without - this shared passion for photographing the sky brought Cory (@TheAstroShake) and I together.

Our galactic core as it rises over the desert landscape of the Karoo, South Africa (Sutherland). Credit: AstroTanja

Orion: Have you been to the northern hemisphere to image yet? I'm very interested on your take on how the skies differ between the northern and southern hemispheres.

AstroTanja: Yes. In September I traveled to the USA to photograph the Andromeda galaxy and a few other northern targets. And in November I traveled to Iceland to photograph Aurora. It's slightly disorientating seeing objects rotate counter-clockwise around the celestial pole (in the south they go clockwise around the SCP), but it's great to see a few of the constellations I never see from where I live.

Orion: For us northern hemisphere observers hoping to travel, can you recommend some top targets to look for in the southern hemisphere?

AstroTanja: Top Southern Hemisphere targets are Omega Centauri, the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way Galaxy. Tarantula Nebula - NGC 2070, the most active starburst region known in the Local Group of galaxies, located on the rim of the large Magellanic cloud in the constellation of Dorado. The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds - as satellites of our Milky Way, these magnificent southern objects are only about 180,000 light years away, 15 times closer than the Andromeda Galaxy, M31. The Milky Way core overhead - the southern skies get a spectacular Milky Way core right overhead in our winter months. The Carina Nabula, one of the largest diffuse nebulae in our skies. Although it is some four times as large and even brighter than the famous Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is much less well known, due to its location far in the Southern Hemisphere. And finally, the Southern Cross and the Coalsack Dark Nebula. The Coalsack Dark Nebula is easily visible with the naked eye as a dark nebula in southern skies, in the constellation Crux.

I'll say Carina and Tarantula are probably two of the favorites with imagers as they carry more nebulosity and structure.

NGC 2070, Tarantula Nebula. Credit: AstroTanja

Orion: What would be your dream astrophotography trip?

AstroTanja: Any place dark, really dark - that's about it.... In both hemispheres. Oh - and I'd like to do star trails on the equator.

Orion: Any last words of wisdom for aspiring astrophotographers?

AstroTanja: Attaining great images requires dedication. Acquisition and processing isn't an easy feat. Persist - and you'll get great results. Don't always blame your optics, I've seen superb images come from mediocre equipment.

Keep up with AstroTanja on twitter (@astrotanja) and on her blog, Astrotanja.com, and on Flickr.