Newsletter April 2023

Please note the new venue.

Next Meeting Fernworth School. Pomona St. Some conspiracy theories from Phil. Thursday April 6th at 7.30pm.

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Welcome to April. Hello all, We have had our first open nights, and I must say the weather has been kinder to us than usual. Our new D. Little observatory is up and running and giving us some spectacular views. However, there are a couple of issues with the drive mechanism which are causing us a few headaches. Until we get them sorted the tracking of the scope is a bit sub-par. It is fine for bright objects such as the Moon and planets, but fainter celestial objects are hard to lock on to. This year we are planning on bringing some guest speakers in from astronomical institutions around the country. It is hoped that they will be of interest to the society and the community as a whole. We will keep you posted, as well as Dates to Remember in Publicizing the events through posters April. and other media. April 6th. Monthly Please remember our open nights are now on Saturdays only. Check on our Facebook Page for updates.

meeting at

School, 7.30pm.

Regards, Phil Burt.

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Fernworth

March 2023

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How to find us at Fernworth School.

Meetings will be held here at 7.30pm on the first Thursday of every month. Some parking is available within the grounds, or else on Pomona St.

Attendances we’d love to see! 3 of 23

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Evening Sky April 2023 Venus is the brilliant ‘evening star’, setting in northwest 1½ hours after the Sun. The planet will be left of the Pleiades/Matariki star cluster around April 10th. Though bright, Venus is of little interest in a telescope, looking like a tiny gibbous moon, a moon between first quarter and full. It is 160 million km away from us mid-month. The thin crescent Moon will be near Venus on the 23rd. After Venus sets, Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. It is northwest of overhead at dusk and sets in the southwest after midnight. Sirius is the brightest true star. The second brightest is Canopus, southwest of the zenith at dusk. Below Sirius are bluish Rigel and orange Betelgeuse, the brightest stars in Orion. Between them is a line of three stars: Orion's belt. To southern hemisphere star watchers, the line of three makes the bottom of 'The Pot', now tipped on its side. In the Pot's handle, or Orion's Sword, is the Orion Nebula, a glowing cloud easily seen in binoculars. Below and right of Sirius is Procyon marking the head of Canis Minor one of the two dogs following Orion the hunter across the sky. Sirius marks the head of Canis Major, the big dog. The big dog’s hindquarters are made by the bright stars above Sirius. Low in the northwest below Procyon are three stars of similar brightness. The vertical pair are Pollux and Castor, the heads of Gemini the Twins. Left of them is Mars, looking like an orange star. We passed Mars late last year. It is now 240 million km away and just a tiny disk in a telescope. The Moon will be between Mars and the Twins on the 26th. Though related in myth, the twins are quite different from each other. Pollux is an orange star 31 times brighter than the Sun and 34 light-years (l.y.)* from us. Castor is a hot white star about 47 times the Sun’s brightness and 51 l.y. away. Above and right of the Twins is the Praesepe star cluster, looking like a hazy spot to the eye. It marks the shell of Cancer the Crab. Praesepe is also called the Beehive cluster, the reason obvious when it is viewed in binoculars. Praesepe is 600 light-years away. Its age is around 600 million years, so its biggest and brightest stars have long ago burnt out.

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Right of Praesepe, almost due north, is the medium-bright star Regulus. It is the brightest star in Leo the Lion. The curve of stars below Regulus outlines Leo's mane, upside down in our southern hemisphere view. A crooked vertical line of stars right of Regulus makes Leo's hind quarters with the brighter star further right being his tail. The Moon will be below Regulus on the 29th. The lone bright star due east is Spica, the brightest star in Virgo. Above Spica is the roughly kite shaped constellation of Corvus the Crow. In the later evening the bright orange star Arcturus rises toward the northeast, often twinkling red and green. (It isn’t on the chart.) Crux, the Southern Cross is high in the southeast. Below it, and brighter, are Beta and Alpha Centauri, often called 'The Pointers'. Alpha Centauri, the brighter Pointer, is the closest naked-eye star, 4.3 light years away. Beta Centauri, like most of the stars in Crux, is a blue-giant star hundreds of l.y. away. Canopus is also a very luminous and distant star; 13,000 times brighter than the Sun and 300 l.y away. The Milky Way is brightest in the southeast above Crux. It can be traced to nearly overhead where it fades and becomes very faint in the northwest, right of Orion. The Milky Way is our edgewise view of the Galaxy, the pancake of billions of stars of which the sun is just one. The Clouds of Magellan, LMC and SMC, are midway down the southwest sky, easily seen by eye on a dark moonless night. They are small galaxies about 160,000 and 200,000 light years away. Saturn is the only naked-eye planet in the dawn sky, rising due east after 2 a.m. It looks like a medium bright star with a cream tint in an empty region of sky. By dawn it is well up the eastern sky. The Moon will be near Saturn on the mornings of the 16th and 17th. *A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year: nearly 10 millionmillion km. Sunlight takes eight minutes to get here; moonlight about one second. Sunlight reaches Neptune, the outermost major planet, in four hours. It takes sunlight four years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. Notes by Alan Gilmore, University of Canterbury’s Mt John Observatory, P.O. Box 57, Lake Tekapo 7945, New Zealand. www.canterbury.ac.nz 230304

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Often, we get asked now and then about how to print out pages from the newsletter. The picture below should help. This page should appear every time you load a newsletter.

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Strongest solar storm in nearly 6 years slams into Earth catching forecasters by surprise. By Daisy Dobrijevic

The powerful solar storm supercharged auroras as far south as Colorado and New Mexico. The most powerful solar storm in nearly six years slammed Earth today (March 24), but strangely, space weather forecasters didn't see it coming. The geomagnetic storm peaked as a severe G4 on the 5-grade scale used by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to assess the severity of space weather events. The storm's unexpected ferocity not only made auroras visible as far south as New Mexico in the U.S., but it also forced spaceflight company Rocket Lab to delay a launch by 90 minutes. Geomagnetic storms are disturbances to Earth's magnetic field caused by solar material from coronal mass ejections (CME) — large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun's atmosphere. It turns out that this particular geomagnetic storm was triggered by a "stealth" CME which — as the name suggests — is rather tricky to detect.

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NOAA's National Space Weather Service originally announced a "geomagnetic storm watch" on March 22 to come into effect on 23-25 March with possible moderate G2 storm conditions expected on March 24. So, forecasters weren't completely caught off-guard, they however didn't expect a magnitude G4 storm. It wasn't until 00:41 a.m. EDT ( 0441 GMT) on March 24 that NOAA uprated the warning to a severe G4 storm, which was after a stronger This stunning shot from the Holleford Crater site in South than forecasted G3 Frontenac Township near Hartington and south of Verona storm (opens in new in Ontario, Canada was captured by Adam tab)escalated to a Correia. (Image credit: Adam Correia) G4 at 12:04 a.m. EDT (0404 GMT).

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U.S. space weather forecaster Tamitha Skov explained to Space.com in an email why the space weather community got it so wrong with this latest storm. "These nearly invisible storms launch much more slowly than eruptive CMEs and are very difficult to observe leaving the sun's surface without specialized training," she said, adding that the stealth CMEs can also be "camouflaged" by other, more dense structures emanating from the sun, which makes them difficult to observe. "This is why they are the cause of "problem geomagnetic storms" like the G4-level storm we are in now." Skov continued. You can learn more about these stealthy solar storms in Skov's latest YouTube video(opens in new tab) where she describes the space weather event in more detail. NOAA(opens in new tab) ranks geomagnetic storms on a scale running from G1, which could cause an increase in auroral activity around the poles and minor fluctuations in power supplies, up to G5, which includes extreme cases like the Carrington Event — a colossal solar storm that occurred September 1859, which disrupted telegraph services all over the world and triggered auroras so bright and powerful that they were visible as far south as the Bahamas. Strong geomagnetic storms can be troublesome for spaceflight as they increase the density of gases in Earth's upper atmosphere, thereby increasing the drag on satellites and other spacecraft. In February 2022 SpaceX lost up to 40 brand-new 10 of 23

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Starlink satellites when they failed to reach orbit after being launched into a minor geomagnetic storm. Rocket Lab delayed its launch this morning by approximately 90 minutes while assessing the evolving conditions(opens in new tab) of the geomagnetic storm, the company announced on Twitter. They successfully launched at 5:14 a.m. EDT (0914 GMT). Another side effect of powerful geomagnetic storms is the incredible aurora displays they trigger. When energized particles from the sun slam into Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), our planet's magnetic field funnels the particles toward the poles. The ensuing supercharging of molecules in Earth's atmosphere triggers the colourful spectacles, which usually remain limited to areas at high latitudes. This time, skywatchers around the world were treated to a dazzling auroral display that reached as far south as Colorado and New Mexico. We can expect more extreme space weather events like this powerful geomagnetic storm as the sun builds towards a peak in its 11-year solar activity cycle, expected to occur in 2025. 11 of 23

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Baba Vanga was a Bulgarian psychic

who lived between 1911 and 1996. Despite being blind from a young age, she developed extraordinary psychic abilities that gained her a worldwide reputation. Baba Vanga is said to have accurately predicted many events, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the rise of ISIS. Her followers believe that she foresaw the end of the world in the year 5079. Now, one of Baba Vanga's big predictions for 2023 about a potential solar storm is already coming true. Scientists suggest that the sun could be emerging from a period of relative tranquillity lasting nearly a decade, and this could lead to issues on Earth. The solar flares that erupt during the sun's active phase release surges of electromagnetic energy that can disrupt various systems, including the power grid and GPS signals. These episodes, known as solar maximums, happen approximately every 11 years and have not been a significant concern in the past. (Interesting trivia. Ed.)

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www.canterbury.ac.nz

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Leaky Soyuz spacecraft at space station returns to Earth in speedy landing By Tariq Malik last updated 6 days ago

Engineers will study the leaky Soyuz MS-22 capsule to determine why it leaked coolant and how it performed. By Tariq Malik Engineers will study the leaky Soyuz MS-22 capsule to determine why it leaked coolant and how it performed. A Soyuz space capsule that suffered a major coolant leak in December departed the International Space Station without a crew early Tuesday (March 28) to return to Earth for engineers to study. The leaky Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft cast off from its docking port on the Russian-built Rassvet module of the International Space Station without any astronauts aboard — a rarity for Russia's Roscosmos space program — at 5:57 a.m. EDT (0957 GMT). The Soyuz will land on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 7:46 a.m. EDT (1146 GMT) about 91 miles to the southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan, but NASA did not broadcast the landing live. Roscosmos did broadcast it live on YouTube(opens in new tab). "It's de-orbiting and descent to Earth went smoothly," Roscosmos officials announced on Telegram(opens in new tab) after landing. Images showed the spacecraft descending under its parachute and at rest on its side after landing.

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New images of Uranus and Jupiter taken by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal how weather slowly changes on these giant, distant planets. Unlike Earthly weather that changes from day to day, atmospheric conditions on planets in the outer solar system are fairly stable. These planets receive very little sunlight and take years to decades to complete one orbit around the sun. Still, when scientists compare Hubble Space Telescope images of these planets captured several years apart, they see that their atmospheres are, in fact, alive. Hubble images of the ice giant Uranus taken in 2014 and 2022, for example, reveal that a cap of icy smog is growing over the planet's north pole as it moves toward its northern summer season. Uranus' seasons last over 20 years each, as one year on the planet lasts a staggering 87 Earth years. Images of the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter, also revealed interesting weather trends. In the latest Hubble pictures taken earlier this year, the gas giant's famous Great Red Spot is at its smallest since regular observation began 150 years ago. The Great Red Spot is a giant storm currently about twice as wide as Earth that swirls in the planet's southern hemisphere with wind speeds around its perimeter reaching a whopping 270 to 425 mph (430 to 680 kph). But while this trademark storm may be weakening, the Hubble observations show that a new giant storm may be forming north of Jupiter's equator.

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And they still keep coming.

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Astronomy Picture of the Month from NASA.

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Explanation: To see the feathered serpent descend the Mayan pyramid requires exquisite timing. You must visit El Castillo -- in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula -- near an equinox. Then, during the late afternoon if the sky is clear, the pyramid's own shadows create triangles that merge into the famous illusion of a slithering viper. Also known as the Temple of Kukulkan, the impressive step-pyramid stands 30 meters tall and 55 meters wide at the base. Built up as a series of square terraces by the pre-Columbian civilization between the 9th and 12th century, the structure can . be used as a calendar and is noted for astronomical alignments. The featured composite image was captured in 2019 with Jupiter and Saturn straddling the diagonal central band of our Milky Way galaxy. Tomorrow marks another equinox - not only at Temple of Kukulcán, but all over planet Earth.

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ISS Visible Passes for April 2023

March 2023

. Sunday Star-Times Day: Date: 26/02/2023

Reproduced with permission from Stuff NZ. Many thanks.

Section: FEATURES Page: 22 Edition: 1

Was it a bomb, or a rocket? On an isolated Southland riverbank in the 1950s, three friends set on launching a rocket nearly launched themselves instead. Kevin Norquay reports on the explosion that almost killed Rocket Lab. -------------------Seven decades before Rocket Lab boss Peter Beck sent a rocket to the Moon, his father Russell dabbled with his own launch, with spectacularly explosive results that created a moon-like crater on the banks of the Oreti River in Southland. Like son, like father, Russell was a rocket man, building a metrelong missile in his father Invercargill motor garage, using engineering equipment with help from his younger brother, Doug. Lower Hutt retiree Alan Ross well recalls the day in the mid1950s the Becks got him involved in an attempt to launch the rocket, which had tail fins, a nose cone, and even a metal launch pad. Ross was on holiday visiting his grandmother, who operated a dairy on the corner of Herbert and Park streets in Invercargill, one house away from the Beck family.

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Russell was an exciting person to be around; his enthusiasm and passion was palpable Ross recalls. The kind of guy who could talk you into risky activities, as it proved. Ross spent a day grinding a black compound to be used in the rocket solid fuel. Made from exhaust tubing, the rocket had a short piece of narrower tube to create pressure and more thrust, and alloy filings from a Volkswagen crankcase known to burn fiercely, creating a lot of expansion and smoke. It was a mix that would send the whole contraption soaring skyward. Well, that was the theory, anyway. Preparation complete, the trio drove in a Land Rover to a sandy area near the Oreti River mouth. The first site chosen had attracted unwanted onlookers, so option two was used. Launch procedure began: that involved taking turns to light the fuse with matches, then a rapid retreat to the other rocket scientists, cowering in the sand dunes about 20 metres away. But lift-off proved evasive. The fuse would not ignite, fizzling out again and again. “By the time each of us had made several attempts we were fast running out of fuse,” Ross says, “Our supply of replacement newspaper was also limited - an unfortunate oversight.” It was left to Russell Beck to make one last attempt. 20 of 23

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“He may have applied an accelerant in the form of kerosene or methylated spirits to assist the process, “Ross says. Doug Beck recalls the trio creating flames underneath the launch pad. “We got sticks and things and lit a fire underneath it. It was still pointing upwards, so we got this fire going and that was fine.” “We thought we’ll just go over to the next dune and lie back in the sand and think about what we’re going to do next, and next thing there was a huge explosion. The whole thing blew to smithereens ... we had actually built a bomb rather than a rocket.” After the shrapnel stopped flying, Ross looked up to see Russell Beck lying face down in the sand. “Doug and I flattened ourselves burying our faces in the sand. Somewhat deafened, we cautiously looked up horrified at what we might see. Russell was sprawled face down on the sand - motionless.” More next issue folks. It’s a long article,

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Waiting for the Dark.

First night of the 2023 season, two weeks before daylight saving ended, and we had a bit of time on our hands to fill in while waiting for the Sun to set. Diane, (I only got your first name sorry) and some of her scouting charges from Otautau (I think!), took on our infamous round jigsaw of planet Mars to while away the time. Being circular makes this a fearsome challenge, but the large areas of flat terrain also add to the difficulty. However, scouts are resouceful, as well as prepared, and thay completed it in good order. Well done. The night was near perfect and we had a good nimber attending. Phil Burt gave a short talk on going to the Moon to help improve the shining hour. We look forward to many more clear nights this season. 22 of 23

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Front Cover Picture

One of the founders of the Southland Astronomical Society, Russell Beck has left us quite a legacy. His son Peter has founded Rocket Lab and is really shooting for the stars. His work has been so successful that he is now having some payloads launched from the U.S. Between them, Russell and Peter have left their mark on our society in many ways. However, it was nearly not so. In this issue we have been given permission to reproduce a Stuff NZ article which details how all this was nearly scuppered by Russell’s keen curiosity as a lad. The article is quite large, so I will spread it over a couple of issues.

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