Astronomy_News_20_10_2020
Astronomy_News_20_10_2020
This months research Papers 20_10_2020
RASNZ_20_10_2020
Further links and discussion can be found at the groups/links below
Astronomy in New Zealand - Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/5889909863/
Astronomy in New Zealand - Groups.io
https://groups.io/g/AstronomyNZ
Google Group
https://groups.google.com/g/nzastrochat
Astronomy in Wellington
https://www.facebook.com/groups/11451597655/
Blogger Posts
http://laintal.blogspot.com/
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Research papers
Which Stars can see Earth as a Transiting Exoplanet
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.09766
Coupled Day-Night Models of Exoplanetary Atmospheres
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.07303
In Search for a Planet Better than Earth superhabitable worlds
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2019.2161
Solid tidal friction in multi-layer planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.04587
Hot Exoplanet Atmospheres WASP-121 b
https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.11308
a targeted SETI strategy that avoids the SETI Paradox
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.04089
Temperature Evolution and Habitability Impacts of Dozens of Superflares Observed Simultaneously by Evryscope and TESS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.00604
Status of the SPARC Physics Basis
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-plasma-physics/collections/status-of-the-sparc-physics-basis
Moderate-Resolution K-Band Spectroscopy of Substellar Companion ? Andromedae b
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.08959
Earth as an Exoplanet
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.02589
Gravitational wave lensing beyond general relativity
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.12187
Refining the transit timing and photometric analysis of TRAPPIST-1
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.01074
Multiple subglacial water bodies below the south pole of Mars unveiled by new MARSIS data
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.00870
The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.00474
A terrestrial-mass rogue planet candidate detected in the shortest-timescale microlensing event
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.12377
Effects of the Planar Galactic Tides and Stellar Mass on Comet Cloud Dynamics
https://arxiv.org/abs/0911.5533
Lunar Opportunities for SETI
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.12689
Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter
https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.02838
Electrostatic lofting of dust grains from the surfaces of Thebe and Amalthea
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.11114
Rapidly Spinning Compact Stars with Deconfinement Phase Transition
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.10731
Venus
Venus No statistically significant detection of phosphine
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.09761
A stringent upper limit of the PH3 abundance at the cloud top of Venus
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.07817
Phosphine on Venus Cannot be Explained by Conventional Processes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.06499
A Precursor Balloon Mission for Venusian Astrobiology
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.11826
Might active volcanisms today contribute to the presence of phosphine in Venus's atmosphere?
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.11904
On The Biomass Required To Produce Phosphine Detected In The Cloud Decks Of Venus
Authors: Manasvi Lingam, Abraham Loeb
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.07835
Feasibility Analysis and Preliminary Design of ChipSat Entry for In-situ Investigation of the Atmosphere of Venus
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.08396
Transfer of Life Between Earth and Venus with Planet-Grazing Asteroids
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.09512
Phosphine as a Biosignature Gas in Exoplanet Atmospheres
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2018.1954
Looking for pieces of Venus? Try the moon
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/yu-lfp100720.php
Detection of simplest amino acid glycine in the atmosphere of the Venus
https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.06211
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Interesting News items
FORTHCOMING STAR PARTIES -
STARDATE MARS. Fri 16 to Sun 18 October 2020. Phoenix Astronomical Society. Talks and telescope viewing at Stonehenge Aotearoa
(near Carterton) – with a focus on Mars! Contact The Phoenix Astronomical Society secretary - secretary@astronomynz.org.nz .
NZ ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY WEEKEND. Fri 13th – Sun 15th November 2020. Shed new light on your astrophotography with some
of New Zealand’s top astrophotographers! Foxton Beach Camp, Foxton Beach, Horowhenua. www.nzapw.org.nz .
CENTRAL STAR PARTY. Thu 14th – Mon 18th January 2021. Four days/nights of tenting/bunk rooms, excellent astronomy talks and
telescope viewing! Tuki Tuki Camp site, 70 Moore Rd, Haumoana, Hawkes Bay. www.censtar.party .
STARDATE – SOUTH ISLAND. Waitangi weekend, Fri 5th -Mon 8th February 2021. Staveley. Keep an eye on https://cas.org.nz/
STARDATE. Fri 12 and Sat 13 February 2021, at Stonehenge. Phoenix Astronomical Society. Contact secretary@astronomynz.org.nz
Earth-like Planets often come with a bodyguard
http://www.mpia.de/news/science/2020-16-superearth
The current state of space debris
https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/The_current_state_of_space_debris
The Elusive Peril of Space Junk
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/28/the-elusive-peril-of-space-junk
Tasmanian devils return to mainland Australia for first time in 3,000 years
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/10/tasmanian-devils-return-to-mainland-australia/
How America Lost 200,000 Lives to Covid-19
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/opinion/covid-pandemic-us-response.html
2020 New Zealand Astrophotography Competition Entry movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_8PNrPiqpM
Where in the world will the next epidemic start?
https://sciblogs.co.nz/guestwork/2020/09/27/where-in-the-world-will-the-next-epidemic-start/
Meet the bright people behind the Wairarapa dark sky reserve bid
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wairarapa/300109429/meet-the-bright-people-behind-the-wairarapa-dark-sky-reserve-bid
Daylight savings
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/426993/spring-forward-five-facts-about-daylight-saving
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Updates from Andrew B,
Jupiter.
Imaged: Tuesday 25th August 2020.
Released: Friday 18th September 2020.
Here Jupiter is seen by the Earth orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
Jupiter was about 653.4 million KM / 406 million miles from Earth at the time in front of the constellation of Sagittarius the Archer.
Two colour views. One shows enhanced natural colours, the colours are real but are enhanced to make features easier to see. This view also shows the very large, planet sized Galilean moon Europa. I have also added two graphics that explain jovian thunderstorms, a green filtered raw view and two Infrared raw views.
Europa orbits Jupiter once every 3 days, 13 hours & 12 minutes. The rotational period is the same, so Europa keeps the same face turned towards Jupiter as our own Moon does with Earth. The mean orbital distance is 670,900 KM / 466,630 miles from Jupiter. Europa orbits Jupiter at an average a speed of 13.74 KPS / 8.32 MPS or 48,240 KPH / 29,957 MPH.
Europa is 3,122 KM / 1,939 miles in diameter.
The second view shows Jupiter obtained a few minutes later, this time in near Infrared, Visible and near Ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet wavelengths show that towards the palar regions the clouds appear redder as the particles absorb more ultraviolet light making the top and bottom of Jupiter appear darker, the redder appearance due to infrared light being reflected. The ultraviolet being reflected from Jupiter's atmosphere makes the rest of the giant planet appear bluer.
What both views very clearly show is how a new gigantic plume from an oversized low pressure (cyclonic) thunderstorm centre in the northern hemisphere (to the upper left of centre). Windspeeds are around 500 KPH / 311 MPH in this storm. It is likely that some of the hailstones in this storm could be as large as cars and lightning so powerful that if in Earth's thunderstorms, the thunderclaps could level entire cities. Also what is very apparent in both views is how the Great Red Spot is continuing to shrink.
Note below the Great Red Spot is another gigantic high pressure (anticyclonic) storm (about the width of the Earth), mostly white, but is starting to turn pink. This storm was once Red Spot Junior, once a small, deep red spot, then it enlarged and turned white. It is thought that it turned white because the 'root' of the storm became shallower, no longer dredging up phosphorous therefore loosing it's chemical stain. However, it is now turning pink, suggesting it's root has deepened again to the phosphorus, with the chemical stain returning.
The Great Red Spot is a high pressure, anticyclonic storm in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. The wind speeds at the centre are more or less zero, but around the edge, blow at about 530 KPH / 330 MPH. The centre of the Great Red Spot is about 8 KM / 5 miles higher than the edges. The depth of the Great Red Spot is at least 400 KM / 250 miles & possibly very much deeper than that, maybe 1,000 KM / 621 miles deep according to some recent research.
The Great Red Spot is shrinking. In January 1800, it was about 40,000 KM / 25,000 miles long, or about three times wider than the Earth.
Forward 104 years to January 2004, it has shrunk to only about half the length to 20,000 KM / 12,500 miles long and by April 2007 had shrunk further to 16,350 KM / 10,160 miles long.
By January 2040, the Great Red Spot may be circular, rather than oval, and by January 2150, may be gone completely (will not be around then).
Jupiter orbits the Sun once every 11.82 years or 11 years & 315 days at an average distance of 778.57 million KM / 483.78 million miles from the Sun. Jupiter rotates on it's axis once every 9 hours & 56 minutes, the shortest day of any of the planets in our solar system.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, 142,984 KM / 88,846 miles wide through the equator (11.21 times wider than the Earth) and 133,692 KM / 83,082 miles through the poles (10.25 times wider than the Earth). Jupiter is also the most massive planet in our solar system with a mass of 317.8 times that of the Earth or about 1.899 trillion trillion tons (1,898.2 followed by twenty two zeros) and a mean global density of 1.326 g/cm3 (grams per cubic centimetre). Jupiter's rapid rotation causes the equator to bulge out and the polar regions to flatten, hense the somewhat oval shape of Jupiter.
Our own Earth with a diameter of 12,742 KM / 7,917 miles, with a mass of 5,972.2 billion trillion tons (5,972.2 followed by twenty zeros) and a mean global density of 5.517 g/cm3.
Jupiter is a gas giant, mostly composed of compressed hydrogen and helium, with new evidence pointing at a dense core of rock and metal roughly 15 times the mass of the Earth at the centre. About the inner two thirds of Jupiter appears to be composed of Metallic Hydrogen, liquid hydrogen under so much pressure, that the regular diatomic hydrogen H2 (two atoms consisting on one Proton with one electron each) are squashed together so hard that the compressed hydrogen acts as liquid metalm as is conductive. Within Jupiter to put is simply, this huge layer of metallic hydrogen is convecting and is generating Jupiter's gigantic magnetosphere, with traps particles from the Sun creating belts of very powerful radiation.
Two of Jupiter's large Galilean moons, Io and Europa orbit within one of these, hense radiation hardened spacecraft are needed to approach these two fascinating and very different moons
Both Io and Europa have been successfully approached by Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Galileo, these were radiation hardened as the earlier Pioneer 10 way back on Monday 3rd December 1973 was nearly fried by the trapped radiation near Io. It was by sheer luck Pioneer 10 survived but this finding meant all future spacecradft closely approaching Jupiter and the inner moons would be radiation hardened including the current JUNO spacecraft. Ganymede (Jupiter's and the Solar System's largest and most massive moon) is sometimes inside and at times outside of intense radiation and only the very large Callisto (Jupiter's second largest and the Solar System's third largest moon) out of the very large moons orbits permantly outside of dangerous radiation. All of the four smaller inner moons (Thebe, Amalthea, Adrastea and Metis from outside in) are all within intense trapped radiation. Jupiter's vastly extended family of outer moons (most of which are very small) are all outside of the radiation belts.
A. Simon (GFSC / Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL / Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy, Program team.
Text: Andrew R Brown.
WFPC3 / Wide Field Planetary Camera.
UVIS / UltraViolet Visible.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA/STSci (Space Telescope Science Institute). Hubble Space Telescope.
Enceladus.
Mercator infrared photomap of the Saturn moon Enceladus with the VIMS / Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer on board the Cassini Spacecraft. VIMS was sensitive to both visible light and infrared light. The VIMS collected both visible and infrared light and split it into it's constituent wavelengths and detected surface chemical and mineral compositions on the moons of Saturn, Saturn's rings as well as condensates in Saturn's atmosphere. The VIMS also measured temperatures.
Red = warmer, blue = colder.
The enhanced warmth in the south polar regions on Enceladus within the 'Tiger Stripes' . The Tiger Stripes were named: Alexandria Sulcus, Cairo Sulcus, Baghdad Sulcus and Damascus Sulcus, cities within the Arabian Nights, with Cairo, Baghdad and Damascus being the capital cities of Egypt, Iraq and Syria respectively and Alexandria being an important port city of Egypt on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Tiger Stripes are the locations of the geysers in the far south of Enceladus, around the south pole of the small Saturn moon.
The 0 Longitude (down the centre) faces directly at Saturn. The 90 West is the centre of the leading, forward side, the 90 East, is the trailing, backward side and the area at both ends faces away from Saturn. NP at top = North Pole, likewise SP at bottom = South Pole.
Also incluced a very detailed photographic map of Enceladus.
Enceladus is the fourth smallest of the ‘classical’ longer known moons of Saturn, only Mimas, Hyperion and Phoebe are smaller.
Enceladus is 513 KM / 319 miles (long axis towards Saturn) by 503 KM / 312 miles (east to west) by 497 KM / 309 miles (through the poles north to south) in size. Enceladus is the second smallest known object in the solar system to be rounded by hydrostatic equilibrium, the mass and gravity to overcome the structural strength of the constituent materials. Only the inner neighbouring Saturn moon Mimas is known to be smaller to be rounded by such a mechanism.
Enceladus orbits Saturn once every 1 day, 8 hours & 53 minutes. The rotational period is the same, so Enceladus keeps the same face turned towards Saturn as our own Moon does with Earth. Enceladus orbits Saturn at an average distance of 237,948 KM / 147,767 miles.
Enceladus is in orbital resonance with the much larger Dione, for every one orbit Dione makes around Saturn, Enceladus makes two.
With a mean density of 1.61 G-CM3 and a diameter of only 503 KM / 312 miles, Enceladus is dense enough to have a great deal of rock with a global mass of about 55% rock - 45% ice, gravity data from the repeated close passes of the Cassini spacecraft revealed a differentiated object with a distinct core, ice mantle and ice crust, possible regional subsurface southern ocean.
Despite the very high rock content, such a small body would not have enough radioactive isotopes left (would have done in the early days of the Saturn system) to keep the interior warm enough to drive geological activity. Iron 60 which is very radioactive and would certainly have been present has a very short half life of only 2.6 million years and aluminium 26 even worse at only 717,000 years!!!! Whist traces of both are still present for sure inside Enceladus, they are so low now that they are barely worth considering. The amount of Uranium and Thorium would also be likely too small to maintain the current activity too.
Enceladus is certainly being kept warm internally by tidal, frictional heating between Saturn and the much larger moons of Tethys and Dione further out. Tethys has about 6 times the mass of Enceladus, Dione about 11 times. It's just that the full mechanism still needs to be worked out, I can assure you with mass v volume, Enceladus does not have enough radioactive materials for large scale internal heating.
Enceladus experiences surface temperatures of Summer maximum of minus 128 Celsius / minus 198 Fahrenheit or 148 Kelvin & a global average of minus 198 Celsius / minus 324 Fahrenheit or 75 Kelvin.
The temperature of the warmest parts of the 'Tiger Stripes' is a fairly 'toasty' minus 116 Celsius / minus 177 Fahrenheit, very warm for Enceladus or for any of the moons of Saturn.
Still very cold by terrestrial standards, the lowest known temperature on Earth was recorded on: Tuesday 10th August 2010 at Dome Argus, Antarctica where minus 93 Celsius / minus 136 Fahrenheit was recorded.
Enceladus Winter / early Spring surface temperatures plummet to a minimum of minus 240 Celsius / minus 400 Fahrenheit or 33 Kelvin, even lower than the mean surface temperatures of Pluto, Charon and the Neptune moon Triton (though they all known to have lower minimum temperatures). Enceladus has seasons lasting approximately 7.5 years as it shares, Saturn’s years of 29.5 Earth years and axial tilt of approximately 27 degrees.
Enceladus is a varied world, despite the small size. The terrain is certainly older in the northern hemisphere, impact craters are softened and there are huge canyons though mostly not ancient. The southern hemisphere is less cratered, some smoother plains and huge canyons with active geysers, spraying out ice particles, many of these and up in orbit around Saturn, making up the E-Ring, many though make it back down onto Enceladus making the surface extremely reflective, making Enceladus the most reflective known body in the solar system, only the KBO / dwarf planet Eris and Neptune moon Triton comes close.
Recently a claim was made that the long suspected subsurface ocean under the ice crust and above the rocky mantle was confirmed.
Text: Andrew R Brown.
USGS / United States Geological Survey.
NASA/JPL-CalTech/Space Science Institute/ESA. Cassini Spacecraft.
Asteroid 101955 Bennu.
Imaged: Tuesday 20th October 2020.
A frame from the movie showing a fragment approximately 10 CM / 3.94 inches long passing from right to left. The sample collection appears to have been successful from the surface of the tiny Asteroid 101955 Bennu (1999 RQ36) about 500 metres across.
The 30 CM / 12 inch wide Sampling Head made contact for 6 seconds, actually buried briefly within the landing site 'Nightingale'. Generaly the rocks are rich in carbon and are hydrated. The hydration comes from water molecules (water = H2O, two atoms of Hydrogen to one of Oxygen) bound to the molecular structure of the rock. Also what will be very interesting will the the ratio of regular water to heavy water (where one of the hydrogen atoms has a neutron attached to the proton, this heavy hydrogen is known as Deuterium). Some rocks appear to have calcite veins running through them. What is very exciting is that some of the sample that appears to have been collected contains some very reflective tiny fragments.
It is speculated from earlier during the mission that other bright fragments on the asteroid are possibly from the giant Main Belt Asteroid / Protoplanet 4 Vesta (extensively surveyed by the DAWN spacecraft in 2011 - 2012 before leaving for 1 Ceres, where DAWN arrived in February 2015, mission ended in October 2018). So perhaps we have samples from both 4 Vesta and 101955 Bennu??? This potentially gets better.
On Saturday 24th October 2020, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will do an 'inertial mass measurement) when the spacecraft will rotate around it's centre of mass with the sample head at the end of the extended 3.4 metre / 11 foot long arm. The greater the amount of collected sample, the greater torque the spacecraft will have and that can be measured.
If it is deemed that the sample collected is insufficient, there is another opportunity in January 2021 for at a secondary site called 'Osprey'. However, judging by what happened yesterday, this looks like a great success so hopefully option 2 will not be required.
Another thing is that this sequence of images were obtained using the SamCam (Sample Camera), but other cameras, including the NavCam (Navigation Camera) and MapCam (Mapping Camera) were also used, so we have many more images yet to see. The NavCam images have only just arrived on Earth, so hopefully tomorrow we will see those. Tomorrowe also the SamCam will take images of the sampler head including the base to see if there is asteroid dust on it and maybe even some of the samples collected in the head.
The density of 101955 Bennu is low, only about 1.2 g/cm3 or a mass of about 115 million tons, very low for even an object of this size. 101955 Bennu is certainly a pile of dusty, rocky ancient rubble held together by gravity.
Asteroid 101955 Bennu was chosen as is a very rare Type B, enriched with hydrated minerals and organic compounds (ingredients to help build life, not life itself) and the fact the asteroid may be made from ancient impact, ejected debris from a much larger, much more distant B type asteroid, maybe even the giant Main Belt Protoplanet 2 Pallas.
Asteroid 101955 Bennu rotates in a retrograde direction east to west, (Sun and stars would rise in the west and set in the east) about once every 4 hours & 17 minutes on it's axis & orbits the Sun once every 1 year & 72 days.
Text: Andrew R Brown.
NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona.
OSIRIS.REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft.
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RASNZ
Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand
eNewsletter: No. 238, 20 October 2020
Affiliated Societies are welcome to reproduce any item in this email newsletter or on the RASNZ website www.rasnz.org.nz in their own newsletters provided an acknowledgement of the source is also included.
Contents
1. Top IDA Award to John Hearnshaw
2. Online RASNZ Zoom AGM and Conference
3. 2020 RASNZ On-Line Conference Presentations
4. Star Parties
5. The Solar System in November
6. Variable Star News
7. Astronomy Publications Free to a New Home
8. Conference Committee Members Needed
9. Black Hole Scientists Win 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics
10. Effect of Satellite 'Constellations' on the SKA
11. 'Minimoon' 2020 SO
12. Large Old Meteor Crater Found in Western Australia
13. Kingdon-Tomlinson Fund
14. How to Join the RASNZ
15. Quotes
1. Top IDA Award to John Hearnshaw
The International Dark Sky Association has presented John Hearnshaw with the Crawford-Hunter Lifetime Achievement Award.
This award represents the highest honour that IDA bestows upon individuals who, in the course of their lifetime, have contributed an extraordinary effort to light pollution abatement. The citation reads:
John Hearnshaw FRSNZ, FRASNZ, MNZM (New Zealand)
John Hearnshaw is a New Zealand astronomer and Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. From 1976 to 2008, this 2020 IDA Award Recipient was Director of Mt John Observatory. During this time, he took steps to protect the observatory from encroaching outdoor lighting from the nearby Tekapo Village. Specifically, he lobbied the Mackenzie District Council to include lighting regulations in their District Plan. This goal was achieved in 1981.
In 2010, these regulations were extended to include a large expansion of land inclusive of the town of Twizel. Consequently, this regulation’s control of light led to the 2012 designation of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve (AMIDSR). After this success, John formed the AMIDSR Board and was elected Chair, a role he continues to hold to this day. He is the driving force for the board, especially in organizing Starlight Festivals in 2013, 2015, and 2017. Under John’s leadership, the AMIDSR was awarded the International Dark-Sky Association Dark Sky Place of the Year 2018.
Then, in 2019, John was the principal organizer of the New Zealand Starlight Conference. This IDA sponsored conference brought together participants from different backgrounds to discuss the inter-related themes of dark-sky protection. These themes include the effects of artificial light at night on star-gazing, the environment, and human health. John is an active member of the International Astronomical Union. He is especially involved with education, outreach, and protection of the night sky. Additionally, he is a member of IUCN Dark Sky Advisory Group. Further, John is the National Focal Point for New Zealand in the UNESCO Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative.
-- From https://www.darksky.org/ida-announces-2020-award-recipients/
2. Online RASNZ Zoom AGM and Conference
As you will now be aware, the physical RASNZ conference in Wellington has been cancelled. Instead we will be having an online conference, Annual General Meeting, Affiliated Societies’ meeting, etc. This will be an RASNZ first, so bear with us during the online conference as we may have some technical challenges at times.
Here is President Nick Rattenbury’s 7 Oct letter to RASNZ members -
Dear RASNZ Member and RASNZ 2020 Conference registrant,
The 2020 RASNZ Annual General Meeting will be held online, on Saturday 24th October from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The day prior to the AGM,
I will circulate a link to a Zoom meeting, and a password that will allow you access. We will strive to run the AGM as usual, but I ask you
to be patient with me and the Council as we try to adapt our practices to suit this unfamiliar mode of running an AGM.
The Affiliated Societies meeting will be held on Wednesday 21st October from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
You will need a computer and internet connection to join the meeting(s) and you will need a computer with audio output in order to hear
what is being said during the meeting. You will not need a microphone or a webcam unless you wish to be seen and/or heard during the
meeting. If you do not have a microphone, you will be able to send in questions or comments via the Zoom chat function.
If you have any questions or concerns about the 2020 AGM, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me - president@rasnz.org.nz.
Yours, Nicholas Rattenbury
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The dates and times to connect for the online Zoom meetings are –
RASNZ Affiliated Societies’ meeting - Wednesday 21st October from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. A Zoom link will be sent later. The link to the 2019 Affiliated Societies’ minutes is
http://rasnz.org.nz/Downloadable/AffSocFiles/AGMMinutes/2019AffSocMinutes.rtf
RASNZ AGM – Saturday 24th October, 3:00 – 6:00pm NZDT. As Nick states, a Zoom link will be sent out prior to the AGM. The link to the 2019 AGM minutes is http://rasnz.org.nz/Downloadable/RASNZ/AGMMinutes/2019AGMMinutes.rtf
If you wish anything to be added to the AGM agenda or the Affiliated Societies’ agenda, please send it to me (John Drummond) ASAP (kiwiastronomer@gmail.com or John Drummond, PO Box 113, Patutahi 4045).
See the next item for online presentation information.
The RASNZ’s website is - https://www.rasnz.org.nz/
In case you are wondering, this year’s ten SWAPA winners will be attending next year’s (2021) conference in Nelson, so there will be 20
SWAPA attendees there in total.
3. 2020 RASNZ On-Line Conference Presentations
Here is the schedule of talks that have been arranged for the 2020 on-line RASNZ Conference. For abstracts and any last-minute changes please check out the RASNZ website (www.rasnz.org.nz).
The talks will be streamed via RASNZ's YouTube channel. Please go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjE5Y-Eg2fkrfofBkDt3_EQ and subscribe to RASNZ's channel.
The only software you will need to watch these presentations is a web browser pointed to the RASNZ channel where all talks will be made available for later viewing.
Tuesday 27 October, 7:30 pm
Katie Bouman: Imaging a black hole with the Event Horizon Telescope (60 min, pre-recorded)
Thursday 29 October, 7:30 pm
Rene Breton: Einstein's Relativity: Tested to the limit with pulsars (60 min, pre-recorded)
Tuesday 3 November, 7:30 pm
Nick Rattenbury: Te Pûnaha Âtea Auckland Space Institute (20 min)
Tom Love: Chasing rainbows: spectroscopy with small telescopes (20 imin)
Shaun Hotchkiss: The non-linear Schrodinger equation in cosmology (20 min, pre-recorded)
Tuesday 10 November, 7:30 pm
Heloise Stevance: How old is Matariki? (30 min)
Steve Butler: Measuring the night (20 min)
Tuesday 17 November, 7:30 pm
Nick Rattenbury: The Kerr-Tinsley Centre of Research Excellence (20 min)
Ed Budding: Collaborative studies of southern close binary systems - a progress report (20 min)
Petra Nianqi Tang: Estimating spectral density for the stochastic gravitational wave background for LISA (20 min, pre-recorded)
Tuesday 24 November, 7:30 pm
JJ Eldridge: Understanding the stars that create gravitational wave transients (30 min)
Max Briel: Observing supernovae and gravitational wave events in a synthetic Universe (20 min)
Tuesday 1 December, 7:30 pm
John Hearnshaw: New Zealand’s progress towards becoming a dark-sky nation (30 min)
John Drummond: Murray Geddes, an assiduous NZ observer of meteors, sunspots and variable stars - as well as aurora and comets (20 min)
-- Glen Rowe for the Standing Conference Committee.
4. Star Parties
The Auckland Astronomical Society’s Waharau Dark Sky Weekend (2020 Northern Star Party) - Fri 13th – Sun 15th November 2020 is at Waharau Regional Park 1748 East Coast Rd, Orere Point, Whakatiwai 2473, about 1 hour's drive from central Auckland. For details see https://www.astronomy.org.nz/event/northern-star-party-2020/
NZ Astrophotography Weekend. Fri 13th – Sun 15th November 2020. Shed new light on your astrophotography with some of New Zealand’s top astrophotographers! Foxton Beach Camp, Foxton Beach, Horowhenua. www.nzapw.org.nz .
Central Star Party. Thu 14th – Mon 18th January 2021. Four days/nights of tenting/bunk rooms, excellent astronomy talks and telescope viewing! Tuki Tuki Camp site, 70 Moore Rd, Haumoana, Hawkes Bay. www.censtar.party .
Stardate - South Island. Waitangi weekend, Fri 5th - Mon 8th February 2021. Staveley. Keep an eye on https://cas.org.nz/
Stardate. Fri 12th - Sat 13th February 2021, at Stonehenge. Phoenix Astronomical Society. Contact secretary@astronomynz.org.nz
--- Mostly from Keeping in Touch #38, 11 October 2020.
5. The Solar System in November
Dates and times shown are NZDT (UT + 13 hours). Rise and Set times are for Wellington. They will vary by a few minutes elsewhere in NZ. Data is adapted from that shown by GUIDE 9.1
THE SUN and PLANETS in November, Rise & Set, Magnitude & Constellation
NOV 1 NZDT NOV 30 NZDT
Mag Cons Rise Set Mag Cons Rise Set
SUN -26.7 Lib 6.05am 8.04pm -26.7 Oph 5.40am 8.39pm
Merc -0.0 Vir 5.37am 6.48pm 1.8 Lib 5.08am 7.44pm
Venus -4.1 Vir 4.58am 5.07pm -4.0 Lib 4.23am 6.14pm
Mars -2.5 Psc 5.51pm 5.26am -2.2 Psc 4.03pm 3.25am
Jup -2.4 Sgr 10.39am 1.37am -2.2 Sgr 9.09am 12.00am
Sat 0.5 Sgr 11.05am 1.54am 0.6 Sgr 9.21am 12.08am
Uran 5.7 Ari 7.47pm 6.17am 5.7 Ari 5.47pm 4.18am
Nep 7.8 Aqr 3.31pm 4.19am 7.8 Aqr 1.36pm 2.24am
Pluto 14.5 Sgr 10.44am 1.46am 14.5 Sgr 8.53am 11.54pm
November 1 NZDT November 30 NZDT
Twilights morning evening morning evening
Civil: start 5.38am, end 8.32pm start 5.10am, end 9.10pm
Nautical: start 5.01am, end 9.08pm start 4.29am, end 9.51pm
Astro: start 4.22am, end 9.48pm start 3.41am, end 10.39pm
November PHASES OF THE MOON, times NZDT & UT
Full Moon: Nov 1 at 3.49am (Oct 31, 14:49 UT)
Last quarter: Nov 9 at 2.46am (Nov 08, 13:46 UT)
New Moon: Nov 15 at 6.07pm (05:07 UT)
First quarter: Nov 22 at 5.45pm (04:45 UT)
Full Moon: Nov 30 at 10.30pm (09:30 UT)
A partial penumbral eclipses of the moon occurs during the last evening of November. The eclipse is at maximum about 11pm with some 83% of the moon's diameter in the penumbra. Little light change will be evident. The moon will be low as seen from New Zealand.
THE PLANETS in NOVEMBER
MERCURY is a morning object but rises only a little over 30 minutes before the Sun all month. As a result it will not be observable during November.
VENUS is also in the morning sky, rising a little over an hour before the Sun. This will make it briefly visible as a very low object in the dawn sky. Mid-month Venus will be about 7° up, 30 minutes before sunrise, with the Sun only 6° below the horizon.
MARS rises a few hours before sunset so is well placed in the evening sky. It equals Jupiter in brightness all month, but will, of course, be a very different colour.
JUPITER and SATURN get closer together during November, Starting the month 5° apart, they are less half this by the 30th. They are also beginning to set earlier, with Jupiter setting at midnight on the 30th, Saturn 8 minutes later.
The moon is a little over 1.5° from Jupiter and 4° from Saturn as seen from NZ late evening on November 19.
PLUTO is overtaken by Jupiter during November. The two are closest November 12/13 when they will be about 42 arc-minutes apart, a little more than the full moon's diameter.
URANUS is at opposition on the first morning of November. At the same time the full moon is just over 2° from the planet. Being at opposition, Uranus will rise near the time of sunset and setting close to sunrise.
NEPTUNE rises during the afternoon so is well up by the time the sky darkens. Its encounter with the moon is on the 27th, the two are closest at about 10 pm. The moon, three days short of full, will then be about 3.5° from the planet
POSSIBLE BINOCULAR ASTEROIDS in November
Nov 1 NZDT Nov 30 NZDT
Mag Cons transit Mag Cons transit
(1) Ceres 8.7 Aqr 9.01pm 9.0 Aqr 7.21pm
(4) Vesta 8.2 Leo 9 02am 7.8 Leo 7.46am
(8) Flora 8.0 Cet 1.18am 8.6 Cet 11.02pm
CERES is in the evening sky. In Aquarius, it sets just after 4.30 am on the 1st and 2.40 am on the 30th.
VESTA is a morning object rising at 3.45 am on the 1st and 2.19 am on the 30th.
FLORA is at opposition November 3/4 when 1° from the 3.5 magnitude star gamma Ceti. Flora is then at its brightest for the apparition at 8.0, making it the brightest asteroid for a few nights. At opposition it rises near 7 pm and sets near 7 am. For the rest of the month it moves towards Pisces.
-- Brian Loader
6. Variable Star News
Educational Webinars
All the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) observing section Webinars shown over the last few months are now available on AAVSO You Tube. There are 14 videos on a variety of topics which are summarised in an easy to read Table. This medium has the advantage that you can watch at a time that suits you. Note that the sessions are mostly 2 plus hours long so ensure you have that long a time slot to watch.
The link is: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnZ_rvnR35rf3rDie-XWhapGZlqYIrJwn
Variable Star Catalogue
The AAVSO maintains a catalogue of variable stars, The International Variable Star Index. This is commonly known as VSX. During the last couple of years there have been programmes to add variables found in cooperative observing programs run with sky surveys, for example from the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) database. With the addition of results from the Zwicky Transient Facility completed recently VSX has now reached over two million (2,000,000) entries. A further feature of the recent additions is an improvement in precision of the position of a number of the star entries. For further explanation of the operation of this project refer to the Monthly Communication of AAVSO, October 2020.
-- Alan Baldwin
7. Astronomy Publications Free to a New Home
Eric Blown (in Masterton) wishes to dispose of an extensive collection of star charts, star catalogues, technical and popular astronomical publications, many related to variable stars, mostly inherited from the late Albert Jones. Eric offers to cover courier/postage costs.
For a list please contact Eric at <eric.blown@strath.ac.uk> .
8. Conference Committee Members Needed
RASNZ President Nick Rattenbury writes:
At the next Annual General Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, a substantial fraction of the Standing Conference Committee will be standing down. We, as a Society, need to fill these positions. Will you volunteer your time for your Society and serve on the SCC?
The Annual RASNZ Conference is the Society´s most visible event and is the opportunity for NZ and international astronomers to meet and share our research, findings, challenges and the thrill of discovery that astronomy brings. The SCC acts as a `scientific organising committee´, has oversight of the RASNZ Affiliated Society that runs each conference and is ultimately responsible to RASNZ Council. The roles and responsibilities of the SCC are attached.
In these interesting times, many of us have had to learn how to run our
businesses and our social interactions according to some new rules. This
has required us all to show a higher degree of flexibility, innovation and a willingness to try new things or adopt more resilient processes as a result. Council is looking for volunteers to serve on the SCC who are keen to leverage new technologies to allow us as a Society to remain connected in what could be an extended period of remote interaction.
If you have any questions about the role of the SCC, please do not hesitate to contact me (president@rasnz.org), or the current Chair of the SCC, Glen Rowe (growe511@outlook.com).
Yours faithfully,
Dr Nicholas Rattenbury, President, RASNZ
9. Black Hole Scientists Win 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics
This year’s award goes to three researchers who played key roles in developing the theoretical and observational evidence for black holes.
For the second time in four years, black holes have nabbed the Nobel Prize in Physics. The 2020 prize, announced earlier today, recognizes the contributions of three researchers who have helped clinch the case for black holes’ existence: physicist Roger Penrose (University of Oxford, UK) and astronomers Reinhard Genzel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany) and Andrea Ghez (University of California, Los Angeles). Penrose will receive half of the 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million U.S.) prize; Genzel and Ghez will share the other half equally.
Together, these three scientists have helped revolutionize our knowledge of black holes.
We know today that black holes are an unavoidable consequence of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. In this framework, gravity is geometry: Mass tells spacetime how to curve, and spacetime’s curves tell mass how to move. Black holes are where mass curves spacetime so much that nothing, not even light, can escape.
Technically, the concept of a dense object from which light can’t escape predates Einstein. The English priest and scientist John Michell and the French polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace independently suggested the idea in the late 1700s. But it was the German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild who laid the groundwork for black holes as we know them today, when he solved Einstein’s equations for how a symmetric, nonrotating, and hefty mass would curve the spacetime around it — all while on a World War I battlefront in early 1916.
Black holes would not be scientifically palatable, however, for several decades.
In 1939, calculations by American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder showed that an astronomical body will inevitably contract to a singularity of infinite density in certain cases of spherically symmetric collapse. An event horizon would surround the singularity, closing the interior off from the outside universe. (Einstein loathed the idea.) New Zealand mathematician Roy Kerr expanded the work to rotating objects in 1963.
But it was Penrose in the mid-1960s who generalized the idea: He showed that collapse to a singularity always happens when there’s enough mass/energy packed together, regardless of the symmetry of the collapse.
Penrose introduced a new mathematical concept to make this leap: trapped surfaces. A trapped surface forces all rays perpendicular to it to converge, regardless of whether the surface curves inwards or outwards. Light cannot escape; it can only stand still. And since nothing can travel faster than light, everything else falls in. The path inward is as inexorable as the forward arrow of time outside the black hole: one-way traffic only.
The unavoidable outcome is a singularity — which, for related reasons, is sometimes described as a single moment in time. It remains unclear what the singularity actually is. All we know is, it’s there that classical physics breaks down. (In gravity terms, spacetime becomes infinitely curved.)
Among his other contributions, Penrose also discovered that it’s possible to extract energy from a spinning black hole. Place a heavy mug on a cloth napkin and twist the mug. The napkin will twist with the mug, creating a warped cloth landscape. Something similar happens with a spinning black hole: It drags the fabric of spacetime around with it, in what’s called the Lense-Thirring effect. (Earth does this, too, but not as severely.)
The twisted region is called the ergosphere. Here, an astronaut (or asteroid, or any other object) would be forcibly dragged around with the black hole’s rotation, even though they were outside the event horizon. Penrose realized that it’s possible to steal rotational energy from the black hole via the ergosphere. Others have since used this insight to suggest that spin energy is how black holes power their relativistic jets, some of which shoot across thousands of light-years.
Penrose’s work helped explain how black holes could power distant, stupendously luminous sources discovered during the same years he was working on the singularity problem in the 1960s. These quasars were the first observational evidence of black holes. But it would take several decades for astronomers to amass the observations to convince themselves that supermassive black holes sit at the centre of nearly every major galaxy. The objects even have a strangely symbiotic relationship with their hosts.
Genzel and Ghez’s work was pivotal in this effort. Thanks to a series of technical feats they either developed or took advantage of, the two astronomers and their competing teams have spent nearly three decades using the world’s best ground-based infrared telescopes to peer through the dusty gas of our galaxy’s centre. Here, deep in the heart of the Milky Way, they saw dozens of stars looping pell-mell around an invisible centre. By tracing the stars’ motions over years, the astronomers mapped out the stars’ orbits — which, it must be emphasized, is no mean feat: These stars are more than 26,000 light-years away and crowd together in the field of view like moving polka dots.
The orbits revealed that the stars revolve around an unseen, unmoving, and compact something-or-other with the mass of 4 million Suns. The best explanation is a supermassive black hole, which astronomers call Sagittarius A*.
The teams’ observations have also enabled them to confirm two predictions of general relativity: gravitational redshift and orbital precession. As the star S2 (S0-2 in the Ghez team’s nomenclature) bore down on Sgr A* in 2018, it dipped into the spacetime valley the black hole makes around itself. During this time, the star’s light had to work harder to climb out and reach us. The energy loss reddened the light, which both teams detected.
Traveling through the warped spacetime also shifted the star’s path slightly. Its incoming angle changed by a tiny amount, which in turn changed the location of its closest approach to the black hole. Over many passes, the star’s orbit will trace out a rosette shape instead of a single ellipse. Genzel’s team reported the first evidence of this shift earlier this year.
Astronomers both inside and outside the teams credit the longstanding competition between the two groups for driving them to excellence. Their results — arrived at with independent methods and observations — also provide a beautiful confirmation of each other’s analyses that can be hard to come by in science.
In short, the three newly minted Nobel laureates are remarkable scientists. But the real winners, one might argue, are black holes. A century ago, they were math on paper; now, they’re as common in the cosmos as dust bunnies under a couch. Genzel, Ghez, and Penrose helped make that happen.
The Nobel Committee for Physics has released two excellent write-ups of the winners’ work: a detailed explanation for the public and a more technical scientific background document. These both go into far more detail than given here. The links are below.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/popular-information/
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/press-release/
-- From Camille M. Carlisle's article at skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/black-hole-scientists-win-2020-nobel-prize-in-physics/
See the original, and the links, for images and diagrams.
10. Effect of Satellite 'Constellations' on the SKA
The SKA Organisation (SKAO) -- which leads the delivery of the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project -- has undertaken a preliminary analysis of the potential impact of current satellite mega-constellations on its telescopes. The analysis quantifies this impact and identifies possible mitigations. The SKA project is an intergovernmental collaboration between 15 countries involving thousands of scientists and engineers to build and operate the world's largest radio observatory, with two telescopes located in Australia and South Africa.
The study focuses on the impact of the deployment of the principal currently planned space-based systems, totalling 6,400 satellites, on the SKA-Mid telescope soon to be erected in South Africa, which will consist of an array of 197 dishes.
SKAO's low-frequency telescope in Western Australia, which uses a different antenna technology and will operate at lower frequencies, is not the subject of the analysis reported here.
Key Points and Findings (Based on Deployment of 6,400 Satellites)
* The satellites in the various constellation projects will transmit signals within the frequency range covered by the Band 5b receivers of the SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa (one of seven bands planned for the telescope).
* Without specific mitigation actions by the constellation operators, there is likely to be an impact on all astronomical observations in Band 5b.
* This impact includes a loss of sensitivity in the frequency range used by the constellations, leading to astronomical observations in that range taking 70% longer.
* The science impact is most significant for studies of molecular and atomic spectral lines in that range, including complex organic molecules; Class II methanol masers; and a wide range of extragalactic molecular lines.
* Viable mitigation techniques identified by SKAO can reduce this impact on SKA-Mid by a factor of 10, if implemented by relevant satellite operators.
* SKAO remains committed to minimising the loss of scientific discovery through all available avenues. SKAO will continue to work closely with industry on ways to minimise the damage caused by mega-constellation transmissions and is looking forward to a positive response on these proposed solutions.
* For significantly larger constellations, of up to 100,000 satellites, the effect on the SKA would be much worse, potentially threatening the viability of the complete Band 5b for 100% of the time, unless stringent mitigation actions are put in place.
For the full report with images see
https://www.skatelescope.org/news/skao-satellite-impact-analysis/
-- Forwarded by Karen Pollard
11. 'Minimoon' 2020 SO
On September 17 the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii discovered a new near-Earth object (NEO) in an interesting orbit, quite similar to Earth's. The object, now designated 2020 SO, is heading towards our planet. It will soon encounter it with a very low relative velocity, so low that the Earth will temporarily capture it and keep it in orbit for a few months.
Earlier this year another asteroid, 2020 CD3, was found in a capture orbit around the Earth, a state that is informally called "minimoon". Will 2020 SO be our next minimoon? Dynamically yes, because it will be captured by our planet. However, we are still not sure that this object is an asteroid. It may also be a piece of artificial hardware, such as the upper stage of a rocket from decades ago, which entered into heliocentric orbit and is now coming back towards the Earth. There are only two ways to know for sure: one is to observe its colour or spectrum and compare it with natural and artificial objects, the second is to carefully study its trajectory and attempt to detect the push of solar radiation acting on it. If we see evidence of a significant force, then we know that the object is light, and therefore likely an empty piece of hardware of man-made origin. New data is being acquired, and we should soon be able to determine the true nature of this interesting object.
-- From the October 2020 issue of the ESA S2P-NEO Coordination Centre newsletter. See the original at http://neo.ssa.esa.int/ .
12. Large Old Meteor Crater Found in Western Australia
A large 100 million-year-old meteorite crater has been found while a company was drilling for gold in outback Western Australia. The impact crater is estimated to have a diameter of about 5km. Although not visible from the surface, experts found the crater using electromagnetic surveys.
Located near the Goldfields mining town of Ora Banda, north-west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, the crater is believed to be five times bigger than the famous Wolfe Creek crater in the Kimberley.
The geologist and geophysicist, Dr Jayson Meyers, said the find was significant and unexpected. “This discovery was made in an area where the landscape is very flat. You wouldn’t know it was there because the crater has been filled in over geological time,” he said. The crater was discovered on land owned by Australia’s third-largest gold-mining company, Evolution Mining.
With a diameter of 5km, the Ora Banda crater is thought to be one of the largest meteorite craters in the world. Using modern techniques, such as gravity surveying, geologists were able to map out the crater and Meyers thinks their successful find will lead to more discoveries.
“There’s probably quite a few more out there,” he said. “We’ve probably been hit by more asteroids than we thought. If we start recognising more of these, then the landscape begins changing, and we have to ask ourselves what’s the frequency and why are they happening?”
Close inspections of drilling samples included tell-tale signs of a meteorite strike, including “shatter cones”, which are known to form in the bedrock below craters or underground nuclear explosions.
Meyers hypothesises the meteorite had to have been quite large in diameter to cause such an impact. “To cause an impact of that size, the asteroid would’ve been approximately 100-200 metres in diameter, so it was a pretty big rock that came sailing into our planet. The ground was actually pushed down from the pressure, but then the Earth rebounded, almost like a spring. It bounced back up.”
See Mostafa Rachwani's original article with maps and images at
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/sep/03/massive-meteorite-crater-found-in-western-australia-thought-to-be-100-million-years-old
13. Kingdon-Tomlinson Fund
The RASNZ is responsible for recommending to the trustees of the Kingdon
Tomlinson Fund that grants be made for astronomical projects. The grants may be to any person or persons, or organisations, requiring funding for any projects or ventures that promote the progress of astronomy in New Zealand. The deadline for this round of the Kingdon-Tomlinson Grants is 1st November 2020. Full details are set down in the RASNZ By-Laws, Section J. Information on the K-T Fund is at
http://rasnz.org.nz/rasnz/kt-fund
Send applications to the RASNZ Executive Secretary at rasnz.secretary@gmail.com.
The application form at
http://rasnz.org.nz/Downloadable/RASNZ/KT_Application2019.pdf
14. How to Join the RASNZ
RASNZ membership is open to all individuals with an interest in
astronomy in New Zealand. Information about the society and its
objects can be found at
http://rasnz.org.nz/rasnz/membership-benefits
A membership form can be either obtained from treasurer@rasnz.co.nz or
by completing the online application form found at
http://rasnz.org.nz/rasnz/membership-application
Basic membership for the 2020 year starts at $40 for an ordinary
member, which includes an electronic subscription to our journal
'Southern Stars'.
15. Quotes
"A politician is an animal that can sit on the fence and yet keep both ears on the ground." -- Attributed to H.L. Mencken.
"I discovered that answering the door naked helps deter trick or treaters. Oh, here we go again, here's two dressed as policemen…" -- Passed along on I <3 Matinee Idle Facebook page.
Alan Gilmore Phone: 03 680 6817
P.O. Box 57 alan.gilmore@canterbury.ac.nz
Lake Tekapo 7945
New Zealand
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June Celestial Calendar by Dave Mitsky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minor Planet Occultation Updates:
This email describes updates for minor planet occultations for October 2020.
If you do not wish to receive these updates please advise
the Occultation Section.
You can view updated paths and other details at:
http://www.occultations.org.nz/
Minor Planet Occultation Updates:
================================
Events of particular ease or importance below are marked: *****
Oct 2 (521) BRIXIA: Star Mag 12.3, Max dur 5.8 sec, Mag Drop 2.0
Path across South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, passing over Port Lincoln, Broken Hill, Toowoomba and Brisbane.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201002_521_66166_u.htm
Oct 3 (130) ELEKTRA: Star Mag 11.9, Max dur 10.2 sec, Mag Drop 1.0
West Australia and Northern Territory, passing over Broome during morning twilight.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201003_130_66178_u.htm
Oct 5 (983) GUNILA: Star Mag 11.4, Max dur 3.2 sec, Mag Drop 4.4
Southern West Australia, South Australia, southern New South Wales and eastern Victoria, passing over Geraldton, Port Augusta, Mildura and Albury-Wodonga.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201005_983_66194_u.htm
Oct 6 (772) TANETE: Star Mag 12.2, Max dur 8.0 sec, Mag Drop 1.9
Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, passing over Mallacoota, Canberra, Parkes and Mackay.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201006_772_66202_u.htm
Oct 6 (1054) FORSYTIA: Star Mag 11.8, Max dur 15.1 sec, Mag Drop 3.0
Across West Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, running from Shark Bay to Cape York Peninsula.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201006_1054_66206_u.htm
Oct 9 (653) BERENIKE: Star Mag 10.8, Max dur 1.5 sec, Mag Drop 4.4
South Australia, north-western Victoria and New South Wales, passing over Adelaide, Mildura, Forbes and Newcastle.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201009_653_73304_u.htm
Oct 10 (135571) 2002GG32: No update for this Centaur event over north-eastern Australia
Oct 10 (312) PIERRETTA: Star Mag 8.8, Max dur 1.5 sec, Mag Drop 5.1
Path across West Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, passing over Weipa.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201010_312_67298_u.htm
Oct 10 (446) AETERNITAS: Star Mag 12.4, Max dur 3.8 sec, Mag Drop 0.7
New South Wales and South Australia, passing over Forster, Parkes and Wallaroo.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201010_446_66240_u.htm
***** Oct 10 (891) GUNHILD: Star Mag 10.8, Max dur 2.6 sec, Mag Drop 4.8
Victoria and south-eastern New South Wales, passing over Port Cambpell, Geelong, Melbourne and Tathra.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201010_891_73306_u.htm
Oct 11 (377) CAMPANIA: Star Mag 9.8, Max dur 3.8 sec, Mag Drop 4.6
Path across New South Wales, during evening twilight, passing over Dubbo and Forster.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201011_377_66252_u.htm
Oct 11 (624) HEKTOR: Star Mag 12.3, Max dur 7.4 sec, Mag Drop 2.4
Queensland, Northern Territory and West Australia, running from Cooktown to Carnarvon.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201011_624_66254_u.htm
Oct 12 (1177) GONNESSIA: Star Mag 10.6, Max dur 4.8 sec, Mag Drop 5.0
Path grazing the southern coast of New Zealand, passing near Invercargill.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201012_1177_73308_u.htm
Oct 13 (110) LYDIA: Star Mag 11.5, Max dur 3.5 sec, Mag Drop 1.7
West Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, passing over Geraldton, Alice Springs, Mount Isa and Cardwell.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201013_110_66278_u.htm
Oct 14 (68) LETO: Star Mag 12.2, Max dur 15.8 sec, Mag Drop 0.1
Path across southern Tasmania and New Zealand, around Otago.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201014_68_66284_u.htm
Oct 14 (15820) 1994TB: Star Mag 14.2, Max dur 7.0 sec, Mag Drop 7.6
Extremely large uncertainty path centred over northern Australia.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201014_15820_66288_u.htm
***** Oct 16 (270) ANAHITA: Star Mag 11.6, Max dur 1.4 sec, Mag Drop 1.8
South Australia, north-western New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland, passing over Port Augusta and Brisbane.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201016_270_73316_u.htm
Oct 16 (44) NYSA: Star Mag 11.8, Max dur 8.5 sec, Mag Drop 0.7
Path grazing the extreme southern coast of Tasmania and running across the Far North of New Zealand.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201016_44_66302_u.htm
Oct 17 (110) LYDIA: Star Mag 12.3, Max dur 3.3 sec, Mag Drop 1.1
Path across Northern Territory and Queensland, passing over Ayr.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201017_110_66310_u.htm
Oct 17 (554) PERAGA: Star Mag 11.9, Max dur 5.6 sec, Mag Drop 2.1
West Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, running from Shark Bay to Cooktown.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201017_554_66312_u.htm
Oct 19 (129) ANTIGONE: Star Mag 10.1, Max dur 6.5 sec, Mag Drop 2.1
Wide path across southern South Australia, western Victoria and New South Wales, passing over Kingston SE, Nhill, Swan Hill, Cowra, Newcastle and Port Macquarie.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201019_129_67306_u.htm
Oct 21 (20108) 1995QZ9: No update for this Centaur event over southern Queensland and northern South Australia
Oct 22 (41) DAPHNE: Star Mag 12.2, Max dur 15.6 sec, Mag Drop 1.1
Western West Australia, passing over Exmouth, Kalgoorlie and Esperance.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201022_41_66352_u.htm
Oct 23 (1064) AETHUSA: Star Mag 8.0, Max dur 2.1 sec, Mag Drop 6.5
Somewhat uncertain path across north-eastern New South Wales, southern Queensland, northern South Australia and West Australia, running from Coffs Harbour to Geraldton.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201023_1064_67050_u.htm
***** Oct 24 (2534) HOUZEAU: Star Mag 8.9, Max dur 4.4 sec, Mag Drop 6.4
Somewhat uncertain path across northern Queensland, Northern Territory and West Australia, running from Innisfail to Geraldton.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201024_2534_67308_u.htm
Oct 25 (314) ROSALIA: Star Mag 9.8, Max dur 5.5 sec, Mag Drop 3.6
Queensland and northern South Australia, running from Mackay to Ceduna.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201025_314_66370_u.htm
Oct 26 (51) NEMAUSA: Star Mag 10.8, Max dur 20.3 sec, Mag Drop 1.0
western South Australia and south-eastern West Australia, during morning twilight.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201026_51_66384_u.htm
Oct 27 (165) LORELEY: Star Mag 12.4, Max dur 17.1 sec, Mag Drop 1.1
Path across Northern Territory and Queensland, passing over Mount Isa, Ingham and Cairns.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201027_165_66394_u.htm
Oct 27 (255) OPPAVIA: Star Mag 12.4, Max dur 4.4 sec, Mag Drop 2.1
Southern Queensland and northern South Australia, running from Bundaberg to Cape Nuyts.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201027_255_66396_u.htm
Oct 30 (634) UTE: Star Mag 11.1, Max dur 7.7 sec, Mag Drop 2.4
Across northern Queensland, during evening twilight, passing over Sarina.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201030_634_66422_u.htm
Oct 31 (906) REPSOLDA: Star Mag 11.2, Max dur 1.8 sec, Mag Drop 3.9
Southern South Australia, north-western Victoria and New South Wales, passing near Victor Harbour and Mildura and then over Dubbo, Tamworth and Grafton.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201031_906_73338_u.htm
Oct 31 (1096) REUNERTA: Star Mag 11.1, Max dur 1.2 sec, Mag Drop 4.4
Across Northern Territory and Queensland, passing over Bowen.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201031_1096_73340_u.htm
Oct 31 (1032) PAFURI: Star Mag 11.0, Max dur 4.0 sec, Mag Drop 4.1
Queensland, Northern Territory and West Australia, passing over Townsville and Cloncurry.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201031_1032_73342_u.htm
Oct 31 (792) METCALFIA: Star Mag 12.4, Max dur 15.7 sec, Mag Drop 2.2
Northern Territory, western Queensland and New South Wales, passing over Mount Isa, Dubbo, Goulburn and Ulladulla.
Details: http://occultations.org.nz/planet/2020/updates/201031_792_66434_u.htm
Note: for some events there will be an additional last minute update so check
for one, if you can, on the day of the event or in the days leading up to it.
You may need to click "Reload" or "Refresh" in your browser to see the updated page.
Please report all attempts at observation to the address below.
(PLEASE report observations on a copy of the report available from our website).
Peter Litwiniuk
---------------------------------------------
RASNZ Occultation Section
P.O.Box 3181 / Wellington, 6140 / New Zealand
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WEBSITE: http://www.occultations.org.nz/
Email: Director@occultations.org.nz
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Further links and discussion can be found at the groups/links below
Astronomy in New Zealand - Groups.io
https://groups.io/g/AstronomyNZ
Astronomy in New Zealand - Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/5889909863/
Google Group
https://groups.google.com/g/nzastrochat
Astronomy in Wellington
https://www.facebook.com/groups/11451597655/
Blogger Posts
http://laintal.blogspot.com/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/Laintal
Groups.io
Astronomy in New Zealand
https://groups.io/g/AstronomyNZ
AstronomyNZ@groups.io
Wellington Astronomers
https://groups.io/g/WellingtonAstronomers
WellingtonAstronomers@groups.io
AucklandAstronomers
https://groups.io/g/AucklandAstronomers
AucklandAstronomers@groups.io
North Island Astronomers
https://groups.io/g/NorthIslandAstronomers
NorthIslandAstronomers@groups.io
South Island Astronomers
https://groups.io/g/SouthIslandAstronomers
SouthIslandAstronomers@groups.io
NZAstrochat
https://groups.io/g/NZAstrochat
NZAstrochat@groups.io
NZ Photographers And Observers
https://groups.io/g/NZPhotographers
NZPhotographers@groups.io
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Please note:
My standard caveat that these are the views of a learned amateur, not a professional in the sector, applies as always.
The above post/email/update represents my own words, views, research and opinions, unless stated otherwise the above work
represents my own writing. I’ll give credit or thanks if I have used or represented other people’s words and/or opinions.
The links and references listed below represent the work and research of the respective author’s.
Questions and constructive criticism are always welcome, however I don’t believe anything written here by myself is any reason for impolite behaviour.
Thanks for your time and I hope you have enjoyed reading.
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