Committee Meeting Change (26th Feb)

There is a change to the date and location of this month’s committee meeting. It will now be held on Thursday 26th February (this Thursday) at the observatory. As always it is open for any Society member to attend.

(Note: Due to the venue, it will be held alongside any observing if the weather is clear.)

Galaxy Zoo 2

Back in 2007, a project called “Galaxy Zoo” was created. The idea was fairly simple – volunteers would be shown a picture of a random galaxy from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and would have to classify the galaxy (either spiral or elliptical).

The SDSS is a vast observational survey – over a million galaxies were included in the catalog and, by using volunteers, it was hoped that the collection of galaxy images could be evaluated in about two years. But Galaxy Zoo proved to be so popular that those galaxies were looked at almost fifty times over in just one year. Computers can’t do the work well (finding it difficult to properly classify galaxies) and there are too many galaxies for just a few astronomers, but the community of volunteers made short work of the task!

In fact, the popularity of Galaxy Zoo has given rise to a sequel – Galaxy Zoo 2. This time, instead of just deciding if a galaxy is a spiral or an elliptical, there are multiple questions for each galaxy. This allows the galaxy to be described and analysed more completely, which leads to even more science to be done.

If you want to volunteer to help, you’ll have the opportunity to study lots of pretty pictures of galaxies all day long, while actually helping professional astronomers do some real scientific research. If it sounds like fun, go to the Galaxy Zoo homepage, read about its history and how you can help, and then go for it. Even if you only have a few minutes once in a while, even small contribution helps. And there is always the chance you might even discover something new and unexpected! It happened in the first Galaxy Zoo, so there’s every reason to think it can happen again.

Dr Chris Lintott, one of the researchers involved with the project, will be coming to NEAS next year to give a lecture on the subject.

Comet Lulin – brightening to naked eye visibility

UPDATE FROM SPACEWEATHER.COM (check out spaceweather.com for finder charts and the latest images):

Comet Lulin is approaching Earth and is rapidly brightening.  Observers say it is now visible to the naked eye as a faint (magnitude +5.6) gassy patch in the constellation Virgo before dawn. Even city dwellers have seen it.  Backyard telescopes reveal a vivid green comet in obvious motion. Just yesterday, amateur astronomers watched as a solar wind gust tore away part of the comet’s tail, the second time this month such a thing has happened. Lulin’s closest approach to Earth (38 million miles) is on Feb. 24th; at that time the comet could be two or three times brighter than it is now.

Observatory Status

UPDATE 18/02/2009

The observatory is now accessible. The Thursday session will take place BUT please be aware that the field conditions are still not too pleasant. Bring wellies (or put plastic bags over your shoes) and park your car on the tarmac, not the lawn.

The observatory is currently off limits. Due to the current severe weather conditions, the field around the observatory building is now flooded and not accessible.

This means tonight’s group observatory session will not take place.

Check back here every so often and we’ll let you know when the site is open again.

Comet Lulin

Discovered by Chinese/Taiwanese astronomers, Comet Lulin is an strange one. It moves around the Sun in the opposite direction from the planets in a parabolic orbit that suggests this is its first and last visit to the inner Solar System. It’s not expected to be an amazing naked-eye comet, but it should become visible without a telescope in dark sky in mid February.

It already has a feint tail and anti-tail:

Image: Dr J. Brimacombe

Note that comets are unpredictable (recall last year’s Comet Holmes for a good example). It could flare up and become more spectacular than predicted. At the moment Lulin is moving through the constellation Libra – rising around midnight. It will then move westward toward Virgo and Leo, brightening as it does.

The comet is moving quickly across the sky, at about 5 degrees per day by months end. If you can see it through a telescope, you may be able to see the motion of the comet through the field of view over a period of 10 minutes or so.

Comet Lulin's path through the sky (Image: Sky & Telescope)