Message from CFHT Librarian, Liz Bryson
Aloha!!
CFHT Christmas Star Gazing Party December 6, 2003
7-10 pm
CFHT HQ Front Lawn
The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope ends the year 2003 with a Christmas Star Gazing Party following the Christmas Parade. This exciting event will take place on the front lawn of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope HQ, 65-1238 Mamalahoa Highway.
CFHT staff will be happy to answer your questions about their work and astronomy. Small telescopes will be set on the front lawn in order to observe stars, planets and other deep-sky objects. In case of rain, we will show videos and offer coffee, cocoa and cookies in the large conference room. Enjoy!!!
We are grateful for your feedback and support of our venture. email.
Contents:
- CFHT Christmas Star Gazing Party
- AstronomyDaily.Com
- Sky and Telescope's Customized Sky Charts
- Heavens Above
- Earth and Sky in Audio
- CFHT Oral History: Part 1
- History of Astronomy
- Astronomical Events
AstronomyDaily.Com
Astronomy Daily.Com offers real time astronomical data tailored to the viewer's location and time zone. The personalized front page presents a chart of tonight's sky. Diagrams allow users to view the planets in their orbits. Educators and students can find images of today's moon and its phase on the calendar, plus data dealing with its current position and its physical and orbital characteristics. Phil Harrington, a supervisor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, provides two monthly articles; the first assesses a phenomenon in the sky that can be observed with binoculars and the second discusses a phenomenon in the Deep Sky. Viewers can also participate in many discussion forums with other interested astronomers. Although users are required to register in order to view the customized site, no personal identification is requested.
Sky and Telescope's Customized Sky Charts
Sky and Telescope offers an online sky chart that simulates a naked-eye view of the sky - from any point on Earth, at any time of the day or night, and between the years 1600 and 2400. If you're a star-gazing enthusiast, you'll find this sky simulator a useful tool for planning your next stellar expedition. Included with this sky chart is an option to print your own map of the stars for further reference while out in the field. This interactive sky chart is just one of the many tools available at this online portal of the cosmos. Check out some other great reference materials here such as, Observing Highlights, the Almanac, and the Image Gallery.Sky and Telescope's Customized Sky Charts
Heavens Above
If you are looking for a good night to view Satellites or wanting to make up a sky chart for a night you plan to go out to observe, then check out the Heavens Above site. It contains the orbital parameters for many satellites which may be viewed just after the sunset, or before the sunrise.
Earth and Sky in Audio
Earth and Sky is a daily science radio show. You can also listen to the show on the Net, as well as read transcripts of past shows and cool articles about fascinating science topics. Articles range from an in depth look at the Piltdown Man hoax to a look at Monarch Butterflies. And that's just the 'Earth' section. As for the sky, check out 'Tonight's Sky' for something interesting to see up there each night, or read one of the fine articles dealing with many aspects of astronomy. If this inspires you to go out in the back yard to look at the stars tonight, make sure you consult the 'Starcast' for viewing conditions around the US.From Luisa Rebull at JPL.
CFHT Oral History: Part 1
2004 will mark the 25th Anniversary of CFHT's existence as a major world-class observatory. In celebration of this event, HOKU will publish a series of articles that will recreate the accomplishments of its people and highlight the major technological developments during its first 10 years of operation. Join us in capturing the essence of our remarkable scientific institution. Click on the link below to see close ups of the prime focus cage, and a movie taken inside the dome.
History Of Astronomy
There are many sites with bits of Astronomical History so we have found some which we hope will give information about past great discoveries, telescope developement, and the lives of the great men and women of astronomy.The first general History of Astronomy pages on the Web. These pages are maintained by the Working Group for the History of Astronomy.
Astronomische Gesellschaft - just click the History link at the top of the page
Canadian Astronomical Society Education Web Site
History of Astronomy in Canada
Historically Interesting Female Astronomers
Upcoming Astronomical Events
- Solstice - The winter solstice will occur on the evening of Dec 17th at 9:04 pm. The sunset and sunrise the next morning will be the southern most then it will begin its move to the N again. A good exercise for your students is to go out and find a good place from which to watch the sun rise or set for about 3 months. They can mark the place they stand with chalk (outline of feet) and do a drawing of the horizon from this vantage point. Then they should go out once a week over 3 months time to mark the point of the setting or rising sun. Then make up some questions to have them study why the sun seems to move.
- Meteor Showers - Don't forget to watch the Geminid meteor shower on the morning of December 14th from midnight to sunrise it should be a good show with predictions of 95 meteors per hour. A surprise this year, the Quadrantid shower should be spectacular also though the bright moon will detract from the viewing but the morning of Jan 4th from midnight to sunrise will be the best time to view this shower. It is named for an obsolete constellation called Quadrans Muralis, but now the radiant point is in the constellation Bootes. The meteor shower is usually named after the constellation from which the meteors seem to radiate. Don't think that the dates above are the only times to see these meteor showers, most showers last for 3-4 days either side of the peak date so 1-2 mornings before and after the shower are also good times to go out and view them. It is best to bring along a sky chart to identify the constellations in this case Gemini and Bootes. Then look in their direction. See the August 2001 issue of Hoku in the archive to learn more about watching meteor showers.
- Eclipses - There will be no eclipses visible from Hawaii this quarter.
- Planets - The planets Venus, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus will all be nicely aligned in the evening sky in the constallations Sagitarius and Capricorn after sunset from Christmas and for a few days after. Capricorn is a faint constellation but easily visible from dark sites on the big island. Venus will be within a degree from Uranus just after sunset on Wed Jan 14th. There will be a double satellite transit on Jupiter on the evening of Feb 6th just after 8pm. 32 hours later, the moon will be 3 degrees south of Jupiter. A number of double shadow transits will occur on Jupiter in March as well.
If you would like a challenge, Mercury will be 21 degrees away from the sun at its greatest eastern elongation on Dec 8th in the evening just after sunset in the constellation Sagitarius. If you have binoculars or a small telescope, try to see if you can find it. Use the star chart sites above to make up a chart with Mercury.
All times listed above are HST. The link below contains many calendars and includes a nice section on astronomical events. Check it out!!
We gratefully acknowledge the following online sources: Yahoo's Search Engine, The Scout Report, Blue Web'N, and the Librarian's Index to the Internet.This page is compiled by Liz Bryson, CFHT Librarian
This page was designed by Lisa Wells, CFHT Observing Assistant
We appreciate your comments and questions.