You may remember my entry last week about Mars and how good it would look in a telescope as it approached its opposition with Earth on January 29. Well, opposition has come and gone, but things are about to get a little more interesting. Tonight and tomorrow night (Feb 1) offer a special treat for those astronomers that are willing to carry their equipment back out into the frigid winter temperatures. Mars and The Beehive Cluster (M44) will be within 4 degrees of each other as they rise together in eastern sky after 1830 EST. The Beehive is a magnitude 4.00 open cluster of stars in the Constellation Cancer and should be relatively easy to see with a small to moderate sized telescope.

NASA’s Constellation Program is in trouble and it really is no surprise to anyone who knows how NASA or the United States Government operates. When Constellation was announced as a main component of President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration in 2004, it was to be the “Apollo Program on Steroids” that would return us to the Moon and eventually land humans on Mars. Space advocates cheered for the idea of a new rocket, but honeymoon was pretty much non-existent as the cheers gave way to petty bickering between space travel advocacy groups and scientists over the design, cost, and proposed destination of the new system. In fact, nightShifted Astronomy shares some of the guilt in the petty bickering as we were a contributing member to The Planetary Society until they published a report suggesting that Constellation skip the Moon and go directly to Mars. I do not regret pulling my membership because I feel that they do not truly represent the desires of the people when it comes to space exploration initiatives, but it did happen and we do have to live with being part of the mess.

Now, Constellation is under intense review by the Obama White House and every day it seems that the program is growing closer and closer to joining the oblivion inhabited by so many other NASA projects (see The Countless Many Who Cried Spacewolf and The Sharks are Circling). The Augustine Commission, which was appointed to review the Constellation Program and specifically, its Ares I and V rocket designs, gave very little support to NASA and its program. This does not bode well for an agency competing more and more with commercial rocket companies. There is a huge amount of contempt for the new designs and it has unfortunately put NASA’s future in limbo. Everyone that depends on the United States Space Program for their livelihoods is on high alert as they wait for an announcement from President Obama about the future of the agency. Keith Cowing, the ultimate NASA watchdog has more information at NASAWatch.

I believe that it would be reasonable to cancel the Ares I rocket because I feel that there is enough evidence available to show that it is a gross waste of hardware and is an unnecessary redesign of technology that is already available in mass quantities today. I have spoken before about getting human ratings for Delta rockets and other ICBM-type missiles and I still believe that it would be our best bet. I really like the DIRECT Launcher proposal which takes hardware from the Space Shuttle Program and combines it with the Orion capsule. DIRECT makes perfect sense if the Government decides to cancel the Ares I rocket. However, I think that a full-on cancellation of the Constellation Program would be a blow to our nation’s space program of unfathomable consequences. The U.S. Government and NASA have let us down too many times in the realm of space exploration and there are already very few people listening to what they have to say. Another failure, especially one of this magnitude, would be nothing more than the death rattle of a glorious agency strangled by partisan politics and overburdened by meaningless bureaucracy.

Image Credits: NASA/DIRECT

If you are lucky enough to have clear skies then you should step outside tonight and see Mars (magnitude -1.23) in its most brilliant display of the year as it moves quickly toward its opposition, the point when our planet, Mars, and the Sun are lined up, on January 29. Mars rises in the Eastern sky at 1828hrs EST and is best visible around midnight. Click here for a Starry Night screenshot showing Mars as it will appear at 1930hrs EST. While a small telescope will definitely show the round shape of Mars, a medium to large sized scope (recommended w/color filters) is necessary to bring out any of the red planet’s details. Assuming that the weather clears up at some point during the day I plan to set up my C9.25 and try to see Mars, but I am confident that the rain, snow, fog, and cloudy skies that have plagued Southwest Ohio for the last month will continue well into the rest of my life. If you live in the Southwest Ohio area and are up for a trip to Cincinnati, then check out the Cincinnati Observatory! They started an event on Thursday called Marsapalooza 2010 which gives the general public a chance to see the red planet as it approaches its closest distance to Earth on January 27. Marsapalooza 2010 lasts from January 21-24 and reservations are required. Call the Observatory at (513) 321-5186 or email Craig Neimi to RSVP.

Just as with any other close Mars approach, the famous “Mars Hoax E-mail” is once again making the rounds. I received one this morning in my university e-mail account and the person sending it had been worked into a frenzy. After explaining the origin and truth behind this message to so many people, I just felt shame. A lot of other space/astronomy websites and blogs have already debunked this annoying e-mail so I will simply point you in their direction. Suffice to say that at no point will Mars appear as large and detailed as the Moon. Our Moon is roughly 250,000 miles away and has an apparent magnitude of -12.6 while Mars is about 34,000,000 miles away with an apparent magnitude of -1.23. It would take a significant celestial event to move Mars anywhere near our world. SPACE.com’s article about the Mars approach has an excerpt at the bottom which explains the Mars Hoax E-mail. NASA has a page on the e-mail. Last but not least, there is a Wikipedia entry on the e-mail.

Image Credit: NASA

Imagine that you live on a distant planet in the Alpha Centauri star system and you have decided to spend the evening watching the suns set. Yes, I said suns. It is late in the evening and the twin suns that dominate your sky are slowly making their way toward the horizon. Your face catches a gentle rush of wind as Centauri A and Centauri B begin to disappear behind the curve of your home world. The enchanting spectacle is short lived, but extremely common among worlds orbiting G-class stars. The two suns disappear beneath the horizon and ultimately give way to a sea of glistening stars. One of those stars…is our home…

That star, our Sun, is an unbound G-class star—a lonely outcast. Fortunately it did not take years of psychotherapy and a library of self-help books for astronomers to realize it. Observations of distant star systems such as Alpha Centauri have helped us understand that most G-class stars are binary—meaning that they are part of an orbiting pair—each star orbits the other just as the planets in our solar system orbit the Sun. Centauri A and Centauri B are gravitationally linked to each other just as are a majority of the G-class stars in our galaxy. Why are we so special? Where is our companion star? Unfortunately, we do not have one. Our Sun is alone and this is a very valuable thing for us to understand.

Astronomers used to believe that a majority of stars were gravitationally linked. That line of thinking has changed in the last few years as we have learned that over half of the stars in our own galaxy are not gravitationally bound to other stars. That is because a majority of those are stars M-class which tend to be less massive than our own. The stars with higher masses such as our Sun often form in darker clouds of matter where it is theorized that their cores are more susceptible to fragmentation. A prime example of a star formation region where this may take place is the Eagle Nebula. Imagine a new, high-mass star has formed inside the nebula but its core is unstable and fragments during formation. The two fragments then gather enough matter between the two of them to form separate, but gravitationally bound stars.

Another theory is that all stars are born as binary systems and are torn apart after their formation. This could be from passing too close to a black hole or being caught in the gravitational pull of other stars. Whatever the answer is, the fact remains that our star is unique among its G-class brothers and the fact that it is a single system adds another item to the list of reasons that our place in the universe is precious.

Some interesting facts…

- 70% of stars are single star systems/30% are multiple star systems
- G-class stars (i.e. our Sun) only make up 7% of our galactic star catalogue

There are many fascinating regions of space that are forming new stars. These can be seen with a small to moderate sized telescope. Two of the most visible are The Great Nebula in Orion (Messier 42) and The Eagle Nebula (Messier 16).

The stress of my real job and my proclivity for forgetting basic information and tasks requires that I carry a device that will remind me of the mundane meetings and endless tasks that have to be completed throughout the day. Since I have always had an aversion to carrying my cell phone with me except for emergency purposes, I have always used a personal data assistant to keep track of my work and my life. Until a couple of months ago, I used an HP iPaq 110 handheld running Windows Mobile 6. However, I recently joined the twenty first century and transitioned to a third generation Apple iPod Touch with which I immediately fell in love. While the app store has a wide variety of applications that can turn an iPhone or iPod into a powerful astronomical tool, I have found a nice selection of free apps that can get an amateur astronomer working in the field in a matter of minutes. In no particular order, here are the four recommended free astronomy applications from Apple’s Store.

• DISTANT SUNS (LITE) [Full Version $6.99] – The Distant Suns iPhone app is a descendent of the 80s desktop application that is still a favorite of many amateur and professional astronomers. This free app has a database of thousands of stars, 88 constellations, all 9 planets (that’s right…Pluto included), and a realistic portrayal of the Milky Way glow. Each star in the Distant Suns database includes the appropriate right ascension, declination, and magnitude information to find it in the night sky. Quick options on the bottom toolbar allow you to instantly select a planet, constellation, or other target and easily navigate yourself across the sky. I recommend it for someone looking for an app to create a realistic representation of the sky.

 

• ASTROCALC – This app rocks. It is a wonderful little tool that allows you to input each piece of astronomy gear that you own and use it to calculate focal length with different eyepiece or optical tube assembly (OTA) configurations. For example, this screenshot shows viewing data for my Orion AstroView 100mm refractor with an Orion 25mm eyepiece installed.

 

• PLANETS 1.6 – Planets is a cool little app that has options for a two and three dimensional view of the night sky as well as 3D rotational views of each planet in the solar system. It is very comparable to Distant Suns, but is more like a star chart than a realistic representation of the sky. In addition to the two views of the sky, the app includes general information and viewing opportunities for each planet as well as the Sun and the Moon. It makes a great companion application to Distant Suns and the AstroCalc.

 

• MOON GLOBE – Regular readers know that I pretty much worship the Moon. I think that it is an overlooked and underappreciated night (and day) sky target. Even the smallest and worst-quality telescopes can bring out incredible mountain chains, craters, valleys, canals, and other wonders of our nearest celestial neighbor. Moon Globe gives you an unparalleled access to our Moon by allowing you to rotate, flip, or zoom in and around it. Highly recommended for anyone interested in watching the brightest object in our night sky.

nightShifted Astronomy received no compensation for endorsement of these applications. You can download each of these applications from the Apple App Store.