Saturday 9 August 2008

Watch them with "both eyes"

Originally called the Columbus Project, the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope) is now operational and it is back to moutain-top telescoping. The LBT is located on top of Mount Graham in South-East Arizona.

Image Courtesy: Aaron Ceranski & John Hill @ LBTO

The binocular ability give better image quality in watching the fourth dimension (which is actually what we are looking at ... events back in time). I initially thought that binocular vision would also provide a sense of depth (third dimension) but John informs me that at such distances there is no practical sense of depth.

It is currently the world's best resolution optical/infra-red telescope, with better resolution than the Hubble in the infra-red domain. It has two very large primary mirrors with 8.408m aperture diameter, which can provide resolution equivalent to a 22.8m (i.e. ~75 foot) aperture telescope.

See also the July Episode of Sky at Night for details.




Courtesy Stevebd1 @ Youtube

Thursday 7 August 2008

Practice for a date with Higgs Boson?

The LHC goes to work the day after, i.e. 9th August and early September (10th September) should see some interesting results. We can see the webcast on 10th of September.

Saturday 2 August 2008

On the verge of finding life elsewhere (or the evidence of past life anyway)

...or did they find oil on Mars ? :-) (thanks, Kevin)

It seems that Phoenix has finally found evidence of water on Mars and with this the speculation for possibility of (or potential for) life has become stronger than ever (NASA). The mission has been extended and there is a surprise announcement expected with ...what... some surprises!

And of course, Titan still remains a candidate with its ethane lakes and electrical storms. Although a satellite of Saturn, it is bigger than Mercury in size (see the report in today's Nature).

Friday 1 August 2008

Solar Eclipse

Today was the solar eclipse day ... see pictures on the NASA website.

The eclipse was not total in the UK; 36% of the sun was blocked by the moon whilst watching from the Shetlands. In Newcastle, it began at 9:26 AM, with the maximum eclipse at 10:18 AM. The eclipse reached totality in northern Canada, Greenland, Russia and northern bits of China.

The next eclipse coming our way is the partial (reaching 80%) lunar eclipse on the evening of 16th August 2008.

Eclipses occur in cycles called as the Saros series. Read about it in the new Newsletter of the Newcastle Upon Tyne Astronomical Society.