I would like to give a massive thanks to OPHIUCHUS for giving me such a warm welcome to the team as the new Editor of Astronomical Uplands, and a massive good bye to Jack Morgan as former editor (Mr meteor) but sadly as Jack is gone, I Alex Doe (little green man) will be taking over.

I am currently in the process of creating a new reporting team, and I promise they will be great.

New Reporters to Astronomical Uplands

I would like to give a huge thanks to Jack Morgan and his reporting team [Jon Perret, Adam Farmer and Nick Maxfield] for their excellent, interesting and fun articles over the last year.




The GCSE Astronomy class 2009-2011

In particular, Jack became our first student editor last year, and has done a grand job in kick-starting off the Student Voice, and it has been a pleasure to see what he has come up with next - I've personally really enjoyed reading ! Unfortunately, our original team have finished their GCSE course (Well done for the good grades! :-) ) are now into studying for their A levels, so haven't as much time to devote to the Astronomy blog. However, we are hopeful this isn't the end of Jack's involvement in the blog, and that there might be further contributions in the future...

So, thank you, once again, to the four of you for breaking new grounds and creating our first Astronomy reporting team!

Luckily, we have a new, enthusiastic Editor to take Jack's place. Year 9 Astronomy GCSE student, Alex Doe, has volunteered to become our new editor, and will be getting a team together over the next couple of weeks. As before, if you have a contribution to make to the blog, please give it to Alex, or myself (in the prep room opposite L8) and we will reward you with an astronomy badge. Welcome to the team, Alex!

MORE FACT FILE! (100 POST ON BLOG)

firstly...THIS IS THE 100 POST ON THE BLOG :D thank you to all that have contributed to its growing success. But putting that aside, it is time for 5 more fun and funky facts from our fact file, here they are:

1) Any space vehicle must move at a rate of 7 miles per second in order to escape the earth's gravitational pull.

2) It takes eight and a half minutes for light to get from the sun to earth.

3) The population of the Earth has more than doubled since 1950.

4) There are approximately 3,500 astronomers in the U.S. - but over 15,000 astrologers.

5) Astronauts cannot burp in space.

Fantastically Fun Fact About SPACE!

A new feature is starting on the blog... FACT FILE! Ever couple of weeks you will find 5 more mind boggling facts on here, so dont forget to keep your eyes open, enjoy...

Week 1

1. The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.

2. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

3. Astronauts get taller when they are in space.

4. There are three golf balls sitting on the moon.

5. Only 55% of Americans know that the sun is a star.

Fun Science: The Moon

Discovery docks at international space station

Discovery, the US space shuttle, has docked at the international space station for the last time. This is the 13th time it has flown to the space station, where it is to deliver a new store room and a humanoid robot. Now only two more flight are scheduled, which are Atlantis and Endeavor, they will happen in the next few months. Discovery started its 11 day mission on thursday, and was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre.The entire orbiter fleet is set to be retired to museums. Didn't they do a good job? :)

Cool M51 optical illusion!

I was just surfing the internet and came across this, its a optical illusion some person has put together. It also contains some pretty useful information. ENJOY! : optical illusion oh and it has to be set to full screen for the illusion to work :)

New star signs?

Recently there has been a lot of controversy over peoples horoscopes and star signs. All the fuss was created by Astronomy instructor Parke Kunkle when he pointed out in a Minnesota newspaper that a wobble in the Earth's rotation meant that the stars were in a different position. I must say my favorite quote from it is "For astronomers, astrology is mere pseudo-science".... love it! If you are interested if your star sign has changed check out the full info=

STAR SIGNS

Satellite Rocket EXPLODES!

It is a disaster when a space shuttle/rocket crashes or dose not even make it into space. Millions of pounds are wasted. And many people have died in such crashes. The most recent was on Saturday, it was a Indian space rocket, the Geostationary Satellite launch vehicle(GSLV), carrying the GSAT-5P communications satellite. It exploded in the first stages of its flight. Luckily nobody was inside the rocket at the time. It is unknown what caused the explosion but investigations are underway.

A video of the rocket exploding

These are more photos from the Herstmonceux trip (see earlier news). The photos show the amazing rising floor in Dome E, home of the 26-inch Thompson Refractor. Look at the door in the photos, you clearly see it is rising, you may also notice J.D.R posing for us next to the door, lovely!

Once the floor had risen fully we got a talk from one of the experts that worked there. She explained that the telescope was not touching the dome at all. It was free-standing, on top of a huge concrete pillar. This is so the telescope does not get nudged while taking a picture. She told us many interesting facts while we were there, but sadly it was over too fast and we were on out way down again. I think we can all say this was a out of this world experience. These awesome photos were taken by one of the astronomy reporters, thanks Asteroid Adam (Adam Farmer).





In other news
We all take astronomy seriously, we are dedicated, work hard and always.... eat sour sweets!! Well just the once. I think we all know who pulled the funniest face though. I shall be kind and name no names, SIR.

By Mr Meteor (Jack Morgan)

Newsletter 1

It has been a busy term, and I've had to rely on the new reporting team to supply articles, and how well have they done!

But, I get ahead of myself. There is so much to bring to your attention, it would take forever to cover each item under different posts, so this is going to be our first newsletter!

The topics I will cover will be:

1. The new reporting team and their intentions
2. Meteorites (see also previous post)
3. Ideas for a human sundial (which we need your help with!)
4. Using Faulkes Telescope to study an area of sky you are interested in (how to go about it)
5. Competitions

Perhaps there's more, but that's enough for this newsletter :-D


1. The Reporting Team

First, and most importantly, I must (belatedly) introduce you to the new reporting team. A group of students came together at the end of last term to write articles, carry out surveys and do anything else they chose to do. They have their own spot on the blog, publishing their, and other students', works under the name of Mr Meteor. If you look to the top of the column on the right hand side of the page, there is an Astronomical Uplands logo...if you click on that, or the words

STUDENT VOICE News and Articles brought to you by the student reporting team

then you can fast-track to the Student Voice column, written by students for students!

At the moment, the following are members of the reporting team (photos to follow):

Jack Morgan (Editor)
Jon perret
Nick Maxfield
Adam Farmer

It's early days yet for the group, and they are still working out the direction they want to take this. However, if you have any ideas, or would like to be part of the team, you can talk to Jack, Mr Pert or myself...

Good luck in your new venture, guys!


2. Meteorites

Next on the information list is about our newly formed, small collection of meteorites. For any of you who love the idea of being able to look at/ hold pieces of rock that have spent millions (maybe many millions) of years flying through space; or whether you like the idea of bits of comet that have broken off and fallen into our atmosphere, or whether you think it's amazing that pieces of the moon or Mars have found their way down to Earth...you will love our new rocks!

So far, we have three very small fragments (small, but they've still survived a journey through space, and even more amazing, burning up in our atmosphere!) and a larger meteorite donated by a very kind fossil and meteorite collector, British Jurassic Fossils. You can read all about the meteorites here. These will be used in class, but if you're desperate to see them sooner, please come and see me in the prep room opposite L8...

3. Ideas for a human sundial

Now, here's an idea we have been playing around with for the last year. Mr Pert and I originally thought it would be a great idea to have a sundial on the side of the science block. It was a great idea, and it could look really great. However, on further thought, we prefer the idea of creating our own, unique, Uplands human sundial.

'What's one of those?' I hear you ask.

It is exactly what it sounds like! A sundial, where the gnomon (the sticky-up bit) is actually a person - you, or your friend - and the sun's shadow is cast by you onto (well placed) stones, which each mark a different time....simple! There's plenty of examples if you do a google image search, but here are a few...









So, these are a few sundials done by others...you get the idea!

How would ours look?
Should it be painted? Individually designed stones?
Should it be somewhere on the grassy area? Or somewhere that can be used all year round?
Should it be used to commemorate somebody/ an event?
Should we have many designers (students)/ one professional artist?

These are a few of the questions we have asked ourselves, and now we would like to put the questions to you (please feel free to write suggestions and ideas in the comment section below... or, you can write your ideas on a piece of paper and drop it in the suggestion box outside L8 (keep it clean!))

4. Using Faulkes Telescope

For those of you who have already had a chance to use the telescope, you have an idea what it can do, and how amazing it is (just see the pictures in earlier posts!). There are others of you who will use the Faulkes Telescope for the first time this year (Year 7, it will be in your science lessons!) There are others who it might come more slowly to.

If there's anyone who would particularly like to carry out investigations of their own, or who would love to take a picture of, perhaps, a nebula, asteroid, comet, then I am considering trying to book up sessions at either lunchtime or after school (the sessions last half hour). I'll only book them if there's enough interest. Send an email to the address near the top of the sidebar, or in the 'clubs and activities' section of the Uplands students' links, or tell me (prep room, opposite Lab 8)

5. Competitions


We have a couple of competitions we are thinking of entering:

• The UK Regional Space Design Competition There has already been some interest in this. The idea is to design a space station...it requires teamwork and a lot of co-operation, but looks to be great fun. If anyone else would like to take part, I'm in the process of finding out about registration at present. Up to 12 students can go to the Johnson Space Center in Texas, USA, if they are in the winning team! (This is entirely possible. The 2010 winners were a UK team :-) )
  
• Lego robot building competition (registration won't start before April 2011, and would be for starting robot building September 2011) This will be available for 'up to ten children, ages 9 to 16'. Challenges will be Nov/Dec 2011, and the final would be Jan 2012...I know it seems ages away, but if we're not ready, chances are we won't get ourselves together in time.

If anyone's interested in these two competitions, please let myself or Mr Pert know (Mr Pert is in Lab 8, and I am in the prep room opposite!) You can also write you interest in the comment section below!

Introducing The Astronomical Uplands Reporting Team

Four students have kindly accepted the post of reporter for Astronomical Uplands this year: Jack Morgan, Nick Maxfield, Jon Perret and Adam Farmer. Jack has now officially taken the post of editor, so any contributions you would like to make to the blog can be made to him, as well as to myself. Also, if you have a yen to become a reporter, feel free to approach Jack or myself and express your interest!

You can find student posts in the sidebar under Student Voice (There are badges for any contributions accepted.)

Welcome to the Team!

Dwarf galaxy eaten by neighbour!

Astronomers have noticed stellar streams around the galaxy M 63. They say this is a clear sign that the galaxy has digest a dwarf neighbour at some stage. Although this observation has also been made for distant galaxies. The findings are being written up in a astronomical journal.
They claim that it could shed light on the evolution of galaxies.As dwarf galaxies are digested by spiral galaxies, they form structures called stellar streams which are long strips of stars produced by the stretching action of tidal forces. Events like these have been observed in our immediate neighbors (the "local group" of galaxies) for over a decade.David Martínez-Delgado from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany carried out a survey of spiral galaxies at distances of up to 50 million light-years from Earth.He discovered the signs of spiral galaxies eating dwarfs (claiming that this was the first time this has been observed in galaxies beyond the "Local Group")Surprisingly, the research was done with the telescopes of amateur astronomers.For his observations, he used telescopes with apertures between 10cm and 50cm, equipped with CCD cameras. He now plan to use the data to test computer predictions of the frequency of features such as stellar streams.

Black hole blows big gas bubble

This is, hopefully, one of many astronomy articles. Each one will cover a recent event and ask a question (answer the question correctly and get a prize). Please enjoy…

A big gas bubble was produced by a small black hole. The fiery gas bubble was 1,000 light years across. The gas expanded due to powerful particle ‘jets’ released by the black hole. The observation was made in Chile by a very big telescope and by NASA’s Chandra space observatory. When a black hole swallows matter they are known to let of high amounts of energy, thus heating the gas ball.

Astronomers say that these particle jets where the biggest they had ever seen. Roberto Soria from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London said that “If the black hole were shrunk to the size of a soccer ball, each jet would extend from the Earth to beyond the orbit of Pluto”. They are surprised because the size of the black hole was small compared to others yet it produced these huge jets and a hot gas ball.

If any readers want to locate it, it is in the spiral galaxy NGC 7793. And finally, for the question. Are there any pictures of black holes? Thanks for reading. Check again for more articles and news!

What am I?

I am a lone wolf, or should you say traveller
Drifting from place to place
Every now and then I get a kick and a prod
Some call me a waste of space

I have many brothers and sisters
A key to a forgotten land
But just to let you know
I am bigger than a grain of sand

And as time goes by
I wonder, what am I?

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by Jack Morgan (Yr9) Badge Winner
(Editor)

Riddle by Jack Morgan, Yr9

What am I???

You can see my smiling face
But never see my dark side
I’m like a nocturnal animal
And at day I do hide
I can only be with you for 28 days
And then get replaced by something new
Scars on my face, big things have hit me
Now this is the question I ask to you…

What am I???

by Jack Morgan (Yr9) Badge Winner

Poem by Jack Morgan, Yr9

Big, old, big, old asteroid belt
How I wonder how it felt
Round and round our fiery sun
Wouldn't that be a lot of fun

Magnetic field, it's a powerful force
It made solar wind go off course
That's how Mars got fried
If we were there, we'd have died

When the Earth got hit it went-a-flying
But not the substence called iron
That is how the moon was made
Ever since then, it has stayed

That's the day the Earth was born!

Jack Morgan (Yr9) Badge Winner