St Richard's Gifted & Talented Yr8s

Yesterday, Mr Pert and seven Yr8 students from Uplands [Charlie Oliver, Oscar Silburn, Amy Walter, Reece Lyons, Amie Smith, Cambell Chase & Joe Smiles] attended a Gifted & Talented conference at St Richard's Catholic College in Bexhill. We were one of eight schools invited.

The highlight for the 60-odd G&T students (and Mr Pert) was the star of the morning, Johny Ball, who gave a very entertaining talk on mathematics in many forms, including topics as varied as the Egyptian Pyramids and binary numbers! As those who remember him, from television shows back in the 1970s to 1990s, might guess, Mr Ball applied his usual sense of humour and enthusiasm to his favourite topic!

Some schools (including Chailey, Grove (Hastings), Bexhill high and Uplands) remained after lunch to participate in the afternoon's Science Masterclasses. The students had the choice of three workshop groups: solar telescope; spectroscopy (flame tests based on Einstein's e=hf) and a Faulkes Telescope session run by Mr Pert.

Faulkes Telescope group:
Before the time they were booked to take control of the Faulkes Telescope in Hawaii at 2.30pm (BST), the students in Mr Pert's workshop had plenty of opportunity to talk about the telescope and to use the Stellarium program to explore the Hawaiian night sky in advance. They chose several interesting objects they would like to view and take images of. Normally, Mr Pert will check the images are within the telescope's range, and not too close to the horizon or other bright objects, such as the Moon, Jupiter or Saturn, but this time he took the plunge and let the students enter the RA and Dec of each object they'd found.

The first two came out nicely:

Cocoon Nebula Sky Object Name: cocoon
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 12, 2010 13:36:23 UTC
RA: 21h53'24"
DEC: 47°16'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: EM01


Triangulum Galaxy (M33) Sky Object Name: triangulum galaxy
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 12, 2010 13:44:08 UTC
RA: 1h33'54"
DEC: 30°39'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: EM01

Unfortunately, as luck would have it (and weather is one of those unpredictable things in life we often put down to luck!) it clouded over half way through the session, producing these two disappointing images:

M72 and M59
. . . .

Once control of the telescope came to an end, the group were able to look at the images, discuss the session and answer questions.

Thanks to St Richard's, Johny Ball and those who ran the workshops, the day was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Faulkes telescope 20th November 2009

These pictures were taken by class 7S1:



Sky Object Name: m76
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 20, 2009 10:28:27 UTC
RA: 1h42'18"
DEC: 51°34'07"
Filter: Green
Exposure time: 50 secs.
Instrument: EM01

M76 is among the fainter Messier objects. It is known under the names Little Dumbbell Nebula (the most common), Cork Nebula, Butterfly Nebula, and Barbell Nebula, and it was given two NGC numbers as it was suspected to be a double nebula with two components in contact.
Pioneer astrophotographer Isaac Roberts found that this was not a double, but a single nebula, and first suspected it might be a broad ring seen edgewise. In 1918, Heber D. Curtis correctly classified it as a planetary nebula for the first time.

Sky Object Name: m1
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 20, 2009 10:22:51 UTC
RA: 5h34'31"
DEC: 22°02'02"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 90 secs.
Instrument: EM01

The Crab Nebula, Messier 1 (M1, NGC 1952), is the most famous and conspicuous known supernova remnant, the expanding cloud of gas created in the explosion of a star as supernova which was observed in the year 1054 AD. It shines as a nebula of magnitude 8.4 near the southern "horn" of Taurus, the Bull.

Sky Object Name: m33
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 20, 2009 10:11:49 UTC
RA: 1h33'51"
DEC: 30°39'37"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 120 secs.
Instrument: EM01
The Triangulum Galaxy Messier 33 (M33, NGC 598) is another prominent member of the Local Group of galaxies.
M33 is approaching us (our Solar System) at 182 km/s according to R. Brent Tully, or at 179 +/-3 km/s according to NED. Corrected for our motion around the Milky Way's Galactic Center, it is approaching our Galaxy at 24 km/sec.
M33 was among the first "spiral Nebulae" identified as such by William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse. It was also among the first "nebulae" identified as galaxies, in which Cepheid variable stars were found;