a couple of form-time sessions on Faulkes...

Uplands signed up to a themed observation day, where the slots throughout the day would be dedicated to taking images for researchers. We signed up for a 2pm slot both yesterday and today, since it would be in form time and anyone interested could join us (about 10 takers yesterday, and 3 students today).


19th May 2011

We took a couple of images of the supernova remnant CBT 37A before we realised you couldn't see the actual supernova (it was either due to the moon being too close, or being too low on the horizon), making taking any more pointless.

Sky Object Name: CTB 37A (1)
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: May 19, 2011 13:05:20 UTC
RA: 17h14'44"
DEC: -38°33'04"
Filter: Bessell B
Exposure time: 100 secs.
Instrument: FS


Sky Object Name: CTB 37A (1)
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: May 19, 2011 13:08:24 UTC
RA: 17h14'44"
DEC: -38°33'04"
Filter: Bessell V
Exposure time: 100 secs.
Instrument: FS
Here we decided to take a picture of the Hickson 73 group of galaxies (HCG 73) which turned out to be rather a nice group, with a spiral near the center:

Sky Object Name: HCG 73
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: May 19, 2011 13:18:01 UTC
RA: 15h02'40"
DEC: 23°21'13"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 80 secs.
Instrument: FS

We didn't have much time left, so we thought we could take a picture of the Hickson galaxy group using hydrogen-alpha. Time ran out though, and all we were allowed was about 5 seconds, so that's what we took. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough time to collect enough light to outweigh a defect that is on the hydrogen alpha filter, so all it looks like is white noise (or like a television gone wrong!):

Sky Object Name: HCG 73
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: May 19, 2011 13:28:33 UTC
RA: 15h02'40"
DEC: 23°21'13"
Filter: H-alpha
Exposure time: 5 secs.
Instrument: FS
Unfortunately, both observing days were cancelled for imaging the supernova remnant, yesterday because the data the researchers wanted didn't come through, and today because they deemed the moon was too close and its bright light would 'wash out' that of the much fainter supernova remnant. So, today we decided to try and find some other interesting objects in the Virgo clusters:

20th May 2011
Although this one is labelled 'unknown', further research has shown it to be spiral galaxy NGC 4388, which is a Seyfert 2 galaxy (one which has an active black hole, but is seen sideways on)

Sky Object Name: unknown
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: May 20, 2011 13:06:07 UTC
RA: 12h25'48"
DEC: 12°40'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: FS

Other interesting things about this galaxy:

• Emission of huge dust cloud
• physical properties
• NGC as part of the Virgo cluster (image)
• some other images
  

This one is of the Siamese Twin galaxies (NGC 4567 and NGC 4568)...though they look like they're 'joined at the hip', it isn't certain whether they are interacting with each other or not:

Sky Object Name: Siamese Twins
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: May 20, 2011 13:22:04 UTC
RA: 12h36'34"
DEC: 11°14'17"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 60 secs.
Instrument: FS
[We also took a picture of 'The Eyes' Galaxy, which seemed to have been processed properly right until the moment we could see it, then (bless technology!) it disappeared :-( So, we will have to try and take an image another day!]

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!