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Last night at the Tauranga Observatory, telescopes were concentrated on a rare network of planets.
All the planets of our own solar systems are now on the same side of the solar system, which means that they are all visible in the night sky.
There was almost no cloud over Tauranga last night, which ensured good vision of the planets as well as craters on the moon.
The observatory houses a variety of equipment including a 14-inch Meade LX200-ACF telescope. The Lundt Solar 60 telescope for observing the Sun, a 10-inch Dobsonian, an 8-inch Meade LX10 SCT and a few other smaller telescopes.
Archer Bays, 10, Robert Bays, and Stuart Murray at the Tauranga Observatory. Photo: Bruce Barnard.
During the evening, people lined up to see Jupiter, the rings of Saturn and the Moon across the staves. Venus and Mars are very bright in the sky right now, Venus in the early evening in the western sky and Mars later in the evening in the eastern sky.
The Tauranga Astronomical Society is located in the northeastern corner of the community complex at Ferguson Park in Matua. Meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 7:30 pm from February to December
At meetings, lectures are given on current astronomical topics and the club holds the telescope, weather permitting.
Last night, Dr. George Gray continued his series of lectures on the planets of our solar system with a presentation on Mars. It was very interesting, informative and interactive, covering the story of life on Mars and the three mass extinction events that Mars has experienced. A quiz was interposed during his presentation using the Kahoot mobile phone application. The first prize of the quiz was a bar in March.
"I usually come and sit in the audience," says George. "But Stuart is doing so much effort to organize the presentations.I'm trying to help by finding a good documentary that shows what's in the sky, and I'm there." put questions, so that people have an active learning experience.
"They can come, learn from a high quality documentary about a subject, then go to the telescope and In fact, it is a combination of theory and practice, relevant to what is present in the sky at the moment. "
On the bridge at night looking at the planets of the solar system through the telescopes. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.
The video "Mars – Life and Death on the Red Planet" was shown as part of the series "How the Universe Works". Mars is particularly close right now, as it is making its closest approach to the Earth since 2003. According to NASA, it will be only 36 million miles from Earth before both planets are s & # 39; 39 move away one from the other. . The reddish orange color of Mars is easily visible in the eastern evening sky, and the western sky just before sunrise, almost as bright as a plane landing.
Mercury puts 88 days to orbit the Sun to return to the other. side in a few weeks, but the planets further away take a lot longer. Jupiter and Saturn will be on the same side for years. Jupiter takes a little less than 12 years to orbit the Sun, and Saturn takes about 29 ½ years so they move much more slowly.
In six months we will be on the other side of the Sun from where we are now. , nearly 300 million kilometers. Our orbital speed around the sun is about 107,000 km / h.
Robert Bays and his 10-year-old son Archer Bays joined the club about a year ago
"Archer is really interested and got a telescope." We then googled and found the camera. Observatory of Tauranga and since then it has been a lot of fun. We go to each meeting. "
Archer has an eight-inch Dobsonion telescope at home, and attends the Greenpark School.
" I like to come here because he's documenting the space and I finds the subject very interesting, "says Archer,"
"I saw Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and a few clusters of stars."
"I love the documentaries that we show at the club, "says Robert." And also viewing, and showing people Jupiter and planets. To see them astonished when they see it for the first time is nice. "
Some of the observatory telescopes are very portable and can track the planets, which makes them easy to use.
" We first started with DVDs and programs that go back to the Apollo missions, "says Stuart Murray, a member of the club." Now we try to keep the program as up-to-date as possible. In recent decades, science and astronomy have grown astronomically. Every fortnight, something new happens.
"Technology advances and allows us to see things further and to do things, and it changes with new ideas and philosophies."
On the floor of the observatory the pride and joy of the club, a 14-inch Meade LX200-ACF telescope, which is said to be the second best telescope in the country, imported from the US The base under the telescope is separated from the building, so that the vibrations will not affect it .. By pressing a button, the roof slides on the observatory and the night sky becomes visible.
The port lights and the driving lights on the sports grounds around the observatory do not facilitate viewing, but the club Members believe that if the observatory was located "in the hills", there would not be a strong participation of the public to see the stars.
The Smiths are interested in astronomy in pr retiring about 17 years ago. He lives nearby and has school groups through the observatory as well as telescopes to visit children in the children's gardens.
"It's very interesting because so much is happening," says Les. "With the new telescopes, you can look at the space from different frequencies."
I came out of the club night marveling at the thought that I had just seen Saturn, 1.3 billion kilometers from where I was at Otumoetai. Later this week, NASA will release new images of Mars taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, coinciding with the near-Earth approach.
The members of the Tauranga Astronomical Society club are eagerly awaiting the lunar eclipse on Saturday morning. 28. At 7:17, the eclipse will reach its greatest magnitude while the entire Moon is above the horizon at Tauranga. The true maximum point of this eclipse can not be seen in Tauranga because the Moon is below the horizon at that time. Since the Moon is near the horizon at this time, getting to a high point or finding an open area with free view to the West-Southwest will provide the best view of the city. eclipse.
Tauranga Astronomical Society Society Night at the Tauranga Observatory. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.
The Moon. Photo: Tauranga Astronomical Society.
Saturn. Photo: Tauranga Astronomical Society.
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