Graeme Skinner » Astronomy

On the shoulders of giants

Graeme — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:47:42 +0000

In 1159 John of Salisbury wrote “Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.” Many years later (1676) Isaac Newton wrote in a letter to Robert Hooke “What Descartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, and especially in taking the colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”

There are in fact many versions of the phrase, but they all lead to the same place, we rise a little higher often because of the work that other have done before us, and our achievements are often never quite ours alone.

I know this painting has a cartoon feel about it, but it has a relevant (to me at least) point about it, Apollo 11 did not happen just because of one or two scientists beavering away, it was thanks to the giants who tried to see a little further throughout our history.

So, to reach the Moon we start at the beginning with the Greek astronomers and general clever cloggs such as Thales, Happarchus, Ptolemy and onwards and upwards through Copernicus, Brahe, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Messier, Bode, Cayley, Beer, Joule, Lockyer, Einstein, Bohr, and Von Braun. I realize everyone will have their own list, and that this list is far too empty when you think of some of the astronomers and physicists that are not on their. My original idea had been to paint something much taller, and maybe I will some day.

Given the recent budget cuts in space exploration I get the feeling I should add a politician or two with axes hacking away at the bottom of the tower of giants.

Other details, watercolour on board, 13” x 30”

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Comet Lulin

Graeme — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:53:23 +0000

Last night the clouds broke, it’s not quite a miracle but near enough Sadly even though the clouds had virtually gone the wind was still there (it’s one of the downsides of living on a hillside being exposed to the winds a bit more), so with the wind there was little point digging out the ’scope I did however manage to get a look at Comet Lulin through binoculars.

Okay, binoculars don’t give you the amazing clarity you see in the wonderful photographs that have been posted online for weeks, what they do give you is a connection with the comet that no photograph can convey. I did not spend long with comet Lulin, but it was an enjoyable viewing. The wind chill was quite bad, so after a quick scan over a few favourites I came inside to warm up with a nice coffee

Soon we’ll have another good naked eye comet over Cumbria, my camera is already and waiting….

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Changing

Graeme — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:14:10 +0000

The first new growth for 2009 is coming through, it’s a good time of year…

It probably does not mean that too much to the majority of people these days, but looking out of the window I can see the buds developing nicely on the Kilmarnock Willow and the Snowdrops starting to spread beneath the trees.

If we were to go on the astronomical definition, spring starts on the Vernal equinox and ends with the summer solstice (in the Northern hemisphere this equates to 20th March to 22nd June). An astronomical view of season is not a bad one to take when you consider the reason we even have seasons. Thanks to the Earth’s axial tilt (around 23.44° from the orbital plane) half a year we have the Northern hemisphere tilting towards the Sun and for the other half the Southern hemisphere tilts towards the Sun; the transition from one tilt to the other does not happen over night of course and so we get the gradual change from winter to summer via spring and summer to winter via autumn. This is all well and good, knowing that science has defined it so well we can sit back and wait until the 20th March for Spring to drag us out of the winter doldrums. Well maybe not quite

Just because we’ve hit a certain point on the astronomical calendar does not mean that Spring will erupt around us, nor does it mean that plants will sit around waiting for an exact date – for some reason they never look at a calendar before starting to bud or put forth new growth. So how would our ancestors have known Spring was upon us? The Celtic tradition Imbolc is one of the main festive times on the Irish calendar and was celebrated amongst Gaelic & Celtic cultures. Imbolc was either held in early February or the first local sign of spring.

Imbolc is thought to be a forerunner to the American Groundhog Day, as it was often seen as the day when Serpents or Badgers would leave their winter den for the first time. Their is a (Scottish) Gaelic proverb:

Thig an nathair as an toll
La donn Bride,
Ged robh tri traighean dh’ an t-sneachd
Air leachd an lair.

Translates as:
“The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.”

Which uses the term Day or Bride to bring Brigid (the Gaelic goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft) into the festival and time of year. Brigid is associated with sacred flames, and healing – the lighting of candles and fires at the festival is a celebration of returning warmth and Sun to warm the Earth. In Gaelic folklore we see Imbolc as the day the Cailleach (a divine hag of all things) would gather her firewood for the last days of winter, not wishing to gather firewood in wet and windy weather Cailleach would ensure that Imbolc was a nice sunny day if she intended to gather lots of wood (if she gathered lots of wood she was going to extend winter and delay spring). Therefore many would hope for foul weather on Imbolc to show that Spring was close at hand.

Many people however will use a phenological definition of Spring, when they see certain plants spring to life or animals in the field they’ll know that Spring is upon us. For myself, when I see Snowdrops in the garden I know that we’re not far off the end of winter and better weather is almost upon us.

The etymology of Spring is apt too…
Spring “season following winter,” 1547, earlier springing time, (1387), spring-time (1495), spring of the year (1530), which had replaced O.E. Lent by late 14c. From spring (v.); the notion is of the “spring of the year,” when plants “spring up” (cf. spring of the leaf, 1538). Other Gmc. languages tend to take words for “fore” or “early” as their roots for the season name, cf. Dan. voraar, Du. voorjaar, lit. “fore-year;” Ger. Frühling, from M.H.G. vrueje “early.” In 15c., the season also was prime-temps, after O.Fr. prin tans, tamps prim (Fr. printemps, which replaced primevère 16c. as the common word for spring), from L. tempus primum, lit. “first time, first season.” Spring fever was O.E. lenctenadle; first record of spring cleaning is in 1857 (in ancient Persia, the first month, corresponding to March-April, was Adukanaiša, which apparently means “Irrigation-Canal-Cleaning Month;” Kent, p.167). Spring chicken “small roasting chicken” (usually 11 to 14 weeks) is recorded from 1780; transf. sense of “young person” first recorded 1906. Spring training first attested 1897. (from Etymology Online)

Well, we’ve Snowdrops in the garden and the Willow is budding nicely, for me I know Spring is just around the corner

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Crappy Light Pollution :-(

Graeme — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:19:41 +0000

It’s not often that I complain about stuff, well, there’s often not much point really Anyway, this evening Julie pointed out that the sky was pretty clear and may be worth a session with the camera.

So, with a thick jacket on and the camera mounted on a tripod I popped outside, to start with I pointed the camera at the Pleiades (M45)…

Now you’ll admit, the sky is fairly black behind the stars and pretty much what you’d expect from astrophotography I then tried to catch Orion as he popped up above the Pennines in the distance, this is when the problems started. I knew that the light pollution in the area was getting unpleasant, I did not know it had become as bad as it had though.

Try spotting the difference between these two images…

I find it quite sad, for quite a number of reasons. First of all it’s sad that I can’t pop out and take the odd photograph of the night sky without worrying about which direction I can point the camera in order to avoid the light pollution. Secondly, it’s sad that when we live in times of such concern about climate change so many people are ignorant to the amount of energy they are wasting every night, because lets face it, light that goes to pollute the skies is effectively energy that is wasted. Light does not come from nothing, it is energy, and energy that is wasted costs not only an increase in some form of pollution, but is a big waste of money (unless you get your electricity for free of course which is doubtful these days). Finally, it’s sad that the next generation will not see the skies as I have seen them, sparkling in the perfect black void.

It’s worth noting that in the polluted sky image above one of the main contributors to the light pollution is courtesy of these guys who at times have been known to say how sympathetic they are to the environmental concerns At least tonight they did not have their laser show going

Now we need to buy a motorhome, then we can escape from this rural light pollution and visit some dark skies again.

For more information on light pollution look here.

Rant over!

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It’s too light for good photography!

Graeme — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:19:31 +0000

I know, it’s not something you normally hear someone say holding a camera, however it’s how I felt this morning.

Normally when I’m Driving home in the early hours (this time I was not driving home from a night shift but dropping Jools off for work). It was just after 0500 hrs when I jumped out of the car fully intending to go for a lie down until the more respectable hours of the day. However something struck me when I stood next to the car, how quiet the distant roads were, and how crisp and clear the stars looked. Now it is a good while since I’ve really tried taking any astrophotography shots, the last time I tried really I was using film, now I use the Nikon dSLR it was a bit of an adventure really.

My first problem was focussing the camera, I used to work with a Bronica which had a huge bright viewfinder to compose the images and focus through; the Nikon on the other hand has the usual small viewfinder which I find a bit dark to compose and focus through (at least for astrophotography I do), and I must remember to turn off the LCD information screen, it’s surprising how blinding it can be to have the screen light up an inch from your face when you’ve just about adapted your eyes to the dark.

Anyway my first image was of Orion, he was standing just above the trees and is a easily recognisable form that a photo is often worth taking…

After that I tried extending the exposure time slightly…

Moving on from Orion I tried The Pleiades, Taurus is also included, well, it barges in everywhere

My final image was a wide angle shot looking towards Polaris…

At this point the Eastern sky was starting to get light and I thought it time to goes inside and warm up with a cup of coffee or two whilst the photographs uploaded. Now I like the images, but they suffer in some respects The orange glow the creeps into the longer exposure of Orion and Polaris is evidence that we don’t live far enough from town. Whilst we live a couple of miles or so out of town the light pollution is becoming obvious. Now when you look at the night sky or a clear night you may see no sign of light pollution with the naked eye, start taking a photograph or two and you soon realize that there is far too much light around these days nights.

Of course this will not bother 99%* of the population but I find it a bit sad that in a few years time the night sky won’t be something that we can look up at in wonder, as the light pollution that only appears on photographs now will continue to get worse and worse until you can only see the brightest of stars on a clear night. I know that many people that read this will still be thinking to themselves so what? Well, it’s not the fact that the stars are slowly vanishing from view that niggles me, it’s the fact that they may not inspire someone in the future. I’m not talking about inspiring someone to become the next Stephen Hawking, but the night sky can inspire an artist to paint, a writer to write, and of course lovers to cuddle just a bit closer (though that may be because of the cold).

It’s a bit annoying too really, as light pollution is something that is fairly easy to resolve; for one those 1000W security lights don’t really need to stay on all night, nor do they need to point into the sky – unless you are so paranoid that you imagine burglars parachuting into your house rather than sneaking through an open window. Street lights can be installed that point the light downwards rather than all over the place, I can see the point of a street light illuminating a street, I can’t see the point of it illuminating the sky. You also need to consider the energy which is wasted illuminating the sky with security and street lights, any stray light is wasted energy, with the current panic over the credit crunch wasting energy is like throwing money away and that is something which I don’t like to do

Rant over, honest!

*This statistic is as reliable as many you’ll seen on the internet

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Blitherings

Graeme — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:12:43 +0000

I enjoy astronomy, I enjoy the mind numbing facts and figures associated with astronomy; so why is it I can’t convert that enjoyment to my current course on astrophysics? You see, I’ve studied astronomy before, I’ve studied physics before, and the act of studying these subjects has exposed my to a large quantity of strange looking equations (especially the course on based on the physics of light with it’s page long equations). So why does astrophysics have equations that tip me over the edge into a blithering mess? Perhaps I’m not cut out for astrophysics and should stick to the practical side of astronomy and observational astronomy – this is not the answer though, I want to know why Plancks function is important to us, I want to understand the relevance of his equation along with the Boltzmann constant….. you get the idea.

So do I go back to the start, work from the basics until my skills with mind numbing equations make sense, or return to the telescope eyepiece and forget the fundamentals of astrophysics and get back to looking at pretty sights?

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Earth and Moon from Mars

Graeme — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:39:47 +0000

I’ve often wondered what the Earth and Moon would look like from Mars, and thanks to the HiRISE we can at least get a very good idea.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

For further information on how the picture was taken click here.

It’s certainly a site I’ll be returning to just to see what they image next you never know, one of the images may give me enough inspiration to write something or paint a scene from space

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Lunar eclipse

Graeme — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:55:17 +0000

We’d had an unusual run of clear nights (nearly two weeks) and would you believe the night of the lunar eclipse the clouds rolled in along with the wind. There was no sight of the moon eclipsed or otherwise all night long

Maybe next time

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