Star gazing on Berkeley hills
Sat night was fun. After several unsuccessful attempts (either it was the wrong saturday or the weather was too bad), I got to do some star gazing at the Lawrence Hall of Science. I went up there with several friends and I think all of us enjoyed the night tremendously! (After that it was movie time w/ 'Tao of Steve' -- a commentary on merging the powerful insights of the Buddha with low end materialistic matters such as getting 'laid'...plenty of aphorisms were strewn throughout the movie and one could watch it again just for the knowledge, however, I would not be that 'one')
LHS has several volunteers who set up 10 and 12 inch telescopes for sky gazing. It is hard-work, getting these old beasts to point at just the right steradian. But then, the most patient among us mortals dare to become astronomers. Most of my ilk find it easy to look at beautiful (even artificially colored) images of new discoveries. Seriously, finding a new comet or meteor is highly over-rated, methinks.
* Ring nebula: Unlike what the name suggests, this is not really a nebula. In fact, it is the remnant of a once glorious star that decided to explode into a supernova. This one was approx. 4100 light years away. Though I could not make out (resolution was too poor), there was supposed to be a white dwarf at the centre of this gaseous ring. Yet, just looking at the ring was awesome.
(Aside: In the early part of the 20th century, an Indian astronomer working in the US discovered something called the 'Chandrashekhar limit' which says that if the mass of a star is less than 3 times the current mass of our sun, it will explode into a supernova once most of its Hydrogen has been fusioned into a higher element, such as deuterium or tritium or even Helium. Otherwise, it will colapse under the force of its own gravity and turn into a blackhole.)
* Andromeda galaxy: Closest galaxy to the milky way. If you look at the 'W' of Casseopia, and go down about 4x the width of the 'v' portion, you will be looking at the approximate direction of the andromeda galaxy. As a kid, I used to fantasize about star-ships crossing the 200,000 light years separating Andromeda and us. Escapist mind. Anyways, with a 12 ince tele., it was not possible to see anything other than an elliptical cloud. Andromeda, in fact, is a spiral galaxy, quite like our own. Recently Hubble has discovered another type of galaxy - a ring galaxy. Sounds fascinating.
(Aside: Looking thru' a telescope - try to see from the corner of your eye; this is where the cones are most sensitive to light. Also, if carrying a flashlight, have a red filter light because that will cause minimum distraction to the eyes getting used to the low intensity view of a telescope.)
* Binary star system: There's one at the handle of the big dipper but I saw a different one. Two stars, one lot more bright than the other, revolving around each other. Period approx. 40 days. There was a tremendous amount of drift in the eyepiece, largely due to atmospheric disturbances -- the image kept on floating from right side to left side while looking out west.
(Aside: The keck telescope (on Mt. Polomar, I believe) is the most powerful ground based 'scope with a 210inch diameter mirror. Hubble looks millions of light years deep in the sky. When it finds something interesting, it sends the position to Keck folks. Keck 'scope has several mirrors that are changed to reflect variations in the atmosphere. The wobble of a laser beam sent up enables these mirrors to correct for the atm. changes).
LHS has several volunteers who set up 10 and 12 inch telescopes for sky gazing. It is hard-work, getting these old beasts to point at just the right steradian. But then, the most patient among us mortals dare to become astronomers. Most of my ilk find it easy to look at beautiful (even artificially colored) images of new discoveries. Seriously, finding a new comet or meteor is highly over-rated, methinks.
* Ring nebula: Unlike what the name suggests, this is not really a nebula. In fact, it is the remnant of a once glorious star that decided to explode into a supernova. This one was approx. 4100 light years away. Though I could not make out (resolution was too poor), there was supposed to be a white dwarf at the centre of this gaseous ring. Yet, just looking at the ring was awesome.
(Aside: In the early part of the 20th century, an Indian astronomer working in the US discovered something called the 'Chandrashekhar limit' which says that if the mass of a star is less than 3 times the current mass of our sun, it will explode into a supernova once most of its Hydrogen has been fusioned into a higher element, such as deuterium or tritium or even Helium. Otherwise, it will colapse under the force of its own gravity and turn into a blackhole.)
* Andromeda galaxy: Closest galaxy to the milky way. If you look at the 'W' of Casseopia, and go down about 4x the width of the 'v' portion, you will be looking at the approximate direction of the andromeda galaxy. As a kid, I used to fantasize about star-ships crossing the 200,000 light years separating Andromeda and us. Escapist mind. Anyways, with a 12 ince tele., it was not possible to see anything other than an elliptical cloud. Andromeda, in fact, is a spiral galaxy, quite like our own. Recently Hubble has discovered another type of galaxy - a ring galaxy. Sounds fascinating.
(Aside: Looking thru' a telescope - try to see from the corner of your eye; this is where the cones are most sensitive to light. Also, if carrying a flashlight, have a red filter light because that will cause minimum distraction to the eyes getting used to the low intensity view of a telescope.)
* Binary star system: There's one at the handle of the big dipper but I saw a different one. Two stars, one lot more bright than the other, revolving around each other. Period approx. 40 days. There was a tremendous amount of drift in the eyepiece, largely due to atmospheric disturbances -- the image kept on floating from right side to left side while looking out west.
(Aside: The keck telescope (on Mt. Polomar, I believe) is the most powerful ground based 'scope with a 210inch diameter mirror. Hubble looks millions of light years deep in the sky. When it finds something interesting, it sends the position to Keck folks. Keck 'scope has several mirrors that are changed to reflect variations in the atmosphere. The wobble of a laser beam sent up enables these mirrors to correct for the atm. changes).
posted by yash | 11:37 AM
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