November 2023 has its share of some close passes by the moon with various solar system objects. One of the precursors will be in the evening of Oct. 29 when the moon passes about 3 degrees north of Jupiter. Jupiter reaches opposition (directly opposite the sun) on Nov. 3, so we’ll be at our closest and that planet and its moons will be at their brightest and easiest to see. Watching Jupiter’s four big moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – do their intricate dance around the planet is always fascinating and I always wonder how mind-blowing it must have been for Galileo to realize what he was watching in 1610 or so.
The moon does another close pass on Nov. 9, this time by Venus. At 03:30 and due East, the very thin crescent moon and Venus rise about one degree apart. Interestingly, with a good telescope, you would see Venus looking like a last-quarter moon. The moon looks so thin because it’s much closer to us than the sun and only a sliver that we see gets sunlight. Venus, however, is just about the same distance as the sun and we see the sunward half of it lit.
Later, the moon makes a pass by Saturn on Nov. 20 in the evening and by Jupiter on Nov. 24. Although I’ve never managed to see it with binoculars, Saturn’s big moon, Titan, ought to be visible with 10x or greater as long as you can stabilize the binocs with a tripod. Jupiter’s moons are more easily visible (half as far away and brighter), easy in a telescope but doable with just binoculars most of the time. I use the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s Observer’s Handbook to figure out the best views but Stellarium can show them to you with amazing accuracy and it’s free, so there’s no excuse for not having a look.
The International Space Station finishes up its routine of morning passes in early November, takes a break, then resumes evening appearances around mid-month. Heavens-Above has the best info on these.
The somewhat cryptic title of this article is because it’s been one hundred years since an astronomer proved that a certain nebula in the constellation of Andromeda was definitely farther away than other objects in our sky. At the time, there was no consensus on how far away many objects actually were. We must remember that there were then very few large telescopes and all were limited to the visual spectrum. Astrophotographic records were limited to very slow black-and-white pictures recorded on glass plates. Distance estimates for some stars were made by calculating the changes in position of nearby stars as Earth moved around its orbit but most objects were too far away to show the effects of parallax. While it was well understood that stars appeared dimmer when farther away, it was not straightforward whether a given star was big and bright and far away or smaller, dimmer and nearby. Spectral analysis (colour) gives you some idea of the brightness of main sequence stars but it’s the weird ones – the short-lived giants – that confuse everything. Betelgeuse, for example, is roughly the same colour as the many dull red dwarf stars around us but it’s 650 light years or so away and is so bright because it’s a red supergiant star about to blow itself to bits in a supernova.
One solution to this problem began to appear with the discovery of certain variable stars in the eighteenth century. Called Cepheid variables after the prototype star Delta Cepheus, they display regular variations in brightness ranging from a few days to a few weeks. By 1912, enough of these had been observed to correlate their absolute magnitude with the period; basically, the greater the absolute magnitude, the longer the period of the cycle. Remember, it can take months to get enough good data on a single star to establish if it varies and 10 times that to determine if it’s regular – not easy!
Regardless, a certain astronomer spent much of his time looking for Cepheid-type stars in the Andromeda nebula; on Oct. 4, 1923, he recorded a photo of the nebula using the 100-inch Hooker telescope.
Over the next few months, he discovered that one unusually bright star he’d recorded was not a one-time flareup but a Cepheid-type variable. That gave him the correlation he needed to prove that the nebula had to be well beyond all the other objects visible in our sky – that the Andromeda “nebula” was no gas-and-stars cloud like some Milky Way objects but another separate galaxy similar to our own. Within the space of a few years many more galaxies had been established, their spectral red shifts had been proven to mean they were receding from us, the universe was huge and clearly expanding and our understanding of it had changed immeasurably. The man’s name was Edwin Hubble, (1889 – 1953). He’d be stunned to know what we’ve discovered with his namesake telescope.
The Sunshine Coast Astronomy Club’s monthly meeting will be at the Sechelt Library at 7 p.m., Nov. 10, at which The Sky This Month will be presented. Please check the club website at: https://sunshinecoastastronomy.wordpress.com/ for the subject of the guest lecture. Refreshments may include coffee, cookies and carrot cake.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
