Yes, Michael Griffin has announed that Hubble Space Telescope will have its Service Mission 4 (SM4), the final SM, in 2008. It will be giving stunning discoveries again with the latest scientific instruments.
New batteries will be installed during this mission. The capacity of the olds are degraded and cannot work for 2 to 3 more years. Thermal blankets protecting it against the harsh environment of space will be installed as well. Don’t forget the almost broken down gyroscopes. Some of the current are dead and it is running on the backup gyroscopes. These are the basic equipments for it to function properly. Now, we go to the astronomical instruments.
One of the three fine-guidiance sensors will be replaced to improve its ability to track faint guide stars and measure stellar positions with greater accuracy. The Wide Field Camera 3 and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph are the Hubble’s new guns. These two powerful instruments will push its ability to the peak. The astronauts will try to repair the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. It has stopped operating since 2 years ago when a power supply failed.
Good luck to all the astronauts and staffs joinning this service mission. Did I mention that HST is as old as I am?
The resolution of a telescope is presented in arcsecond (”). It’s related to the aperture of your telescope. The larger the aperture, the closer the object it can resolve. A high resolution telescope is handy when it comes to double stars observation, Moon features observation and many more.
θ: Resolution (in arcsecond)
D: Diameter (in mm)
My home internet connectivity is promised by the ISP to be recovered by tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be able to blog again.
Leonids Spotted: 2
Date: 18 November 2006
Time: 0500 to 0610
Direction: [Read the article below]
One word to describe the scene, WOW! Although I didn’t see 100 meteors per hour as predicted as I am not in the peak time zone, I am very happy with the result. This is the second time in my life. How many have you seen?
Continue reading ‘Leonids Report 18 November 2006′
The flash movie below was the last tab I opened in Firefox before my internet connection went down. It hasn’t back to normal yet. It forced me to online in other places. Click on the link below to enjoy the movie! The song is played by Eric Idle and the animation is done by Camilla Eriksson. Enjoy!
Time: 11:45PM UT+8
Date: 16 November 2006
Direction: South to north
Meteor Spotted: 1
Observing Duration: 1 hour
You aren’t going to believe it! I spotted a Leonid which travels from south to north. It looked like a burning fireball. I thought it was firework. After it disappeared in the sky, I just realised that it’s a meteor. However, I am not sure whether it’s Leonid since it’s two days before the predicted date. Anyway, prepare a mat in your garden or your favourite dark site and stare at the mysterious sky! There is no surprise that you can spot 100 meteors per hour.
The sky yesterday was extremely clear. I was playing with my LX90 but seems like it didn’t favour me as it’s kept in the cabinet for an extra long period. It’s time to have some tune-ups.
Leonids are predicted to be seen 100 per hour on 04:45AM UT to 2:30PM UT at November 19. People who live in western Europe, Africa, Brazil and eastern parts of North America have the chance to see the magnificient scene. The amount of the meteors makes this shower so gorgeous. However, the meteors will not be those large and bright fireballs. Instead, they will be grainny meteors which are small and dim.
However, we are told by Bill Cooke, the head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL to look for the meteors since 17 November to 19 November as the prediction is not always accurately done. He also said that the best time to look is before local dawn.
What are these meteors? They are a stream of debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle which visits the inner solar system every 33 years and lays down a new stream of dust, pebbles and rock every visit.
I have a nice group for you. Members there discuss about the astronomer doing their observing under extreme condition such as weather below ice point, high humidity surroundings and so on. I am not sure whether they talk about super warm weather though. Anyway, I find it very interesting. Why don’t you give it a visit?
It’s the Extreme Astronomy.
Above is the transit sequence.
Are the photos above able to make you consider to get one solar filtered telescope? If I were you, I do. However, the solar minimum is around which means that the solar activity is quite inactive now. The scene may not be that gorgeous. I might hold my penny.
Kudos to March05 again for the photos above!
Edited: Photo is replaced as requested by March05. The sunspot numbers are revised.
Am I going to miss the event tomorrow again just like several events before? This time, the Baader Astrosolar Film can’t be arrived on time so I can’t use my LX90 to observe this event. As you know, Mercury is just around 10″ in diameter. You can’t see it without any optical aid. My friend suggested me to do eyepiece projection. I don’t want. The heat gathered in the focal plane will melt any plastic around, especially a large aperture telescope. It’s more likely to be burnt.
However, I don’t want to miss the event. What can I do? At the moment, I can only watch the webcast by exploratorium, NASA, Kochi National College of Technology, Astronomy Club and SOHO. I would try exploratorium, Kochi and SOHO. The webcast by NASA is just 1 hour which is too short for any excitement.
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