EIU Astro

NEW PODCAST: Countdown for Upcoming Solar Eclipses

jcconwell — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:53:31 +0000

http://365daysofastronomy.org/2011/11/14/november-14th-countdown-for-upcoming-solar-eclipses/

Description: Noted astronomer Dr. Jay Pasachoff talks about the upcoming solar eclipses through 2017.

Bio: Jay Pasachoff, Chair of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Eclipses, is Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College. He has viewed 53 solar eclipses, and is an expert on both their use for scientific observations and their use for public education. Pasachoff is past president of the International Astronomical Union’s Commission on Education and Development and Chair-Elect of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society. He received the Education Prize of the American Astronomical Society. Pasachoff is the author of textbooks on astronomy and of the Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, and co-author of Nearest Star: The Surprising Science of Our Sun and, on a more technical level, The Solar Corona. His research at the two eclipses of 2012 is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

NASA’s Latest Image of Asteroid 2005 YU55

jcconwell — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:56:51 +0000

The Latest RADAR image of 2005YU55

This radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 was obtained on Nov. 7, 2011. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech.

The Slooh telescope will be hosting a live webcast of the flyby on Nov. 8, 2011. Find out more at the Slooh Events page. Keep track of the latest images gathered by astronomers at the Asteroid and Comet Watch website.

FROM the article at Universe today

16″ Telescope in the Repair Shop

jcconwell — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:55:19 +0000

The campus observatory’s 16″ telescope has been under the weather for the last month or so. We thought it might have been electrical problems in the building, but my two students, Tyler and Hannah traced it to one of the circuit boards that deal with the RA (Right Ascension) drive. That’s the motor that moves the telescope East and West, and also tracks objects as the Earth rotates. You can see the picture below as Hannah puts the mount back together to ship it off to Meade. Sometimes the best education happens when things don’t work. There is no better major than physics to teach problem solving skills.

Hannah and the 16" Mount

We hope to have the telescope back and running in a couple weeks. Until then we can use the 30″ telescope we helped refurbished at ARI, and the 16″ telescopes in Chile.

SKY & TELESCOPE Article on Local Observatory

jcconwell — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:41:15 +0000

December 2011 Issue

The December Issue of Sky & Telescope has hit the newsstand this week. The feature article is on Bob Holmes, an adjunct professor in the Physics Department here at EIU. Bob is director of the Astronomical Research Institute (ARI), a private research observatory about 15 miles away from Charleston. He is one of NASA’s principle people who does orbital measurements of Near Earth Object (NEOs). These are potentially hazardous asteroids that intersect near the Earth’s orbit. All done with telescopes that he BUILT! I’ll tell you next week about the his new 50″ telescope, with picture of the mount installation, that will be fully installed next year. It make ARI the largest privately owned observatory in the world.

OPEN HOUSE TONIGHT!

jcconwell — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:05:18 +0000

EIU Observatory

Come to the annual HAUNTED OBSERVATORY at 8:00PM tonight we ring the observatory with Jack-o-Lanterns. While it’s so scary the 16″ telescope left the building…we will still have the smaller telescopes out and various star-fleet command types manning them. Also you’ll get to speak to real mad scientists…not the facke ones in the movies. So come on by at 8:00….there may even be candy!

Astronomy Club tonight!

jcconwell — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:37:51 +0000

Room 2153 in the physical science building at 8:00PM, we will be preparing for the annual Halloween open house at the observatory. Tonight bring all your pumpkin carving skills, we are making enough Jack -O’Lanterns to ring the observatory on Friday.

ASTRONOMY CLUB TONIGHT: 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, The Accelerating Universe

jcconwell — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:42:18 +0000

Physics-Nobel-Prize Medal

Tonight at 8:00PM, October 12, 2011 in Room 2153 Physical Science Building

Dr James Conwell will be giving a talk on this years Nobel Prize in Physics: The Accelerating Universe and “Dark Energy”

2011 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS

jcconwell — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:41:27 +0000

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said American Saul Perlmutter would share the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award with U.S.-Australian Brian Schmidt and U.S. scientist Adam Riess. Working in two separate research teams during the 1990s – Perlmutter in one and Schmidt and Riess in the other – the scientists raced to map the change in the universe’s expansion over time. They were measuring the change in Hubble’s Constant, by analyzing a particular type of supernovas, Type Ia, or exploding stars.

SN 1994D in NGC 4526. in lower left

Type Ia supernovas are thought to be caused by a white dwarf star exceeding its maximum mass, the Chandrasekar limit, of about 1.4 Solar masses, collapsing and detonating into a supernova. Since this collapse occurs at the same mass limit , it’s though all Type Ia supernova are equally bright.

They found that the light emitted by more than 50 distant Ia supernovas was weaker than expected, a sign that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate, the academy said.

“For almost a century the universe has been known to be expanding as a consequence of the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago,” the citation said. “However the discovery that this expansion is accelerating is astounding. If the expansion will continue to speed up the universe will end in ice.”

Perlmutter, 52, heads the Supernova Cosmology Project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley.

Schmidt, 44, is the head of the High-z Supernova Search Team at the Australian National University in Weston Creek, Australia.

Riess, 41, is an astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

Schmidt said he was just sitting down to have dinner with his family in Canberra, Australia, when the phone call came.

“I was somewhat suspicious when the Swedish voice came on,” Schmidt told The Associated Press. “My knees sort of went weak and I had to walk around and sort my senses out.”

The academy said the three researchers were stunned by their own discoveries – they had expected to find that the expansion of the universe was slowing down. But both teams reached the opposite conclusion: faraway galaxies were racing away from each other at an ever-increasing speed.

The discovery was “the biggest shakeup in physics, in my opinion, in the last 30 years,” said Phillip Schewe, a physicist and spokesman at the Joint Quantum Institute, which is operated by the University of Maryland and the federal government.

OBSERVATORY OPEN HOUSE TONIGHT!

jcconwell — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:37:49 +0000

EIU Observatory

It’s the last Friday of the month so it’s time for the open house at the observatory. It starts at 8:00PM tonight, rain or shine! If the weather cooperates we will be viewing the Ring Nebula through the main 16″ telescope under the dome. The Ring Nebula is one of the most famous planetary nebula, the gaseous remains of a red giant star.

There will also be smaller telescopes and binoculars to view the heavens with. If this is your first time to visit you can find us on this map. Park in the university lot next to the Methodist Church, or if you need closer parking because of movement restrictions drive up the gravel road leading to the observatory. See you there!

ASTRONOMY CLUB TONIGHT!

jcconwell — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:14:40 +0000

Telescope training tonight! No previous knowledge necessary!

Meeting starts in Room 2153, Physical Science Building at 8:00PM, then on to the telescopes.