51 communication challenge lies. And I put it this way, because empirically, it tends to be a reality. And for this reason, I also had to become professional in that area. Well, it is not “giving a lecture” at a lectern, on a stage, and seeing if there are questions at the end. In tourist activities, we must develop group management, timing, interaction with the passenger and, above all, the story telling. “How we tell what we want to convey”, to which and with the help of educational psychologists, emotional education also became a part. Associating knowledge with an emotion is eternal. And I would not like to be careless in this, and make it clear that at the “end of stories” the information is the same, only with the development of stories and a more simplified language, since we are dealing with people who have possibly never even read an article of this area. These lines are nothing more than my own social experiments, which through experience have given me interesting results. And if we talk about experiences, let me tell you some data about an activity, so that it can then be submitted to the reader’s analysis. Within the first hours of sunset, when the fauna says goodbye to the day, we can notice how some species return to their home and others begin their day. We talk about an ecosystem and its symbiosis, on a day-to-day basis. We highlight the belt of Venus, we explain the refraction of sunlight, the transition of the night, and the blue hour. Now with the stars in the night sky, we can talk about orientation, seasons of the year. Knowing the time with the southern cross, and some other data that we can include in our activity, We started dark sky outreach inside the cities (left) without the results we wanted. Then when we started working within protected areas (below), the sense of understanding changed for the better. COURTESY OF Alejandro Sommer COURTESY OF Alejandro Sommer
but by including the worldview of the native peoples, the southern cross is transformed into animals that men have manifested in the sky. Jabotí, Hummingbird, Footstep of the Ñandú, among others, the Magellanic clouds, our satellite galaxies, are lagoons where these animals go to drink when they are thirsty, or, they are the entrances to the Earth without Evil, that paradise that awaits us when we leave the terrestrial plane. Talking about the stars, and the importance of their conservation, has more effect on the mantle of the Milky Way, which we can see in areas of little light pollution, and the finishing touch, so to speak, is sharing our laser pointer (always with recommendations) and that some lucky ones have the opportunity to touch a star. Especially this last part, “touching a star with a laser pointer”, which perhaps for members of astronomy clubs, is the most common thing to do when pointing out a celestial object. But they have seen it from the point of the emotional experience of a tourist, imagine. “I went to an astronomical event and I was able to touch a star” is usually the comment; believe me, the impact of our message is more effective this way than doing it in a public observation activity in a public place. Dedicating personalized talks, with the necessary time and interacting with people, and generating a firsthand experience, which is what the night and its conservation imply, has a message that lasts from the activity. I do my part, today there are few of us who are in defense of the firmament as such, in its importance for biodiversity and that of human beings. I do my part, this part, because I know that Sciences and Astronomy in all their fields are very well supported by all of you. I do my part, because I would like the next generations to be able to look at the night sky and enjoy the stars! n n n Alejandro Sommer is the Director of Promotion and Development of Tourist Offers of the Undersecretary of Ecotourism of the Ministry of Tourism of Misiones and is the Representative in Argentina of IDA (international Dark-Sky Association) and ambassador of Cielos Oscuros (IAU) working to obtain three certifications of IDSP, instead of achieving the development of state laws for the conservation of dark sky and promotion of astrotourism. He works on a team with the Universidad Nacional de Misiones of the careers in Biology and Entomology for the conservation of biodiversity and the study of biological impact on fauna and insects. 52 COURTESY OF Gustavo Villa These images were developed by the Anteopologo Dr. Gustavo Villa. I chose these images to locally represent the worldview of Guarani Heaven. COURTESY OF Alejandro Sommer Social media influencers participate in dark sky activities.
53 Global view of Pluto created from images taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its July 2015 flyby. Courtesy NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI AAS membership benefits include: • Discounted registration rates for our winter and summer meetings — the largest astronomy conferences in the U.S. • Opportunities to present your work at AAS meetings and network with other astronomers • Discounted subscriptions to Sky & Telescope magazine • Access to the AAS Membership Directory • Biweekly AAS News Digest delivered to your email inbox And much more! Join Us! Questions? [email protected] Join now: aas.org/join Since you read Sky’s Up, you’re obviously interested in astronomy. And if you’re interested in astronomy, you should belong to the American Astronomical Society! The AAS community includes nearly 7,000 professional researchers, amateur astronomers, science educators, and students, and we have a variety of membership types to suit all these categories.
54 the art of astronomy This issue, Sky’s Up is featuring the work of astrophotographer Douglas J Struble, who lives in Michigan fifteen minutes from Detroit in the United States with a Bortle Sky Scale of 8 making it very difficult to do astrophotography with the light pollution. Even in the face of that challenge, when he is not running his advertising production company Future World Media, he relishes in opening his observatory and making the night’s sky his own. Struble has loved astronomy his whole life. As a teenager, he frequently wrote to astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. To this day, their three autographed photos are framed in his studio along with one of John Glen. While he has loved photography all his life and doing media production, it wasn’t until he got older that he was able to do astrophotography in a way that required a serious investment. His uncle Robert Nagy originally got him interested in astronomy when he was young with an 8” Celestron SCT. Struble says he has always loved science and the arts, and, in his opinion, both are required to be a good astrophotographer. Struble started doing astrophotography in 2016. In 2017, he designed and built an 8’x10’ slide off roof observatory. Inside houses a permanent pier with an AstroPhysics Mach1 mount and his Explore Scientific 165mm APO. He has a second rig with an Orion Atlas Pro mount that utilizes two Stellarvue telescopes; one is a 102mm APO and the other is the SV70T. He runs both rigs at the same time focusing on two different targets with a Windows laptop running each rig that is controlled in his studio from a Mac Pro. Both rigs use a ZWO cameras with a mixture of Astronomik and Astrodon Broadband and Narrowband filters. His observatory is fully automated, and, on a good night with no intermittent clouds, he can just let it go all night on its own. While it is going, he often works on his actual work; putting together advertising commercials. If the night is good, he’ll just go to sleep and let the two rigs run all night. He has to keep tabs on the forecast and satellite to make sure there is no rain or snow coming, though. Struble says he believes that building the observatory is his most important upgrade he has made making it easy to get the two rigs going even if it is only for a couple hours of clear skies. With his terrible light pollution, he has to pile on the integration time; sometimes well over a hundred hours of integration time. While he is able to do some broadband, he tries to mostly go after narrowband targets. With the focal length of his 165mm APO, he can go after a lot of planetary nebula in Ha and OIII and resolve detail pretty good down to 1 to 0.25 arc minutes with a lot of heavy processing. He mainly uses PixInsight and Photoshop CC. Once he gets the stars out the way, it makes it a bit easier to push the data. “There really is no magic bullet; it is a little bit here and a little bit there to really process it right,” Struble said. His main goal these days is to concentrate on rare targets and pull a lot more detail out than others have. Planetary nebula have fascinated him for a multitude of reasons. “While they may not be as glorious to look at as a distant galaxy or emission nebula, they represent the most pivotal objects in the universe; the death of a star releasing a tremendous amount of elements of which everything is made from,” Struble said. “Essentially everything is made from ‘star dust’ including us. Planetary nebula are not supernovas, rather a low mass star swelling up at its life’s end ejecting a shell of gas leaving a small core known as a white dwarf. There is nothing planetary about planetary nebula.” Struble has been featured in several magazines including Sky’s Up Global Astronomy Magazine, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy and BBC Sky at Night on a regular basis. He has won awards with NASA’s APOD, AAPOD2, Apod GrAG, Astrobin, Stellarvue Astrophotograph of the Month and Stellarvue Astrophotographer of the Year. He has also been featured in events like Explore Scientific’s Global Star Party, various astrophotography clubs across the United States and at Starmus in Armenia. Astrophotographer thrives where science & art meet CREDIT: Douglas J Struble Astrophotographer Douglas J Struble stands next to the observing rigs in the observatory he designed and built in 2017. Click on the image to access Struble’s Astrobin portfolio.
55 the art of astronomy NGC 6781 is a planetary nebula located in the equatorial constellation of Aquila, about 2.5° east-northeast of the 5th magnitude star 19 Aquilae. Technical information: Integration Time: 32h 31′; Imaging Telescope: Explore Scientific APO 165mm FPL-53 CF; Camera: ASI183MM-PRO; Filters: Astronomik Deep-Sky RGB, Ha and Astrodon OIII; Software: SGP, PHD2, PixInsight & Photoshop CC NGC 6781 Planetary Nebula “At first glance, NGC 6894 looks like what appears to be a typical planetary nebula, with a diffuse, spherical outer shell and a tortuous inner structure. The pink color of this nebula could be due to the reddening of the light by intervening clouds of gas and dust in our line of sight. However, this planetary nebula holds a unique surprise, which only becomes apparent on images taken with a particularly long exposure time (deep field): Northwest of the nebula there are faint gas stripes, which are ionized by the central star of NGC 6894 and shine in Hα light. Presumably this gas comes from the halo of the planetary nebula, which hit the interstellar medium.” — Douglas J. Struble Technical information: Integration Time: 48h 31′; Imaging Telescope: Explore Scientific APO 165mm FPL53 CF; Camera: ASI183MM-PRO; Filters: Astronomik Deep-Sky RGB, Ha and Astrodon OIII; Software: SGP, PHD2, PixInsight & Photoshop CC NGC 6894 Planetary Nebula
the art of astronomy 56 NGC 7635, also known as the Bubble Nebula, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11, is an H II region emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52. Technical information: Imaging telescope: Explore Scientific ED165CF FPL-53; Camera: ZWO ASI183MM Pro; Filters: Astronomik SII 1.25” 6nm · Astrodon OIII 3nm · Astronomik Ha 6nm 1.25’’; Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Photoshop CC · PHD2 · Sequence Generator Pro NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula in SHO The planetary nebula Abell 5 (PK 141-7.1) was discovered in 1955 by the American astronomer George Ogden Abell on the photo plates of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS). Most of these 86 PNs discovered on the POSS photo plates are large and have a low surface brightness, which suggests that their stage of development is advanced. Technical information: Integration Time: 58h 59′; Imaging Telescope: Explore Scientific APO 165mm FPL-53 CF 3.0” FT; Aperture: 165mm; Camera: ASI183MM-PRO; Filters: Astronomik Ha & Deep-Sky RGB; Software: SGP, PHD2, PixInsight & Photoshop CC Abell 5 Planetary Nebula
the art of astronomy “W63 is a large and faint supernova remnant with a size of 95x65 arcminutes located in a complex region of nebulosity in Cygnus. Obviously this is just a part of it, but my favorite part. Otherwise catalogued as G82.2+5.3, the name of W63 comes from the Westerhout catalogue of radio sources, which was published by the astronomer Gart Westerhout in 1958. The optical emission seems to be exclusively reserved to the OIII emission line and requires a long exposure to be visible. The red emission nebulosity in this area is unrelated to W63 as it lies at a different distance.” — Douglas J Struble Technical information: Integration Time: 75h 11′; Imaging Telescope: Stellarvue SVX102T-R; Camera: ASI183MMPRO; Filters: Astronomik Deep-Sky RGB, Ha & Astrodon OIII; Software: SGP, PHD2, PixInsight & Photoshop CC W63 Supernova Remnant 57 “The base of this M33 image was captured in 2017; one year into starting astrophotography. In 2020 I went deep in capturing Ha and OIII isolating the nebula within M33. I decided to combine data from both projects, but did not like my stars back from 2017, so I captured new RGB stars and added that to the mix. Processing all that into a single image was a bit of a chore.” — Douglas J. Struble Technical information: Integration Time: 50h 4′; Imaging Telescope: Stellarvue SVX102T-R, Explore Scientific APO 165mm FPL-53 CF & Explore Scientific ED APO 152mm; Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-PRO & ASI183MM-PRO; Filters: Astronomik Deep-Sky LRGB and Astrodon Ha & OIII; Software: SGP, PHD2, PixInsight & Photoshop CC M33 Triangulum Galaxy with Additional Ha & OIII
58 the art of astronomy The Tulip Nebula is a glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. This emission nebula is cataloged as Sharpless 101; Sharpless Sh2-101. The Tulip Nebula is about 8,000 light-years from Earth, and 70 light-years across in size. Technical information: Imaging telescope: Stellarvue SVX102T-R; Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro; Filters: Astrodon Ha 5nm · Astrodon OIII 3nm; Software: Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Photoshop CC · PHD2 · Sequence Generator Pro Tulip Nebula
January 15 February 1 February 15 March 1 March 15 April 1 April 15 May 1 May 15 June 1 June 15 July 1 July 15 August 1 August 15 September 1 September 15 October 1 October 15 November 1 November 15 December 1 December 15 January 1 DST Local Time A B B C C D D B C D B C D B C D B C D B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D A C D A C D A B A B A A A A 5 p.m. 6 p.m. 7 p.m. 8 p.m. 9 p.m. 10 p.m. 11 p.m. Midnight 1 a.m. 2 a.m. 3 a.m. 4 a.m. 5 a.m. 6 a.m. 7 a.m. 6 7 8 91011 M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 59 With a universe of options to explore, it can be difficult to track what awe-inspiring treasures are visible in your sky each month. To help guide your explorations throughout the year, Sky’s Up is providing the following collection of seasonal star maps created by noted celestial cartographer Wil Tirion. Based in The Netherlands, Tirion has been crafting stars maps since the 1970s and became a professional uranographer shortly after the publication of his highly regarded Sky Atlas 2000.0 in 1981. To learn more about Tirion and his work, click here. the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
E C L I P T I C Horizon 10°N Horizon 20°N Horizon 30°N nozir oH N°03 zir oH 2 no N°0 zir oH no °01 N SOUTH WESTEAST NORTH WINTER SKY For observers at 10° to 30° northern latitudes A ANDROMEDA ANTLIA ARIES AURIGA CAELUM CAMELOPARDALIS CANCER CANES VENATICI CANIS MAJOR CANIS MINOR CARINA CASSIOPEIA CEPHEUS CETUS COLUMBA COMA BERENICES CRATER DORADO DRACO ERIDANUS FORNAX GEMINI HOROLOGIUM HYDRA HYDRUS LACERTA LEO LEO MINOR LEPUS LYNX MENSA MONOCEROS ORION PEGASUS PERSEUS PHOENIX PICTOR PISCES PUPPIS PYXIS RETICULUM SCULPTOR SEXTANS TAURUS TRIANGULUM URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VELA VOLANS Adhara Achernar Alphard Betelgeuse Canopus Capella Castor Pollux Polaris Procyon Regulus Rigel Sirius Algol Mira M31 M42 M41 Tarantula Nebula M35 M44 Hyades Pleiades Double Cluster LMC 60 the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
E C L I P T I C Horizon 40°N Horizon 50°N Horizon 60°N 06 nozir oH N° 5 nozir oH N°0 nozir oH N°04 SOUTH WESTEAST NORTH WINTER SKY For observers at 40° to 60° northern latitudes A BOOTES ANDROMEDA ANTLIA ARIES AURIGA CAELUM CAMELOPARDALIS CANCER CANES VENATICI CANIS MAJOR CANIS MINOR CASSIOPEIA CEPHEUS CETUS COLUMBA COMA BERENICES CORONA BOREALIS CYGNUS DRACO ERIDANUS FORNAX GEMINI HERCULES HOROLOGIUM HYDRA LACERTA LEO LEO MINOR LEPUS LYNX LYRA MONOCEROS ORION PEGASUS PERSEUS PISCES PUPPIS PYXIS SEXTANS TAURUS TRIANGULUM URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR Adhara Alphard Aldebaran Betelgeuse Capella Castor Pollux Deneb Polaris Procyon Regulus Rigel Sirius Vega Algol Mira M31 Double Cluster M42 M35 M41 M44 M13 Hyades Pleiades 61 the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
E C L I P T I C Horizon 10°N Horizon 20°N Horizon 30°N nozir oH N°03 nozir oH N°02 ozir oH N°01 n SOUTH WESTEAST NORTH SPRING SKY For observers at 10° to 30° northern latitudes B BOOTES ANTLIA AURIGA CAMELOPARDALIS CANCER CANES VENATICI CANIS MAJOR CANIS MINOR CARINA CASSIOPEIA CENTAURUS CEPHEUS CHAMAELEON CIRCINUS COLUMBA COMA BERENICES CORONA BOREALIS CORVUS CRATER CRUX CYGNUS DRACO GEMINI HERCULES HYDRA LEO LEO MINOR LIBRA LUPUS LEPUS LYNX LYRA MONOCEROS MUSCA NORMA OPHIUCHUS ORION PERSEUS PUPPIS PYXIS SCORPIUS SER SERPENS CAPUT SEXTANS TAURUS TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VELA VIRGO VOLANS Adhara Alphard Antares Hadar Acrux Arcturus Betelgeuse Capella Castor Pollux Polaris Procyon Regulus Rigil Kent Sirius Vega Spica Mimosa Double Cluster M35 M44 M41 M13 Southern Pleiades Eta Carinae Nebula Omega Centauri Jewel Box 62 the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
B Horizon 40°N Horizon 50°N Horizon 60°N 6 nozir oH N°0 5 nozir oH N°0 04 nozir oH N° SOUTH WESTEAST NORTH SPRING SKY For observers at 40° to 60° northern latitudes BOOTES ANDROMEDA ANTLIA AQUILA ARIES AURIGA CAMELOPARDALIS CANCER CANES VENATICI CANIS MAJOR CANIS MINOR CASSIOPEIA CENTAURUS CEPHEUS COMA BERENICES CORONA BOREALIS CORVUS CRATER CYGNUS DRACO GEMINI HERCULES HYDRA LACERTA LEO LEO MINOR LIBRA LYNX LYRA MONOCEROS OPHIUCHUS ORION PEGASUS PERSEUS PUPPIS PYXIS SAGITTA SCORPIUS SERPENS CAPUT SEXTANS TAURUS TRIANGULUM URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VELA VIRGO VULPECULA Alphard Aldebaran Arcturus Betelgeuse Capella Castor Pollux Deneb Polaris Procyon Regulus Sirius Vega Spica Algol M31 Double Cluster M35 M44 M13 Hyades Pleiades 63 the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
E C L I P T I C Horizon 10°N Horizon 20°N Horizon 30°N zir oH N°03 no zir oH N°02 no ozir oH N°01 n SOUTH WESTEAST NORTH SUMMER SKY For observers at 10° to 30° northern latitudes C BOOTES ANDROMEDA APUS AQUARIUS AQUILA ARA CAMELOPARDALIS CANES VENATICI CAPRICORNUS CASSIOPEIA CENTAURUS CEPHEUS CIRCINUS COMA BERENICES CORONA AUSTRALIS CORONA BOREALIS CORVUS CYGNUS DELPHINUS DRACO EQUULEUS GRUS HERCULES HYDRA INDUS LACERTA LEO LEO MINOR LIBRA LUPUS LYRA MICROSCOPIUM NORMA OPHIUCHUS PAVO PEGASUS PERSEUS PISCES PISCIS AUSTRINUS SAGITTA SAGITTARIUS SCORPIUS SCUTUM SERPENS CAUDA SERPENS CAPUT TELESCOPIUM TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE TUCANA URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VIRGO VULPECULA Altair Antares Hadar Arcturus Fomalhaut Polaris Rigil Kent Vega Spica Deneb M31 Double Cluster M13 M7 M8 M22 Omega Centauri 64 the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
E C L I P T I C C Horizon 40°N Horizon 50°N Horizon 60°N oH zir no N°06 r oH nozi N°05 zir oH N°04 no SOUTH WESTEAST NORTH SUMMER SKY For observers at 40° to 60° northern latitudes BOOTES ANDROMEDA AQUARIUS AQUILA ARA ARIES AURIGA CAMELOPARDALIS CANCER CANES VENATICI CAPRICORNUS CASSIOPEIA CEPHEUS COMA BERENICES CORONA AUSTRALIS CORONA BOREALIS CYGNUS DELPHINUS DRACO EQUULEUS GEMINI HERCULES HYDRA LACERTA LEO LEO MINOR LIBRA LUPUS LYNX LYRA MICROSCOPIUM NORMA OPHIUCHUS PEGASUS PERSEUS PISCES PISCES SAGITTA SAGITTARIUS SCORPIUS SCUTUM SERPENS CAUDA SERPENS CAPUT TELESCOPIUM TRIANGULUM URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VIRGO VULPECULA Altair Antares Arcturus Capella Castor Pollux Deneb Polaris Vega Spica Algol M31 Double Cluster M13 M7 M8 M22 65 the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
E C L I P T I C Horizon 10°N Horizon 20°N Horizon 30°N Hor zi on 30 N° Hor zi on 2 °0 N Hor zi no 01 N° SOUTH WESTEAST NORTH AUTUMN SKY For observers at 10° to 30° northern latitudes D ANDROMEDA AQUARIUS AQUILA ARIES AURIGA CAMELOPARDALIS CAPRICORNUS CASSIOPEIA CEPHEUS CETUS CORONA AUSTRALIS CYGNUS DELPHINUS DORADO DRACO EQUULEUS ERIDANUS FORNAX GEMINI GRUS HERCULES HOROLOGIUM CAELUM HYDRUS INDUS LACERTA LEPUS LYNX LYRA MICROSCOPIUM OCTANS OPHIUCHUS ORION PAVO PEGASUS PERSEUS PHOENIX PISCES PISCIS AUSTRINUS RETICULUM SAGITTA SAGITTARIUS SCULPTOR SCUTUM SERPENS TAURUS CAUDA TELESCOPIUM TRIANGULUM TUCANA URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VULPECULA Achernar Aldebaran Altair Betelgeuse Capella Deneb Fomalhaut Polaris Rigel Vega Algol Mira M31 Double Cluster M42 M35 M13 M8 M22 SMC 47 Tuc Hyades Pleiades 66 the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
E C L I P T I C Horizon 40°N Horizon 50°N Horizon 60°N oH ir oz n 06 N° oH ir oz n 05 N° oH ir oz n 04 N° SOUTH WESTEAST NORTH AUTUMN SKY For observers at 40° to 60° northern latitudes D BOOTES ANDROMEDA AQUARIUS AQUILA ARIES AURIGA CAMELOPARDALIS CANCER CANES VENATICI CAPRICORNUS CASSIOPEIA CEPHEUS CETUS CORONA BOREALIS CYGNUS DELPHINUS DRACO EQUULEUS ERIDANUS FORNAX GEMINI GRUS HERCULES LACERTA LEO MINOR LYNX LYRA MICROSCOPIUM OPHIUCHUS ORION PEGASUS PERSEUS PHOENIX PISCES PISCIS AUSTRINUS SAGITTA SAGITTARIUS SCULPTOR SCUTUM SERPENS CAUDA TAURUS TRIANGULUM URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VULPECULA Aldebaran Altair Betelgeuse Capella Castor Pollux Deneb Fomalhaut Polaris Vega Algol Mira M31 Double Cluster M35 M13 Hyades Pleiades 67 the key to your sky created by Wil Tirion
parting shot 68 CREDIT: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI) The James Webb Space Telescope observed 19 nearby face-on spiral galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light as part of its contributions to the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) program. PHANGS also includes images and data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array, which included observations taken in ultraviolet, visible, and radio light. The large, long-standing PHANGS project is supported by more than 150 astronomers worldwide. Webb’s near- and mid-infrared contributions have provided several new puzzle pieces.