The two-day Opening Ceremony is taking place at UNESCO on 15-16 January and includes a programme of lectures by eminent speakers.

You can watch a live webcast right now.

Hopefully, a recording will be available to replay, after the launch event has finished.

Canon 1000D piggy-back on 80ED

 
After months of anticipation, I hope it will deliver the promised kick-start to the appreciation of astronomy, by the wider public. 

To celebrate the first clear night (for me) of 2009, I thought I should do a first thing, too.

So I attached my newly purchased Canon 1000D digital SLR camera, to my Skywatcher refractor.  

The Canon was not actually looking through the telescope – I need to buy a Canon T-thread adaptor before I can do that.  This time it was just “piggy-back” (or afocal as the serious astronomers call it), to take advantage of the telescope’s motor-driven mount.  I was using the 18-55 mm zoom lens, the camera came with.

The weather is freezing (-5 degrees C) tonight and this made it tricky, but I managed to take some images of the constellation Orion (the Hunter).  

Constellation of Orion

It was splendid in the South.

I used a 30 second exposure for this shot (right).  I’m still getting used to all the hundreds of settings on the Canon and I felt it was fighting back, once or twice!  But I’m pleased with the results.

You can see the indication of the Orion nebula M42/43, below the three-star “belt” of Orion.  Also, follow the line of the belt downwards and left to see Sirius, the brightest star in our sky (apart from the Sun).  It’s barely above the horizon (and the hedge!) in the shot.

I will be giving a talk on the Winter night sky next Monday, to my local astronomy society.  I hope to make good use of this image and the others.

Just announced, the Society For Popular Astronomy has up to 1000 telescopes to give to qualifying UK schools, as part of their IYA2009 International Year of Astronomy celebrations.

The telescopes are 70mm, 700mm focal length (F10) refractors on easy-to-use, alt-azimuth mounts. They have been carefully selected for their decent optical quality and versatility, while being suitable for general school astronomy lessons.

What Could You See?

One of these telescopes should give great views of the Moon, with plenty of crater detail to study, plus exciting sights of the largest planets in our Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn.  

The rings of Saturn and the belts of Jupiter’s surface, should be within reach on a clear night.

Even from our light-polluted cities, these telescopes will reveal star patterns, which can’t be seen with the naked eye. And in good seeing conditions, you may be able to see nebulae and even other galaxies, outside our own Milky Way.

How To Apply

There is a simple application process.  Basically, any UK secondary school can write up to 500 words, saying what lessons the telescope would be used for, to be in with a chance of getting one.

The details and application form can be downloaded from the SPA Telescopes For Schools page. 

To help teachers, they will also get a DVD showing how to set up the telescope and suggesting how it might be used in lessons.  There will also be website pages, providing astronomy teaching ideas and assistance.

All applications from schools need to be received by 31 December 2008.

So, if you are a teacher, parent or student and think your school could make use of a telescope, download the application form now.

Primarily, 2009 was chosen to coincide with the 400th anniversary of when Galileo first applied his telescope to the study of the Night Sky. In the course of these early astronomical observations, he discovered things like the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and the cratered surface of our own Moon. These astonishing discoveries forever changed so much of mankind’s scientific knowledge and religious belief.

It occurs to me that 2009 will also be the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landings, when astronauts of the US Apollo space programme first set foot on a world other than the Earth.

I well remember those momentous events. As a child, I followed them in awe on television, guided by the BBC’s science presenters of the time.

The intention for IYA2009 is for it to be an international celebration of astronomy. Countries from all over the World will take part. Local, regional and national groups and societies, will hold events to explain and encourage widespread interest in astronomy and also other sciences. It is intended for the maximum number of people to become more aware of astronomy and the fundamental questions about the Universe that it seeks to investigate and answer.

Much planning is already underway, with coordinators in many countries being appointed to oversee the many, many events that are hoped to take place.