Unusual Observing Techniques
How to Observe a Pulsar on Your TV
by Vaughan Cooper

Further to Mike Frost?s unusual suggestion of using a cardboard box over your head to safely observe partial solar eclipses as well as using the device as a large pin hole camera to view your immediate terrain, the following may be of interest.
1/  Take one high tech box (your home television set) with an ordinary household antenna.
2/  Turn to a channel that has no programme and stare at the screen.  Every five minutes you?ll get a lot of snow effect that covers about one third of your screen, this interference is coming from the pulsar in the Crab Nebula in which lies a neutron star about 6,000 light years away. Soon after pulsars were discovered, radio astronomers found the pulsar in the Crab Nebula was spinning at a rate of 33 revolutions a second and slowing down by 36 billionth of a second a day.  These facts established that pulsars are, as theory predicted, spinning neutron stars. The young age of the pulsar in the |Crab accounted for its great spin and also for the speed at which the rotation was changing and the only as far as is known that alternates its ordinary pulses with giant pulses that are about 1,000 times more powerful.  These giant pulses are among the brightest radio signals we have found in the universe which accounts for then being seen on your television set. Any other unusual observing ideas which members can offer would make a very interesting regular feature in the pages of this publication.
Does any member know if this will work?  I suspect it might if the TV antenna was pointed at the correct spot in the sky and the frequency was tuned in accurately.  Ed.

Quantum or Particle Physics and Matter
by Pam Draper

I don?t think I personally know of anything in my life I?ve come across so confusing as trying to understand what matter consists of. It started off with the atom, then the electron, followed by neutrons and protons.  Then there?s the positron. . .   It turns out that every particle has an associated Anti-Particle? with the same mass but opposite charge  except the photon, which can behave like a particle and sometimes a wave! Then we go into the nucleus of the atom containing protons and neutrons.  These contain point-like objects called quarks (pronounced as quarts).  Depending on what type of atom it is, hydrogen etc., dictates how many protons and neutrons are inside.  Quarks come in 6 known flavours (not as in taste though), up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top.  These also vary in their properties, ie., charge and mass etc. Quarks have what?s called ?Colour Charge*, an electric effect only felt at distances smaller than the size of a nucleus.  This charge is passed on by gluons.  Gluons build a lattice to trap quarks within the nucleus of an atom. Next came the confusing world of the families of particles such as the following. . . . mesons, or hadrons, muons, fermions, baryons, bosons, leptons, wand Z particles, pions and kaons and one day maybe the graviton waiting to be discovered.  These families have stories of their own to tell. Sorting out this confusion is my present task, these particle interactions are within what?s known as ?The Standard Theory*. All these families of particles participate in the four fundamental forces in the universe. . .
1/ The Strong Nuclear Force
2/ The Weak Nuclear Force
3/ Electromagnetism
4/ Gravitation
 

1,  The Strong Nuclear Force
This binds protons and neutrons together to form atomic nuclei and binds the elementary particles, quarks, together.  Quarks are not found in isolation in nature.  Gluons carry the strong force within the nuclei.
2,  The Weak Nuclear Force
Mediates the process of radio-active decay.  The time involved in particle decay can be about a thousand-millionth of a second.  This is very long on the scale of particle interactions, (the strong force acts a million million times faster).  As far as it is known the force operates within a particle and does not extend beyond its boundary.  The weak nuclear force includes the neutrino or little neutral one.  It has zero mass and zero charge and responds to gravitational force but not electromagnetic.  They are found in Cosmic Rays and see the Earth as transparent.
3,  Electromagnetism
This is the attraction of the particles with opposite electrical or magnetic charge for one another, it includes light, photons, the energy of which is measured in waves, the electromagnetic spectrum.  Long wavelengths called radio-waves and short wave-lengths of x-rays and gamma rays.  It is responsible for the structure of matter.  It is attractive between oppositely charged particles, pulling them together and repulsive between similarly charged particles pushing them apart.

4,  Gravitation
The attraction of all particles of matter for one another.  It holds each star and planet together, keeps planets in their orbits and retains stars within galaxies.  The acceleration due to gravity at any place is called ?g*.  Einstein?s theory predicted that light as well as matter is affected by gravity.  Other predictions of the theory, such as the existence in space of Black Holes, in which the gravitational field is so strong that light cannot escape.
Well I?ve learned a lot in the past year about ionisation, plasma, various types of gas clouds and elements present in the universe, and I have just skimmed the surface here of a very exciting and confusing subject.  But I discovered that it is not as difficult as you would believe.  With perseverance and determination, the pieces gradually start to fit together and hopefully remembered more easily.  It makes the dynamics of a magnificent and highly complex universe more appreciable.

Get Hooked on the Coat Hanger
with Colin Hughes

My first visit to the society?s meetings was in October 1995 and within minutes I was discussing my particular interests with a society member.  I happened to mention that amongst other things I was fascinated by the ?Coat Hanger* (nickname for Brocchi?s Cluster or Collinder 399).  The other chap had not heard of this to my surprise, for being a newcomer, I expected items such as this to be ?run of the mill objects* to other members. This short piece is therefore written for anyone who has not seen the ?Coat Hanger* as it makes a fascinating binocular sight and is well worth a long look. The ?Coat Hanger* consists of a near perfect straight line of six stars with four more forming a curving hook shape down from the centre of the straight line.  The botton of the hook is marked by the 5th magnitude multiple star 4 Val.  Hence an upside down coat hanger shape.  The ten stars are said to be between mags 5 and 7, however I have been unable to locate them with the naked eye.  Apparently the stars are not related and only form this unique extraordinary shape by chance. It?s location is approximately dec+20°N, RA 19h 20m in the constellation Vulpecula the Fox, which no doubt most of you will know is near to the 3rd mag. double star Albereo (Beta Cygni) in Cygnus the Swan.  I actually locate it not by Albereo, but by first finding the bright 0.77 mag. star Altair in Aquilla the Eagle.  From here I slowly sweep my binoculars up to the constellation Sagitta the Arrow.  Then I locate the 2 stars at the right end of Sagitta, (the top one being Alpha Sagitta), and from here the ?Coat Hanger* is roughly at the 2 o?clock position between the stars Alpha Sagitta and 1Vulpecula. At this time of year (Spring & Summer) it is only visible from around 11pm onwards, but will get earlier as the year progresses. Many of you who are more familiar with the night sky than myself probably know all about this asterism, but if you?ve not seen it, then I hope I?ve contributed something worthwhile for your observations.