MIRA 60
Spring 2002
MOON LANDING FRAUD?? Here at last is conclusive proof of NASA's fraud moon landing provided by our intrepid explorer and overseas correspondent, Mr. Mike Frost. I'm sure that these images will impress all who see them and with the help of the text reveal all the mistakes NASA made.
Heroic images or NASA fraud? At last we have the conclusive proof! The image on the left (Pic 1) clearly shows the supposed 25,000 of thrust generated by the lunar lander to arrest its descent. Yet in the image on the right (Pic 2), where is the giant crater this would have created? Looks like the complex web of NASA lies is about to unravel!
(Pic 3 Left) Another apparently inspirational image from the NASA archive. All seems fine at first but notice the numerous directions in which the shadows are falling (marked with arrows) This indicates that the image is probably composed of several images taken at different times (probably in a top secret studio guarded by specially trained aliens working as government agents) and joined together using advanced technology NASA always denies existed at the time. This is the photographic equivalent of an automotive "cut-and-shut" job. If this image was your car you wouldn't trust it to take you to the end of your road without breaking in half! (Pic 4 Right) Not much wrong with this picture you may think. Yet by thinking that, you would just become yet another of NASA's conspiracy victims. Firstly, despite the absence of an atmosphere, no stars can be seen in the sky. Secondly, the interior of the shopping basket can clearly be seen when all areas in shadow should be pitch black due to the absence of air molecules. Nice try NASA, but we are not fooled that easily!
(Pic 5 Left) Just way too many things wrong with this picture! Notice the absence of stars again. The arrows indicate the various directions in which shadows are falling, again showing evidence of inconsistent scene illumination. Yet, there is something even more obviously wrong with this picture. If the length of the lower support column of the lunar lander was 4 feet tall, this would indicate that the astronaut was over 8 feet tall which none of the astronauts were. Another careless mistake from NASA. (Pic 6 Right) Oh yes NASA, it's all very well adding stars on this picture just to make us realize how wrong we have been. We are not fooled so easily! If we look a bit more closely we spot the constellation of Pegasus with the planet Saturn (marked S1) clearly visible in the top left corner. Yet at the time of the mission, although Saturn appeared to be near Pegasus from Earth, from the moon it would have appeared to be in a completely different position (marked S2). It is almost insulting to think that NASA thought they could get away with this obvious howler.
(Pic 7) Well with this image where does one begin? Inconsistent shadows, too much ambient light and incorrect planetary positioning in the sky are all evident here. Also notice how the focal length of the camera lens has changed compared to the pictures above even though the astronaut's Hasselblad cameras were only fitted with a single type of prime lens. Just how stupid did the NASA officials think the public were?
Editors Bit
by Ivor Clarke
During a recent meeting of the C&WAS a discussion took place about
the Moon Illusion, ”. . .why does the Moon looks so big when on the horizon
and so small when high in the sky?" Various tricks to try to see a
different were discussed, looking at it up-side-down, from between your
legs in the privacy of your garden, (so as not to frighten the neighbours),
in a mirror, through a cardboard tube and so on: well you get the
idea. . . I have read about this effect and have seen it on many
occasions, and the Moon does look BIG coming up over the horizon.
It is not a physical effect of the atmosphere magnifying the Moon or the
sun for that matter when they are low. We have all seen that lovely
sunset on holiday with a big red sun dipping down over the hills or setting
over the sea. And it does look bigger than it should do and a lot
bigger than it did at midday when it was high in the sky! But if
a set of photographs are taken at say 5 or 10 minute intervals on the same
piece of žlm, of the Moon rising up into the sky for an hour or two, all
the images will be the same size. Looking through a few old astronomical
magazines, I found a picture that shows this affect clearly (May 2000 Astronomy
Now, page 77).
This strange optical elusion is, I believe, answered by the way we
see the world. We, our species, have only had 200 to 300 generations
with civilisation, only 10 to 15 with any science ™ but many thousands
of generations have been spent avoiding being eaten for lunch by a large
wild hungry animal. In that sort of environment the brain will try
to protect us to live another day and if it does so, we may be able to
live long enough to have children and pass on our skills at staying alive.
We, our species, are one of the slowest, weakest, animals on the planet,
with poor eyesight, poor smell and hearing compared with nearly all other
beasts.
But we do have one overwhelming advantage. We are clever.
Well for the most part!
The eye/brain combination has developed to work together to detect
movement, both to catch pray and most important, to avoid being eaten.
The eye/brain is very sensitive to any movement, it has to be, too keep
you alive when you could have only the smallest of chances of spotting
trouble before it pounces. The tiniest of movements is spotted even
out of the corner of the eye. Hopefully giving time to avoid the
danger and reaching safety.
So if we look up into the sky the brain will switch into a wide angle
mode to try to take in as much as possible of the scene, and every little
movement in that wide želd will be registered. If you lie on your
back in a meadow and look up you can just about see the whole 180°
of the sky in all directions. Birds are spotted which are just dots
in this vast area of sky. The brain takes in all of this with ease.
But when you look towards the horizon, even if it is only a little way
off, the brain will go into a zoom mode and focus on a smaller area of
interest, just in case a sabre tooth tiger is in that bush.
The area around the horizon is quite small and it is here we need to
see prey or danger. We need to spot danger as we don‘t want to be
lunch and we need to spot food, either a small furry creature or a berry.
In doing so we subconsciously focus on a far smaller želd of view trying
to see detail in a tiny area. All this is done because we are trying
to make sense of the world around us, we focus on a small area because
we ™ our eyes that is ™ are not like birds‘ eyes which have a spot in the
centre which gives them a close-up magnified area just in the center of
view.
So when the moon shows itself silhouetted on the horizon we look at
it with curiosity. Because it is an unfamiliar object at that place
and time the old brain goes into tele mode magnifying it in its effort
to try to recognize it. Other objects near it are also magnified
in our subconscious so we don‘t notice it so much. So all objects
on our horizon are magnižed but we don‘t notice it in everyday events,
only when something catches our attention do we really look.
And looking is one of those things we do all the time without really
thinking about what we see. Things familiar to us are not studied
because we know what they are, or think we do. Try to draw from memory
the view from your front door. Then go and compare it to reality.
You will have a surprise how things are different sizes and position to
your drawing.
Only in a few thousand more generations of civilization can we hope
to loose this tiny handy-cap to our view of the world.
Life in the Extreme
by Ivor Clarke
Life under deep ice? Is there a place on Earth that can help us
to explore the ice covered world‘s of Jupiter's moons? Is there anywhere
were we can learn the techniques for sampling pristine water supplies without
polluting it? Yes there is.
Hopefully in a few years from now we will have our first views of an
extraterrestrial!! Don‘t get too excited as it may well be only as
big as a full stop on one of these pages. And it will most properly
be dead. But it will be life from another planet, or rather a moon.
That moon is Europa.
Europa is the second of the large Galilean satellites out from the
planet Jupiter, it is also the smallest of the four and it seems to be
made mostly of water. Each time the NASA Galileo spacecraft flew past
taking photographs, it only deepened the mystery of how its surface formed.
The closer we look, the stranger the frozen surface of Europa appears.
Ridges and cracks run for miles and most of the surface lies in a broken
mess which looks as if it has broken and frozen several times. In
areas near to impact craters white streaks spread across the surface, but
the craters are very shallow, refilled from water which then froze
in the -150°C temperature.
Europa Lies about 600,000 km above the cloudtops of Jupiter and orbits
the planet in 3.5 days, mostly outside of the harmful radiation torus which
circles the planet in Io‘s, the volcanic moons orbit.
What started as a part of the 2010, Odyssey Two story by Arthur C.
Clarke, with the landing on Europa by the Chinese spaceship Tsien — is
now part of an ongoing task to find the truth. Does life exist on
Europa? In the story, a large black seaweedy life form crawls out
of a crack in the ice and climbs over the ship to get to its bright work
lights and tips it over killing most of the crew. When 2010 was written
in 1981, it was a novel idea to have an ice covered sea on a distant moon
far from the sun. This was the first time I had heard of a possible
sea under the icy crust of Europa. This idea was first put forward
by Richard Hoagland in a magazine article in January 1981 and rapidly take
up by others.
But how could there be liquid water so far from the warmth of the sun?
After all Jupiter lies 780 million kilometres from the sun and the temperature
in the vicinity is a chilly 140°K. Water at these temperatures
will be frozen into ice as strong as steel. Even though the surface
is very cold, ice is a good insulator and deep down warm water may flow.  The ice covered world of Europa with its strange brown streaks and weird terrain, broken surface and a noticeable lack of impact craters implying a young surface remodelled recently.
The gravitational forces at work on the moon from both Io and Ganymede
and also Jupiter pull the body of Europa first one way and then the other.
Like all close orbiting satellites, each turns the same faces to its parent
planet in a synchronous rotation; ie. one turn of the moon to one orbital
revolution — the same as our Earth‘s moon. But because each of the
three inner moons of Jupiter are locked together in a 4:2:1 dance, the
rhythmic pulls every 42 hours generates a lot of heat by flexing the core
of the moon first one way and then the other. This causes friction
and friction causes heat.
The volcanos on Io are the result of a lot of pulling from Jupiter
and Europa. So Europa is pulled by both Io and Ganymede, how much
heat does this generate under the ice? We don‘t yet know if the sea
under the ice is only meters or kilometres deep, likewise the icy coating
could be meters or kilometres thick. If it‘s kilometres it will be
a difficult job to drill through it to get instruments into the water to
look for any sign of life.
As yet we don‘t know if there is life out there. Could life exit
in total darkness, at tremendous pressures, and maybe very cold?
A few years ago the reply would have been NO. Without sunlight life
will die because the food chain cannot start up with simple plants like
the blue-green algae which the smallest crustaceans and fish feed on.
But since then "black smokers" have been discovered in very deep water
near the mid ocean ridges. With boiling water erupting out of towering
chimneys they provide a home to various types of creatures. Life
in the hot, chemical enriched water thrives, but it‘s a very hostile environment
to us. Could this be happening 3 miles down under the antarctic ice?
Here on Earth we have our own unexplored ice covered ocean or in this
case, lake. Only in the last few years has it been discovered that
a Russian Antarctic Research Station has been sitting for years on top
of a body of water that no one knew about and no one has ever seen!

Work carried out at the Russian Vostok (East) station in the Antarctic
on cores bored out of the ice by deep drilling have been examined for many
years to determine the weather across the globe thousands of years ago.
The Vostok station is about 1,000 miles from the south pole and has been
operational for over 37 years. During that time they have been drilling
holes into the ice to study the oxygen isotope composition of the ice from
the last glacial period.
In 1995 they drilled the longest ice core ever at 3100m. The
lake was discovered in 1996, right under the base. Ice cores have
been extracted from the deep artic ice above the recently discovered the
lake which is under 12,000 feet of ice. Why the water in the lake
is not frozen is a mystery, but it is under enormous pressure and it could
be up to 1 million years old. During all of this time it has been
preserved from the rest of the worlds environment by the icy coating.
Could anything be living in such an hostile place without sun light?
Who knows what may by alive down there?
Samples have been taken from a depth of 1,250m, (4,000 feet) and from
3,600m (12,000 feet) just a hundred meters above the top of the water.
Work has gone very slowly as a precaution against breaking through into
the pristine lake with a contaminated drill. Work is continuing on
how best to explore and sample the water with out contamination influencing
the results. As this water is completely unpolluted by any recent
source, either organic or chemical the scientific value is enormous.
No attempt will be made to sample the lake until it can be established
that no contamination can take place. The drill must be sterile as
must the sampling equipment. Lessons learnt in the antarctic will
be used 800 million kilometres away!
"It‘s possible to say that ancient impacts of asteroids on the Earth
could have ejected soil, rocks, and seawater containing terrestrial microorganisms
into
space, and that they may have made it to other places in the solar system,"
explained Richard Hoover at NASA‘s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Hoover is an X-ray astronomer who is also is internationally known for
his work on diatoms and he believes that living microorganisms locked in
ice could remaining viable for long periods in space before landing on
another body. That earthly bugs can exist in space was found when
bacteria was discovered to have survived on both the Long Duration Exposure
Facility and the European Retrievable Carrier spacecraft after 6 years
in space!
Ice seems to be a great preserver of low forms of life. It has
been found in artic ice 400,000 years old and in Siberian permafrost more
than 5 million years old. Most of the microbiology is in the form
of fungi, algae, protozoa, bacteria, diatoms and pollen blown in on winds
from all over the globe. All this is captured by the ice and laid
down to form a time capsule showing how earth‘s climate has changed over
the enormous time scales since before the last ice ages. It also
offers the potential for showing how genetic material can change over time
and how plant growing conditions change.
 Europa Orbiter scanning Europa's surface sometime during 2011.
Lake Vostok was discovered by seismic and other tools which revealed
the lake‘s presence. The lake is overlaid by about 3,710 meters (12,169
ft) of ice and may be up too 1 million years old. Since the discovery,
drilling has gone slowly while procedures are worked out to keep it pristine.
No one has seen or sampled the lake - the deepest ice sample is from 100
meters (328 feet) above the liquid surface - nor is anyone sure why it
is liquid, hence the scientific curiosity. While Lake Vostok holds
clues about life on Earth, it also is a good model for conditions on Europa.
The lake is about 48 by 224 km (30 by 140 miles) in size — about the size
of Lake Ontario — and 484 meters (1,600 ft) deep. Recent data indicate
that it has about 50 meters (165 ft) of sediment at the bottom.
Europa is now one of the main "highest priority targets" in the solar
system for the NASA planners. If all goes well, a launch in 2008
will start the exploration with an orbiter to arrive 3 to 4 years later
depending on the transfer orbit chosen. The main science aims are
to determine the presence of a subsurface ocean. To measure the three-dimensional
distribution of the water layers. To map with precision the gravity
field and determine heights with laser altimeter. To map the surface
and identify landing sites for follow-up future missions with ice penetrating
radar. Later missions will be planned on the information sent back
be these orbiters, finding a location to land a penetrator to tunnel through
the ice into the under water sea. It is likely that it will not drill
through the ice, but melt through it laying out a connecting cable as it
does so. When it gets through into the ocean, a hydrobot will be
sent out to explore. The pressure under kilometres of ice will be
great even in the low gravity so the machines must strong and have a great
deal of intelligence in their operation. Can we build machines to
do the job with no help from earth‘s operators?
Any organisms, if found, are collective known as extremophiles.
These are able to live in conditions of extreme salinity, acidity or alkalinity,
as well as extreme heat or cold and radiation. On Earth microorganisms
have evolved to fill almost all of the gaps in the biosphere, from deep
mid-ocean ridges to mountain tops. We are constantly surprised by
the amount of life we find in the most unlikely places.
One of the problems to be solved will be how to preserve the what‘s
call the forward contamination of Europa. This is how do we stop
any microorganisms from Earth contamination the Europa environment?* NASA is spending a lot of time and money on this — as it is extremely important
that NO bugs get into the system. This is one reason why the Antarctica
lake is so precious. We must find ways to explore without modifying
the environment we‘re exploring.
A final thought — in the last few years over 60 extra-solar planets
have been discovered orbiting other stars. Whilst almost all of them
are in the "Super Jupiter" class, in close orbit around its primary star,
some are far enough away to be near the water zone around every sun.
This raises the interesting question of "do they have moons?" As
in the quest for discovering weather Europa has life, we are now beginning
to see that it may not be planets which harbour the abundance of life in
the universe — but it may be the moons around the inhospitably planets
where life really lives.
* Unlike the socks in Mike Frost's last story!! MIRA 59
Some Enchanted Evening
by Mike Frost
This is the story of the expedition to Palau, in the Pacific Ocean,
to see the Leonid meteor storm, of the strenuous attempts to find a dark
sky site to view the meteors, of a scary midnight boat ride. And
perhaps even the tale of how an English astronomer entered the legends
of Micronesia.
The Leonid meteor storm consists of debris shed from comet Temple-Tuttle,
which orbits the Sun every 33.3 years. Three times a century, therefore,
as the comet returns to the inner solar system, there is a run of four
or five years when the Earth intercepts the streams of debris shed on previous
returns of the comet. It only takes the Earth an hour or two to cross
a stream of debris, and so it is important to be at the correct longitude
on the Earth's surface.
In 1999, I had the privilege of seeing the Leonid meteor storm from
a Bedouin encampment north of Sharm-el-Sheikh, in the Sinai Desert.
That wonderful evening proved one thing — astronomers can now model the
progress of the debris, to predict accurately the timing and duration of
meteor showers. Rob MacNaught and David Asher, who had triumphantly
forecast the peak of the Sinai shower correctly to within 5 minutes, predicted
that the best longitudes for the 2001 shower would be in the Western Pacific.
Japanese weather couldn‘t be relied on, Australia was too far south for
an ideal display, and so I joined the Explorers Tours expedition to Micronesia.
Palau is remote! It took us forty-two hours and four flights
to get there, stopping over for twelve hours in Guam. Fortunately
we were neither hi-jacked by Al-Qaida nor shot down by the Ukrainian army;
our connections were all on time and our luggage survived the attentions
of two separate airlines. The journey was worth it. Palau is an extraordinarily
beautiful chain of islands, surrounded by a coral atoll. There‘s
one large island, Babeldoab, about 25 miles by 10. South of Babeldoab is
Koror, on which lies the capital and only substantial town on the islands,
where our hotel was located. South of Koror, Palau breaks up into
hundreds of desert islands, mostly steep sided with a thick cover of bush.
The sea has eroded the bases of the smaller islands, leaving tiny overhanging
rock islands which look a little like upturned button mushrooms.
Palau‘s nearest neighbours, Yap and Guam, are hundreds of miles away.
For the first two days I concentrated on scuba diving, which was fantastic.
There was a super variety of coral, and because of the mid-ocean setting,
the dives on the outer reef were wonderful; we hooked on to the reef, inflated
our buoyancy jackets, floated like kites in the current, and observed the
reef sharks as they casually stalked shoals of fish sheltering by the coral.
Hidden in the maze of islands within the atoll are numerous wrecks
from World War 2 — I dived a Japanese oil tanker torpedoed in 1944, and
a sunken floatplane. One Japanese boat was reputedly sunk by George
Bush snr. On one of the islands is a saltwater lake containing a
colony of 1.5 million jellyfish. Lack of predators has left the jellyfish
"virtually" stingless (not a reassuring qualifier) and we were able
to snorkel safely amongst them, a weird and very memorable experience.
As you can tell, I was immensely enjoying the diving. Unfortunately
I had to switch to the night shift for the meteor observing — exhausting,
as I was just getting over the jetlag caused by an 11-hour time-shift.
The peak night for observing the Leonids was predicted to be Sunday 18th,
but to be on the safe side, and to give my body a chance to re-adapt, I
resolved to observe all night on the 17th as well.
The die-hard observers in our party (42 strong) had of course already
observed all night on the 16th, our first night in Koror. They had
immediately encountered the problem of where to find dark skies.
The accessible bits of Koror and Babeldoab are all developed for tourism
or local habitation, and it isn‘t easy to find anywhere without lights.
The observing party tried locating themselves at the end of one of the
jetties. Unfortunately this turned out to be the hangout for the
local youths, who turned up at regular intervals in their cars, destroying
night vision for the stargazers.
John Mason, our tour leader, consulted with the local agent, a jolly
and rotund chap named Mr. Swingley (of Swing Tours). Mr. Swingley
had a lot of business interests, organizing many of the day tours that
people went on. His "city tour", which I managed to avoid, consisted
of several trips up and down Koror’s main street. Mr. Swingley had
a solution to our dark sky problems. His fleet of boats, which had
already undertaken a snorkeling expedition, would ferry us on a 40-minute
journey to the northern end of Babeldoab Island, to one of the fishing
villages; here we would travel inland to a truly dark observing site.
The direct road route north was only accessible to 4-wheel drives.
So, at 10pm on the Saturday night, we boarded Swing Tours buses to
another jetty, where we were assigned to three boats. Mr. Swingley was
jovial — "Ladies on this boat, please", before announcing that this simply
because that was the boat he was driving. Two of his employees, brothers,
skippered the other two boats. The brothers, Mr. Swingley assured
us, knew our route inside out, and so would be the lead boats. Mr.
Swingley‘s boat would take up the rear.
We cast off from the jetty, steered through the harbour and underneath
the bridge leading to the open sea. As the expedition approached
the bridge, another boat arriving from the other side of the harbour cut
in between my boat, number two in the chain, and Mr. Swingley in the vanguard.
We passed beneath the bridge and swung right towards Babeldoab Island.
The interloper boat carried straight on — followed by Mr. Swingley‘s boat.
Where was he going? The brother piloting our boat shrugged. "He‘s
taking the short cut across open water to Babeldoab. We‘ll see him
there." We took the channel hugging the coast, then cut across to
Babeldoab close to the point of narrowest separation. It was clear
that the first boat in the convoy was rather faster than ours, and was
pulling away from us.
Twenty minutes later we had reached the coast of Babeldoab. A
solitary fishing boat turned out its lights as we approached. A second
boat, displaying scuba flags, kept its lights on (were they divers or spear
fishermen? Or smugglers?). The lead boat was waiting for us.
They had asked the captain of the scuba boat if he had seen Mr. Swingley.
No sign of the third boat.
What were we to do? Clearly we had lost touch with the third
boat, but was it ahead of us or behind? We decided to carry on to
our destination. After all, it was only a 40-minute trip, and so
we were already half way there.
Twenty minutes turned into thirty, forty, fifty, an hour. After
an hour and twenty minutes, the lead boat stopped again and came alongside.
Kate, our tour rep, had some disturbing news. "The skipper has just told
me that we are only about a third of the way to our destination". "Oh No.
. . well, carry on. What else can we do?"
We carried on. The weather began to freshen, with drops of rain.
The sea swell began to rise; perhaps we were due a squall. I knew
from my diving trips that Palau was visited by short but intense squalls
of warm rain. The lead boat pulled away from us, to the point at
which we could barely see it. Both boats had lights, but the skippers
seemed reluctant to turn them on, claiming that they could not see when
the lights were switched on. The lights of the channel we were following
seemed to show red, then green, then red and green.
Suddenly the lead boat was directly ahead of us, parked across the
channel with its lights off. Argghhh! The lead boat shot forwards,
our boat swerved to the right, and we narrowly avoided a collision.
The lead boat had been waiting for us — with its lights off! John
Mason took charge.
"Right, that‘s it! We‘re turning back."
The brothers informed us that we had just passed a fishing village.
We turned round and made our way back to it, tying the boats up at the
jetty. The shaken astronomers offloaded the boats and climbed up
slippery stone steps onto the quay. The rain had stopped but most
people took shelter underneath a wooden structure on the quay, where, I
supposed, fish were processed after being landed. Some people lay
down to attempt to grab some rest; others wandered round with packs of
biscuits, offering sustenance. Our tour leaders marched off to the
houses in the village to try to find a phone. A pickup truck full
of locals arrived on the quay to find out who the visitors were.
One observer, Steve, was white. "We were going in and out of
that channel, that‘s why the lights were changing. We could have
run aground at any time and ripped the keel off! I‘m not going back
on that boat."
After half an hour, John and the tour reps arrived back. There
was some good news — the third boat had returned to the harbour and those
onboard were now safe in the hotel. There was also some bad news
— there was no road route out of the village we were in. The only
way out was by boat. And so they were proposing setting off back
to town. "We‘ll keep the boats together, and rig up some lights."
Steve had disappeared — he had already made his mind up not to travel.
But the rest of the party seemed to accept the decision without murmur.
I was astounded.
I piped up. "Hang on a second. There‘s another option.
We came out here to do some observing — let‘s stay here and do the observing.
There are lights out here on the quay, but I‘m sure we can find a dark
site."
That didn‘t go down well. "It‘s clouded over here, but we were
told it was clear in Koror."
"But the first priority has to be safety," I persisted. "Not
observing."
"Of course safety is our priority. That‘s why we‘ll make sure
the boats stay together and show lights."
And with that, people began to make their way back onto the boats.
Steve stayed behind but I joined the boats. The few lifejackets we
had were shared amongst the non-swimmers. And we cast off from the
quay and set off back into the night. . .
* * * * * * * *
Of course, the trip back to Koror was uneventful. The boats stayed
together, the lights worked; the sea didn‘t get any rougher. But
it rained strongly at regular intervals throughout the night, as squalls
came across from Babeldoab Island. Back at Koror, many people returned
to the hotel, but some of us stayed at the quay to try to salvage something
from the observing session. We observed, in between showers, until 5 am,
but there were little more than sporadic meteors.
In the morning, Mr. Swingley sent out a boat to the fishing village
to collect Steve. The villagers had, of course, asked him why the
curious party of biscuit-munching westerners had turned up from nowhere
in the middle of the night. Steve told them about the storm of meteors
due for the following evening.
* * * * * * * * *
You can imagine that no one was in the mood for another boat trip.
After a few hours sleep, I joined a tour to a dolphin encounter, an extraordinary
establishment, just opened. A winding inlet in one of the islands
had been closed off and turned into a series of enclosures, where eight
dolphins were kept in captivity. An enthusiastic team was gradually
winning the confidence of the dolphins, and they introduced us, a few at
a time, to the tamer dolphins of the group.
When we returned, the arrangements for "the night" were up on the notice
board, and to the immense relief of everyone, no boat trips were planned.
Explorers had secured the beachfront at the Palau Pacific Resort, a very
exclusive establishment. We even had a suite booked to put stuff
into.
We went early to the resort, and tucked into an excellent meal.
Then we sauntered out onto the beach, and settled down on sun-loungers
to watch the show. The weather was warm, of course, and although
there was some cloud cover there was no sign of rain. By arrangement
with the management of the hotel, all the lights were switched off, although
there were some lights at the end of the beach and at the road side of
the hotel.
The sun-loungers were very comfortable. Too comfortable, in fact,
I found myself falling asleep. To begin with, there wasn‘t much activity.
After mid-night, as the Leonid radiant rose above the horizon, rates gradually
began to rise. The path of any Leonid meteor traces back to the radiant
(indicative of the direction at which the Earth intercepts the debris trail).
In the early hours of the morning, therefore, meteors appeared to radiate
from a point close to the horizon, and fan out into the eastern sky.
Towards dawn, the radiant was much higher in the sky, and shooting stars
rained out from overhead in all directions — a real sense of the "stars
falling from the sky", as the old descriptions put it.
Best of all, we began to see fireballs, which left behind persistent
trails. One particularly bright fireball exploded to the north of
us, with a brilliant flash of green, leaving behind a trail that persisted
for several minutes. Other fireballs had pink and red tinges — some
of the colours were familiar from aurorae; others came from burning elements
in the meteors.
At no stage during the night was the sky completely clear — at worst,
the sky was 75% covered, but at best there was less than 25% cover and
great clarity in the clearest patches. The peak rates of meteors were around
18 in a minute, and rates in the teens persisted from 3 am until 5 am.
Unlike in the Sinai, where there was a definite climax at 4 am, there was
a plateau of activity. Asher and McNaught had predicted two merging
peaks of activity, and there was some evidence for this, but because of
the cloud it was difficult to say for certain.
From 5 am onwards, the sky began to lighten, and gradually all we could
see were occasional fireballs, the final one spotted less than ten minutes
before sunrise. As the Sun came up, I gave up following Jupiter in
the blue sky, and joined the bus back to the hotel. At 4 pm that
afternoon I was diving on the Japanese floatplane.
* * * * * * * * *
I didn‘t see as many meteors as in 1999. However, for the purposes of
comparison with other showers, corrections were made for cloud cover, background
light and low altitude of the radiant. When these were allowed for,
the Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) calculated was approx 4000 per hour, slightly
better than the same measure for the Sinai. Elsewhere in the Pacific,
Guam was clouded out completely. Japan and Australia had good displays,
and the extended plateau of activity meant that longitudes west of Palau
were also favoured — I have read enthusiastic reports from observers in
Beijing.
What do you suppose the Palauans made of it all? Those we talked
to were proud of their country’s unique opportunity to see the meteors,
and many people in Koror stayed up or woke early to watch.
And what of the villagers of Babeldoab? Theirs was an isolated
community, certainly, with poor road access, but it would be silly to think
that they knew nothing of the outside world; after all they did have a
phone. But we like to think that, in years to come, villagers will
be telling their grand-children of the night they were unexpectedly visited
by dozens of biscuit-munching astronomers — leaving behind one wise soul
who foretold, with great accuracy, that the following night stars would
fall from the sky.
This, surely, is the stuff legends are made of.
The Very Large Telescope
by Paritosh Maulik
In the last article we looked at what we hope to see with the European
Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope (VLT), at Paranal, Chile.
In this article we shall discuss the various instruments employed at the
facility and briefly discuss the next generation of large telescope.
VL TI Instruments
The instruments at the focus of the VLT Interferometer are
1) Astronomical Multiple Beam Recombiner (AMBER) Capable of imaging
and spectroscopic work in the range of near infra red (0.7 - 35 micron)
2) Mid Infrared Instrument (MIDI) Infrared instrument operating at
10 mm
3) Phase - Referenced Imaging and Microarcsecond Astronomy (PRIMA).
This instrument will be primarily used for comparatively faint objects.
i) Imaging- AGN, radio galaxies and quasars. High redshift galaxies.
Stellar population in star clusters close to galactic centre.
ii) Microsecond Astronomy. Detection and orbits of extrasolar
planets other motions of stellar objects.
Instruments at Individual Telescopes
VLT first generation instruments at a glance are listed below; some
of theinstrument are in place and some under construction. The majority
of the instruments have been built by the participant members. The
members are Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal is to join soon and the UK is considering
the pros and cons of membership.
Optical Region 300-l000nm 3000-10000 A°
The five major instruments in the optical regions are FORS (there are
two of these instruments), UVES, FLAMES and VIMOS. They will be used
for either direct imaging, low and high resolution spectroscopy and multiple
object spectroscopy. The Focal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrograph
(FORS) basic roles include: direct imaging: long slit spectroscopy: multi-object
spectroscopy (up to 100 objects simultaneously): polarimetry (FORS1) (study
of polarisation): medium dispersion spectroscopy (FORS2). This instrument
is located at Cassegrain focus of UT 1 and UT2. The main science objectives
of FOBS: redshifts of distant galaxy clusters (redshift >0.5): galaxy counts:
quasar - galaxy associations, fuzz around quasars objects: gravitational
lenses: arcs, multiply lensed quasars, lensing galaxy. Spectropolarimetry,
white dwarfs: active galactic nuclei (AGNS): jets: broad absorption line
quasars: BL Lacertae objects: optically violent variables (Ows): chemical
abundance in extragalactic stars and emission line nebulae.
UV- Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES)
Echelle spectroscopes use diffraction grating, but the grating lines
are widely spaced 30-100 lines per mm. The result is an overlapping spectrum,
which is resolved/separated by a prism. Often on a thin prism these
gratings are drawn; this system is called a grism. Since there are a few
lines, the echelle grating is easy to produce, but requires a rather complex
spectrograph design. The detector is CCD type. The final spectrum
is of high resolution. This instrument will cover in the range of
300-500 nm (blue) and 420 - 1100 nm (red). Some aspects of polarisation
will also be examined. There will be provision for mulfi-object spectroscopy
using optical fibre. This instrument is located at Nasmyth focus
of UT2. The CCD detectors are cooled by liquid nitrogen at -196°C.
The main science objectives of UVES are the structure, physical conditions
and abundance of interstellar and intergalactic gas at early epochs from
the absorption spectra of high redshift QSO'S. The kinematics of
gas and stars in galactic nuclei and mass distributions of star clusters:
composition and physical conditions of the interstellar medium in the galaxy
and in nearby systems. The chemical composition and atmospheric models
of galactic and extragalactic stars: substellar companions of nearby stars
(high-precision radial velocity studies over long time scales): stellar
oscillations.
Fibre Large Area Multi-Element Spectrograph (FLAMES)
This is essentially a rotating fibre optic positioner, capable of studying
8 individual stars with 8 individual fibres. It can operate both
in the optical and infrared range; it's positioned at the Nasmyth focus
of UT2. The science objectives include: large scale structure through red
shift surveys. Dynamics of clusters of galaxies: abundance of stars in
clusters and selected regions: stellar populations in nearby galaxies:
stellar kinematics in clusters and galaxies: gravitational lenses: AGN's,
QSO's: dynamics of dwarf spheroidal galaxies: outflows in young stellar
objects: structures in the central parts of galaxies: substellar companions
in low main sequence stars.
Visible Multiobject Spectrograph (VIMOS)
There are basically two instruments VIMOS at UT 3, and Near Infrared
MultiObject Spectrograph (NIMOS, 1-1.8 micron) at UT4. These are
multiple slit spectrographs, and in a single exposure detect the spectrum
of 750 objects. VIMOS will be used for deep surveys to study the
early universe, when it was around 10-20% of the present age. In
this range the spectrum is in the optical region, range covered 0.36 to
1 micron. The main scientific objectives are evolution of galaxies
and large scale structure of galaxies in clusters. Gravitational
lensing and distribution of dark matter, quasars and radio galaxies.
Near-Infrared Region 1 - 5 micron
Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC). There are two
cameras, one covering the range 1-2.5 and the other 2-5 micron range for
wide field imaging. The beam can be sent to either the camera or
the spectrometer. The optical system is cooled to -196°C and the
detectors are maintained lower than -200°C. Science objectives
include deep surveys, galaxy counts, study of high redshift galaxies, starburst
galaxies, physical conditions/abundance in super nova, distance scale cepheids,
redgiants, type 1 supernova. Nature of active galactic nuclei central
sources and their interaction with circumnuclear gas, stellar populations
in galaxies, AGB stars in Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and also in
the galactic centre. Galactic deep surveys for low mass stars, infrared
objects embedded in molecular clouds.
High-Resolution Near-lnfrared Camera (CONICA)
This instrument is to be used in the high resolution near infrared range
of 1-5 micron for high resolution images, low resolution spectroscopy and
some polarisation work. Coronographic masks can be used. The optical
system is cooled as above. The development of CONICA has been based
on the following; galactic centre and outflows and disks of young stellar
objects, search for low-mass sub-stellar companions of nearby stars, structure
of young embedded objects, cir-cumstellar material around T-Tauri stars.
Quasars and host galaxies, search for Black Holes in centres of galaxies.
VLT High-Resolution Infrared Eechell Spectrometer (CRIRES)
This spectroscope works in conjunction with an instrument which provides
an image of x8 magnification. This increases the observational capability
of fainter objects, it will be housed in a cryostat. Working range 1-5
micron. The Infrared spectrograph will be used to look for gaseous
compounds in solar and extra solar planetary systems and the interstellar
medium, it will examine the AGN and quasars. From the data, radial velocity
and magnetic information can also be deduced.
SlNgle Far Object Near-lnfrared Investigation (SINFONI)
This is essentially a infrared spectrograph (1-2.4 micron range), but
the image is fed by an adaptive optics, which relies on a guide star, either
a natural or a laser guide star. This instrument is suitable for;
detection/study of quasar fuzz, distant elliptical, primeval galaxies,
distant radio/interacting galaxies, central regions of stellar formation,
surfaces of planets/satellites.
Mid-Infrared Region 8- 25 micron
VLT Mid Infrared Imager Spectrometer (VISIR) This is the first
terrestrial instrument of its kind and will compliment the space based
observations. In some objects absorption by dust in the range of
8-25 micron is very small. The temperature of dust is about -130° to 130°C and the spectrum line presence of atoms, ions and molecules can
be detected. Such as regions of planet and stellar formation, interstellar
medium, galaxy evolution and nucleus of active galaxys.
Nasmyth Adaptive Optic System (NAGS)
Is an adaptive optic system to be used in conjunction with CONICA, by
using a reference star, it will feed CONICA with 'atmosphere corrected'
information about astronomical objects. This will be useful to study
objects in the obscure region of the galaxy. This is expected to be the
best terrestrial based instrument in terms of resolution, next to the Hubble
Space Telescope.
The VLT was based on the experiences gained at New Technology Telescope,
La Silla, Chile. The VLTI is expected to run for 25 years, but ESO
concept studies has already began towards the next generation of ground
based Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). These are expected to be
100m diameter, fully steerable instruments and has been appropriately dubbed
as OWL, Overwhelmingly Large telescope. Other organisations are working
towards 30-50 m diameter instruments.
One US suggestion has been to use one of the spare 8 m mirror blank
from the VLTI could be used in the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST).
This group proposes that the mirror blank would be thinned to 2 mm thickness.
This thin blank would weight less than 1 tonne, split into 3 segments it
could be carried in the space shuttle, launched in the space, and assembled
during a series of spacewalks. Once assembled 5,000 actuators will maintain
the shape of the mirror.
Positions of Voyager & Pioneer Positions of the Pioneer 10 & 11 spacecraft and the two Voyager spacecraft as of the start of this year. Both of the Voyager spacecraft are travelling much faster than the Pioneer's at (V1) 17.2km/s and (V2) 15.7km/s. Voyager 1 is now 84 AU from the sun and over 11.5 hours light travel time away. The sun glows at magnitude -17 from that distance!
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