The Terminator Line

Observe that on the Half moon, craters are visible along the Terminator that are not visible on the full moon picture. This is because the low lighting conditions throw smaller craters into relief, as light is reflected of part of their walls, but not others, allowing us to see them 

OK, March 2012. What can we expect to see?

 Fantastic question. And lets starts right at the beginning. Planets.

  The starting week of march this year will be the best opportunity to see all 5 of the planets closest to the Earth. Jupiter, Venus and Mercury light up the Western horizon from sunset. The easiest way of locating them is by looking towards the moon, and then drawing a diagonal line to the brightest stars between it and the horizon. You should notice that these stars do not twinkle. This is because they are the aforementioned planets. Jupiter is highest in the sky, followed my Venus, and finally mercury.

    Over to the Eastern horizon, and we see the Red Planet, Mars and from midnight each night, Saturn rises in the East. If you have a telescope, I would definitely suggest trying to find Jupiter or Saturn in it, they are truly amazing views.
   Don't have a telescope? Why not focus a pair on binoculars upon the moon? Its always on of the most majestic objects in our sky,  look to the terminator (where the dark and light areas of the moon meet) and see some incredible detail on the craters that you'll see there.

  There are no meteor showers due this month, but never fear, there will be 2 in April to compensate!!

  Happy Planet gazing everyone!

Lets Talk Higgs

Ok, Ladies, Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, its time for the BIG ONE.

  I've been saying for ages that I would eventually post a blog about the Higgs Boson, and THIS IS IT.

 To start though, I should probably talk about magnetism. Why? Because magnetism is a very good mechanism for explaining what the Higgs boson is and what it does. This is because both magnetism and the Higgs operate through FIELDS. Fields are defined in physics as a physical quantity associated with a point in spacetime (those unfamiliar with space-time would do well to read the earlier post about general relativity) and can possess the properties of particles, and are able to interact with them. A particle creates a field (an electron would create an electromagnetic field, for example) and the field can in itself interact with another particle. in this way, one can think of all fields permeating all of space-time. The higgs field is no different to an electron in this. But whereby the electromagnetic field mechanism creates the forces of magnetism and electric charge, the higgs field enables the existence of mass in fundemental particles (quarks and electrons are two such examples)

  The Higgs exists in concept due to the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and is a requirement if the theory is to be proved to be correct. This theory predicts everything but the mass of the higgs boson (the boson itself being the particle caused by exciting the higgs field above its lowest energy value [called its ground state]), as it suggests it will have no charge or spin.

   At the latest official announcement, CERN had narrowed down the mass range in which the higgs boson can exist (a good metaphor for this is thinking of a game of battleships, with only the smallest ship remaining, you narrow down areas where it would no longer fit in order to help you find its location) to within 1Gev (Giga electron volt) and hence it is now up to a 3.5 sigma level of certainty.

  There is still some way to go though, as the Higgs will not have officially have been discovered until they are able to determine its existence to a level of 5sigma!! The current level of sigma is expected to go up by the March announcements (even though no experiments have been ran over the winter break) due to the further analysis of current data.

 Some physicists hope to have found the Higgs by the Start of 2013.



  If you're unsure on anything, feel free to ask


 Happy Stargazing!!

Hate to do this to you guys, but Rant time. 2012, my foot.

I have to start this blog post with two  apologies, for not posting as often as I intended, (exams have gotten a bit in the way) and the main reason for my apology is for the content of tonight's post.

  Too many times today I have overheard conversations about "the end of the world", so I felt the need to set the record straight. And let me make this as plain as possible; the world is no more going to end on December 21st 2012 than I am going to sprout wings and fly up Ron Weasleys left nostril. And here is why:

     

    First things first, The Mayan Long Count Calendar. Yes, if we use this, the Mayan long count calendar does indeed end on the 21st December 2012, but after this calendar ends, another one will simply begin. Yes, Mayan mythology does dictate that the universe is destroyed and remade whenever this happens, but why does this somehow signify our imminent doom? None of the other advanced civilizations myths about the end of the world have ever caused such a uproar! 

   Also, I've heard people mentioning Asteroids and Meteors on collision courses with the Earth, again, this isnt true! There are whole teams of astrophysicists and astronomers screening the night sky for any oblect on a collision course (or a course that could be directed into a collision course, by gravitation influences or other collisions) with the Earth, and those objects are kept under extremely close observation. There are no such objects near the Earth at this point. 

  Hopefully we can all sleep a little more soundly in our sleep now, and tone down this "end of the world" gubbins. Although, be free to live each day like its your last, and live life to its fullest :)

  Happy Stargazing Folks    (and sorry again for ranting)

Calling All UK Astronomers!!

Do you like Astronomy? Are you hampered by excessive light pollution? Well, now is your chance to do something about it!!

   Thanks largely to the BBC stargazing Live team, a petition has been started to help us to convince the government to reduce street lighting in the UK, of course, this will cut light pollution for astronomers, but it will also save taxpayers money on electricity, and will make the UK much more energy efficient and help to cut our carbon footprint.

 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/27603

 Hope you all sign!! And don't forget to Spread the word!!

  Happy Stargazing!!