Green Witch Star Parties

Starting on Tuesday 20th October 2009 the showroom will be open until 9 p.m. every Tuesday until Christmas to allow you to try our telescopes for yourself. You are also welcome to bring along your own telescope if you need any help using it or would like us to check it out.

New Products Day & Halloween Star Party

Green Witch was born at midnight on 31st October 1998 so we always have a Halloween Party to mark the occasion. This year Halloween falls on a Saturday so we plan to serve refreshments throughout the day and invite you to join us. We'll be displaying some of the latest equipment and will have special offers on the day.

Why not drop in to say hello? You will be very welcome and we have some exciting new products to show you.

Vixen Telescopes from Japan

Vixen has long been associated with high-quality mounts that have been copied but never equalled. Their telescopes are rather less well known but they have appointed a new distributor for the UK and are working to give their equipment the recognition it deserves. Green Witch is one of the first new demonstration centres and we have an array of four telescopes and mounts on display to illustrate the range.

They include the ED81S and NA140SSF refractors, the R200SS reflector and VC200L catadioptric telescope. These are mounted on GP2, GPD2, SXW and SXD mounts, some of which are equipped with Vixen's Starbook controller.

If you are interested in a quality Japanese telescope at an affordable price then why not take this opportunity to take a look. If you are just curious to see them you are also very welcome.

The Biggest Twitch

How many different species of birds have you seen? Do you keep a list? I don't, but I guess that like many people I must have seen a few hundred, even if I could only identify a small percentage. So I was amazed when one of our Leica representatives told me about the world record that he and his partner have broken.

Alan Davies and Ruth Miller quit their jobs, sold what they could to raise funds and took a year off to see if they could break the world record for the greatest number of bird species seen in a calendar year. From 1st January to 31st December 2008 they travelled the world and recorded 4,341 different species to smash the previous record of 3,662.

You can read about their adventure at www.thebiggesttwitch.com and in the book that Alan hopes to publish in the new year. Their tally didn't include the Elegant Trogon that I have seen at the Arizona Sky Village, so it is possible to beat their score. Anyone fancy a challenge?

Watch a Lunar Impact

Nuclear physicists love to smash particles together to see what bits fly off, which is the basic principle behind the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. Astronomy on the other hand is usually seen as a relatively sedate pursuit with careful but passive observation being the order of the day.

Now astronomers are trying the nuclear physics approach and plan to crash two projectiles into the Moon's surface to see what bits fly off. In particular they want to see if there are any ice crystals in the plume of dust that is thrown up.

The projectile is called Lcross and it's a small space probe that is due to hit the Moon around 11:30 UTC on October 9th 2009. In fact, two projectiles will hit the surface. The second will fly through the plume from the first and send back data before impacting and causing a second plume.

The collision has been timed so that the large telescopes in the Pacific can observe it and analyse the light it reflects. We may be able to observe it from the UK and the plume should be visible in binoculars or a small telescope. A magnification of 10x or more is needed. The time of impact may be up to half an hour early or late.

You can find more details at http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/

Hot Shots at Herstmonceux

I've just returned from the biennial reunion of the RGO Society at Herstmonceux Castle. Former staff and associates of the RGO hold this meeting at our former home thanks to the generocity of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario who now own the site.

During the meeting we were able to visit the Science Centre in what we used to call the Equatorial Group of Telescopes and the Space Geodesy Facility (SGF) that we knew as the Satellite Laser Ranger (SLR). I was involved in setting up the SLR and witnessed the acceptance tests of the main telescope in Pittsburg, so was very pleased to hear how well it is still working. In fact it seems to be breaking new ground all the time and is one of the most successful laser ranging sites in the world.

It recently helped NASA to measure the distance to the spacecraft called LRO which is in orbit around the Moon. Normally the laser ranges to satellites in earth orbit. LRO is in an elliptical orbit around the Moon and carries a laser detector and accurate timer on board. The telescope at Herstmoceux fires laser pulses at the satellite which is about 350,000 kilometers away. Comparing the time of launching the pulse and its arrival at the satellite allows the range to be determined to the nearest 10 cm.

Hitting a very small moving target at that range is pretty impressive. The Herstmonceux team are the first outside the USA to be invited by NASA to do so and the only one in Europe to have done it so far. LRO is part of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Programme which may lead to a manned return to our natural satellite.

The RGO was set up in 1675 to aid navigation on the oceans so it's good to see that one of our legacy operations continues to carry out pioneering work in space navigation. For more information visit the the SGF web site.

Green Twitch at Twitter

We've started to use Twitter to make short announcements about new products, course dates, stock updates and some of our other activities. From time to time we also mention things happening in astronomy that might be of interest to you. If you want to see what we've said recently, or want to follow us, go to www.twitter.com/green_twitch 

New Ring around Saturn

The Spitzer Infra-red Space Telescope has discovered a giant ring around Saturn. Made up of very tenuous ice and dust particles it is inclined at 27 degrees to the main ring plain and is believed to originate from the planet Phoebe which lies within it. There are details and a good illustration of its size at Science Daily.

And Finally...

Green Roofs made up of living plants are becoming very popular and are used as a means of insulation and a habitat for wild life. Some estimates show that placing green roofs on all major buildings in London would reduce the peak summer temperatures significantly.

I'm doing my bit for nature and have a green roof on my bird table. It's made from an offcut left over when a friend put a green roof on an outbuilding. It's made of sedum plants which are flowering already. Give me a call if you would like to know more.

Clear Skies and Best Wishes

Neil