Australian Sky & Telescope - April 2018

THE ASTRONOMY SCENE

62 Scope maintenance
Follow these steps to get your scope
into perfect alignment.
By Rod Mollise

66 Test report
We try out the new QHY16200A
CCD camera.
By Johnny Horne

72 Astronomer’s workbench
Make a binocular mount that works!
By Jerry Oltion

74 NightLife and Astro Calendar
Lots of events and activities for
astronomy enthusiasts.

76 Gallery
Latest images from our readers.

80 Marketplace

81 Indextoadvertisers

82 Focal Point
Where has my hobby gone?
By Roger Davis

ON THE COVER

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey
Satellite will be a space-based, planet-
finding powerhouse. See page 20.

P.

How to align
your optics

ASTRONOMERS, PLANETARY SCIENTISTSand space enthusiasts

are waiting with baited breath for the launch of the Transiting Exoplanet

Survey Satellite, or TESS (see pages 20–25), the next planet-hunting space

observatory. Due to head into orbit towards the end of March, TESS will

survey 200,000 star systems for signs of orbiting planets. Expected to find

thousands, the primary aim is to accurately measure the masses of 50 of

them that are less than four times as big as Earth. These planets will be the

prime candidates for follow-up observations. Given the success of the prior

Kepler mission, it will be exciting to see what TESS will reveal.

Meanwhile, though, another major NASA mission is suddenly in peril.

The Trump administration has proposed cutting NASA’s astrophysics

budget by 10% and cancelling the under-development Wide Field Infrared

Survey Telescope. WFIRST, set for launch in the mid-2020s, is planned

to be the successor to both the hugely successful Hubble Space Telescope

and the yet-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope. The two latter

projects suffered from wild cost overruns, but WFIRST is right on target

so far ... which is why astronomers have been left scratching their heads.

The WFIRST project came top of the list of priorities for US space science

in the most recent once-per-decade plan. Let’s hope sense prevails and the

administration can be persuaded to rethink its priorities.

Who’s on

WFIRST’s side?

Jonathan Nally,Editor

[email protected]

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