Australian Sky & Telescope - 04.2019

4 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE April 2019

REGULARS

5Spectrum

6Newsnotes

11 D i sc ove r i e s

21 AS&T bookshop

39 New product showcase

70 Cosmic relief

FEATURES

12 Spinning through space

Sometimes our telescopes need to

showalittledynamismthemselves.

By Benjamin Skuse

18 Placing the Pleiades

Data from the Gaia mission solves

a controversy about the distance to

this famous star cluster.

By Guillermo Abramson

22 Explaining Algol

John Goodricke and Edward Pigott

discovered and interpreted a new

variable star.

By Linda French

26 Titan’s veil

Saturn’slargestmoonhasallthe

ingredients for life as we know it.

By Sarah Hörst

36 TheUltimaThuleflyby

NewHorizonsmadehistoryonits

NewYear’sDayencounter.

By Alan Stern

40 Starfish&stragglers

Recreate Messier’s historic discovery

ofastrikingstarcluster.

By S. N. Johnson-Roehr

56 The Herschel hunt

Are you up for the ultimate observing

challenge?

By Tom Reiland

Contents

April 2019 ISSUE 116, VOL. 15 NO. 3

OBSERVING & EXPLORING

42 Binocular highlight

See a star cluster fit for a queen.

By Mathew Wedel

44 Under the stars

Sailing with the Argonauts in the sky.

By Fred Schaaf

46 Sun, Moon and planets

The Moon swallows Saturn.

By Jonathan Nally

47 Meteors

The old faithful Eta Aquariids shower.

By Con Stoitsis

48 Comets

Comet anti-tails and shadows.

By David Seargent

49 Variable stars

Four stars to find in the same field.

By Alan Plummer

50 Exploring the Moon

Volcanic features reveal ancient history.

By Charles Wood

52 Deep sky

GettoknowtheHydraIGalaxy

Cluster.

By Steve Gottlieb

P.56 One man’s quest to see all the Herschel objects

P.50 Lunar dikes reveal the Moon’s hidden history

COVER: NASA/ESA/IPGP/LABEX UNIVEARTHS/UNIVERSITY PARIS DIDEROT