Australian Sky & Telescope - May 2018

4 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE May | June 2018

REGULARS

5Spectrum

6Newsnotes

12 Discoveries

13 AS&T bookshop

41 New products

65 Cosmic relief

FEATURES

14 Mapping the cosmos

What do you say when people ask

how astronomers know how big and

howoldtheuniverseis?Tellthem

theanswerisinthestars.

By Dave Dickinson

18 The first galaxies

Astronomers are using their

telescopes to travel backwards in

time to study the earliest years of the

universe,andwitnesstheignitionof

thefirststarsandgalaxies.

By James Geach

26 Thelittlegalaxiesthatcan

Star-making dwarf galaxies with just

a trace of oxygen provide insight into

thenatureofthefirstgalaxies,how

theyspawnedtheirstars,andeven

the Big Bang itself.

By Ken Croswell

36 Halley’s Comet and the

Maya kings

Did a spectacular, once-in-a-

millennium meteor shower produced

left in the wake of Halley’s comet

prompt the crowning of an ancient

Mayan king?

By James Romero

Contents

May | June 2018 ISSUE 109, VOL. 14 NO. 4

OBSERVING & EXPLORING

42 Binocular highlight

Spot the small but fierce NGC 3242.

By Mathew Wedel

44 Under the stars

When the closest comet came to town.

By Fred Schaaf

46 Sun, Moon and planets

Giant worlds rule the night sky.

By Jonathan Nally

47 Meteors

Mid-year meteors on show.

By Con Stoitsis

48 Double star notes

ReturningtotheWolf’sden.

By Ross Gould

49 Variable stars

Somestellaroutburstsaregood.

By Alan Plummer

50 Comets

Comet spotting in Sagittarius.

By David Seargent

51 Targets

Galaxies galore to see in Virgo.

By Sue French

54 Exploring the Moon

Will astronauts live in lunar shadows?

By Charles A. Wood

56 Jupiter’s 2018 opposition

It’s Jupiter time to shine.

By S.N. Johnson-Roehr

58 Jupiter’s 2018 opposition

Spotting Jupiter’s famous spot.

By J. Kelly Beatty

P.14 Scaling the universe

P.66 Jupiter’s Great Red Spot