http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 5THE ASTRONOMY SCENE62 Test report
Sky-Watcher’s Quattro20-cm
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By Alan Dyer
66 Video astronomy
Increase your telescope’s reach
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72 Telescope workshop
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76 Gallery
Reader's astrophotos
79 Marketplace
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82 Focal Point
The importance of awe
By William Sheehan
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ON THE COVERWhy does one side of the Moon look
different to the other? See page 26.
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here’s no doubt about that Mr Einstein — his ideas can still make a splash, even
100 years after the fact. As part of his revolution in the understanding of gravity,
he predicted that, in certain circumstances, energy is lost from systems in the
form of gravitational waves — ripples in the very essence of space and time.
Although they were first indirectly detected in the 1970s and ’80s through
measurements of energy loss in binary pulsar systems (which work led to the Nobel
Prize for Physics in 1993), the announcement of the detection of gravitational waves
by the international Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory team is the
first ever direct measurement of these fleeting waves. This result is huge — easily on
a par with the discovery of the Higgs Boson a few years ago, or the cosmic microwave
backgroundradiationin1964(whichalsoledtoaNobelPrize).It’safairbetthatthis
work will be in line for the top gong in the coming years, too.
But with that mystery out of the way, there’s a closer-to-home riddle that remains
to be solved — the split personality of the Moon (see page 26). For years, scientists
haveknownthatthelunarnearandfarsideslookverydifferent,butsofarnoonehas
beenabletocomeupwithaconvincingexplanationforwhythisshouldbeso.And,it
seems, we’re no closer to getting an answer.
Forplanetobservers,Marsistheonetowatchatthemoment.Reachingopposition
onApril22andclosestapproachonMay30,theRedPlanetwillbeagreattargetfor
all those who have a telescope. Even though this apparition’s close approach distance
is not the best it could be — it will be a bit better next year, and a lot better in 2018 —
it’sstillworthmakingthetimetogooutandobserveMars.AlanMacRobert’sguide
toobservingourplanetaryneighbour(seepage58)willhelpyoutorecogniseand
understand its various surface features and weather patterns.Mysteries old and new
Australian Sky & Telescope is on Facebook. Complementing our
website, Facebook helps keep you alerted to astronomy news and
information about Australian Sky & Telescope.Jonathan Nally
Spectrump.55 Spotting galaxies in the BeehiveJonathan Nally
Editor
[email protected]