5THE ASTRONOMY SCENE62 The unxpected quasar
A story of extragalactic time and
distance.
By Howard Banich
67 NightLifeandAstroCalendar
68 Test report
MallinCam’s SkyRaider DS2.3 Plus
promises to be three cameras in one.
By Rod Mollise
72 Astronomer’s workbench
A 63-year-old telescope shows that
they built them tough days gone by.
By Jerry Oltion
74 Totally wow!
The great US solar eclipse of 2017
has come and gone, meeting all
expectations.
By Russell Cockman
76 Gallery
Latest images from our readers.
80 Marketplace
81 Indextoadvertisers
82 Focal Point
How to name your own nebula!
By Steven Mazlin
ON THE COVERScientists are forming a clearer idea of
what will happen to the Earth when the
Sun begins to die. See page 24.
P.74 When day turned darkTHE THRILL OF THE UNEXPECTED is what we experience every night
when we start out in astronomy. Identifying our first planet; sweeping
the Milky Way with binoculars and spotting our first deep sky object and
wondering what it is; witnessing a bright meteor that lights up the sky;
seeing satellites sailing silently overhead; an unanticipated aurora on the
horizon. All these and many more phenomena and experiences await us as
we begin our journey into learning the sky and comprehending the cosmos.
But how would it feel to see a distant quasar with our own eyes (and
some telescopic help, of course)? Well that’s just what Howard Banich
and his friends did one night with the aid of a huge light bucket (see
page 62). Spotting the tiny dot of light was certainly unexpected and very
thrilling, the ten-billion-year-old photons making an impression way out of
proportion to their source’s brightness.
Although it might seem that fewer unexpected things await us as we
become more familiar with night the sky and become more seasoned as
observers, there’s always that tantalising hope that tonight will be the night
that something unanticipated, unfamiliar and magical will turn up. It’s
one of the most enjoyable aspects of being devoted to astronomy.The joy of the
unexpected
Jonathan Nally,Editor
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