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All Roads Lead to Roman
October sees the clocks go back an hour to GMT or Universal Time on the 25th of the month. Unlike many people who do not look forward to this time of year of darker, longer nights, for astronomers this is a good thing; there are more hours of darkness, and they begin earlier in the evening so that general observations can be made within a more comfortable timeframe. Of course we still have to wait for specific events if they are to be seen. The darker Autumn sky therefore gives us the chance to pick out the summer sky constellations and objects against a darker background. The increase in contrast that this provides means that objects can be seen more clearly and for longer. The Autumn constellations can also be seen at their best and this year, the planets begin to become visible in our skies again through Autumn and Winter. All this, providing the weather favours us with some clear nights.
On 30th August, NASA launched the Roman Space Telescope on a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. The telescope is to adopt an orbit at the L2, gravity neutral, position in the Earth’s orbit (the same region that is also occupied by the James Webb Telescope). The Roman telescope is fitted with an existing, unused mirror, originally destined for an American Surveillance Satellite, and is about the same size as the mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Despite the shady origins of its main mirror, Roman is a principally scientific mission. Its main objectives are to answer fundamental questions about Dark Energy, to compile a catalogue of exoplanets that will give us a better understanding of he potential for alien life, to enable guest investigators to interrogate the database I n order to answer questions about our Milky Way Galaxy and the wider Universe, to use an instrument, called a coronagraph, to acquire the first (according to NASA) direct image of an exoplanet around a nearby star and to attempt the detection of primordial black holes (small black holes formed when the Universe was very young).
More correctly known as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, an American astronomer who did important work on stellar classification and stellar motions. She was appointed NASA’s first chief of astronomy (incidentally becoming NASA’s first female executive) and served in this position throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s. Presumably NASA appointed a woman to this post because they attached little importance to science, then run as part of the civilian space programme, during the years of the Race to the Moon.
Nancy Grace Roman is also sometimes referred to as “The Mother of Hubble” because of the role she played in the early planning of the Hubble Space Telescope and its mission.
Sky Notes
Sky Schedule
Please note all times given in this article are in GMT so remember to add an hour to get the time in BST.
Sun: From the beginning to the end of the month the period of dark sky increases from 8.5 hours to over 10 hours. The longer nights allow us to view the summer constellations and the Milky Way that runs through them against a dark sky whilst also introducing the Autumn constellations and the interesting objects in them.
Mercury: Mercury is not visible this month as it lies in the same direction as the Sun.
Venus: Venus lies in the same direction as the Sun and will not be visible until the end of the month.
Mars: Mars rises in the morning sky a little before sunrise and is seen against the background of Gemini.
Jupiter: The largest planet rises around sunrise in the constellation of Cancer and will be briefly visible until sunrise. The coloured bands and zones on the surface of the planet can be distinguished with small telescopes as can the Great Red Spot, a colossal hurricane, greater in diameter than the planet Earth. The Galilean moons can be seen with a good pair of binoculars or a small (bird-spotting) telescope. DSLR images of the planet will also pick up the moons. These moons orbit Jupiter such that we sometimes see them pass between the Earth and the giant planet along our line of sight.
Saturn: The ringed planet reaches opposition (due South at Midnight) on 4th , and is visible throughout the night against the background stars of Pisces, The rings are currently opening from edge-on to us and remain difficult to see. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, can be seen with a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope.
Uranus and Neptune: Uranus reaches opposition on 26th in the constellation of Taurus. Look for a tiny greenish disc compared to the pinpoints which are the stars. Neptune is seen against the background stars of Pisces and close to Saturn (below the asterism known as the Great Square of Pegasus). Neptune will also require a telescope to find it. Neptune displays a smaller and truly blue disc compared to that of Uranus although it will appear only as a bluish star to most small instruments.
Meteor Shower: There are a number of minor showers that occur during October, none of them expected to produce many bright meteors. However, the Orionid shower can produce a Maximum rate of anything between 20 and 100 meteors per hour. These meteors are caused by debris from the comet 1P/Halley and peak on October 21st. Observations usually start from 10pm but are best made when the constellation of Orion is in the sky, around 5 am.
Comets: There are no bright comets expected this month.
Moon: The Last Quarter Moon occurs on October 3rd with New Moon on 10th, First Quarter Moon then follows on 18th October and the October Full Moon (known as the Hunter’s Moon) occurs o6 26th.
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