Giovanni Schiaparelli

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ( , , ; 14 March 1835 – 4 July 1910) was an Italian astronomer and science historian.
Biography.
He studied at the University of Turin, graduating in 1854, and later did research at Berlin Observatory, under Encke. In 1859–1860 he worked in Pulkovo Observatory near St Petersburg, and then worked for over forty years at Brera Observatory in Milan. He was also a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino and the Regio Istituto Lombardo, and is particularly known for his studies of Mars.
Mars.
Among Schiaparelli's contributions are his telescopic observations of Mars. In his initial observations, he named the "seas" and "continents" of Mars. During the planet's "Great Opposition" of 1877, he observed a dense network of linear structures on the surface of Mars which he called "canali" in Italian, meaning "channels" but the term was mistranslated into English as "canals".
While the term "canals" indicates an artificial construction, the term "channels" connotes that the observed features were natural configurations of the planetary surface. From the incorrect translation into the term "canals", various assumptions were made about life on Mars; as these assumptions were popularized, the "canals" of Mars became famous, giving rise to waves of hypotheses, speculation, and folklore about the possibility of intelligent life on Mars, the Martians. Among the most fervent supporters of the artificial-canal hypothesis was the American astronomer Percival Lowell, who spent much of his life trying to prove the existence of intelligent life on the red planet. After Lowell's death in 1916, astronomers developed a consensus against the canal hypothesis, but the popular concept of Martian canals excavated by intelligent Martians remained in the public mind for the first half of the 20th century, and inspired a corpus of works of classic science fiction.
Later, with notable thanks to the observations of the Italian astronomer Vincenzo Cerulli, scientists came to the conclusion that the famous channels were actually mere optical illusions. The last popular speculations about canals were finally put to rest during the spaceflight era beginning in the 1960s, when visiting spacecraft such as Mariner 4 photographed the surface with much higher resolution than Earth-based telescopes, confirming that there are no structures resembling "canals".
In his book "Life on Mars", Schiaparelli wrote: "Rather than true channels in a form familiar to us, we must imagine depressions in the soil that are not very deep, extended in a straight direction for thousands of miles, over a width of 100, 200 kilometers and maybe more. I have already pointed out that, in the absence of rain on Mars, these channels are probably the main mechanism by which the water (and with it organic life) can spread on the dry surface of the planet."
Astronomy and history of science.
An observer of objects in the Solar System, Schiaparelli worked on binary stars, discovered the large main-belt asteroid 69 Hesperia on 29 April 1861, and demonstrated that the meteor showers were associated with comets. He proved, for example, that the orbit of the Leonid meteor shower coincided with that of the comet Tempel-Tuttle. These observations led the astronomer to formulate the hypothesis, subsequently proved to be correct, that the meteor showers could be the trails of comets. He was also a keen observer of the inner planets Mercury and Venus. He made several drawings and determined their rotation periods. In 1965, it was shown that his and most other subsequent measurements of Mercury's period were incorrect.
Schiaparelli was a scholar of the history of classical astronomy. He was the first to realize that the concentric spheres of Eudoxus of Cnidus and Callippus, unlike those used by many astronomers of later times, were not to be taken as material objects, but only as part of an algorithm similar to the modern Fourier series.
He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1901.
Relatives.
His niece, Elsa Schiaparelli, became a noted designer or maker of haute couture.


Solar eclipse of December 6, 2067

A total solar eclipse will occur on December 6, 2067. It is a hybrid event, beginning and ending as an annular eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide.
Related eclipses.
Metonic series.
 All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.


Southwest Minnesota State University

Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) is a public university in Marshall, Minnesota. It is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. The university has an enrollment of approximately 8,700 students and employs 148 faculty members. It is divided into two major colleges, the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences and the College of Business, Education, and Professional Studies. SMSU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
History.
The university was founded in 1964 as Southwest Minnesota State College (SMSC). It admitted its first class of students on September 19, 1967. The college became Southwest State University (SSU) on August 1, 1975, and kept that name for nearly thirty years until adopting the name Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) on July 1, 2003.
The student newspaper, originally called "The Impact," was first published May 10, 1968. The name was changed to "The Reader" in 1974, and then back to "The Impact" in 1980. In 2003 the name was changed to "The Spur" to be more consistent with the Mustang theme and to spur students into action.
The R/A (Recreation/Athletic) Facility was built in 1996 and is a 4,000-seat multi-purpose venue.
On January 2, 2002, a fire destroyed the Student Center, which originally featured an underground living area and a glass dome. The dome's concrete framework was incorporated into the new student and conference center and is still visible in the food court area. The new center was completed in 2005. It features a replica of the original dome with the words "Student Center Dome: 1972–2002" written on it at the Alumni Heritage Center, near the Mustang Zone in the upper level.
In 2005 SMSU developed the first bachelor's degree culinology program in the nation to be approved by the Research Chefs Association.
On September 6, 2008, the new Regional Event Center officially opened on the western edge of campus. The athletic field was named Mattke Field after the old field, and in honor of past athletic director Glenn Mattke. The center is used by the Mustang football and soccer teams, as well as teams from Marshall High School, and for other regional activities, such as concerts. It took two years and $16 million to complete.
Academics.
Southwest Minnesota State University provides undergraduate education in the liberal arts and professional studies. The most popular undergraduate majors are business administration and education. It also has specialized graduate programs in education, special education, and business administration. The MBA program has degree options in marketing, leadership, and the general MBA. Students can take classes both onsite and online. The graduate school does not have a student senate, but there is an MBA student organization. A critical element of the undergraduate and graduate business programs' success is the Southwest Marketing Advisory Center, where students can do research on actual businesses.
In addition to being regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, SMSU's programs are also accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, the Minnesota Board of Teaching, the American Chemical Society and the Council on Social Work Education.
Campus.
Most of the SMSU campus was constructed between 1965 and 1973 according to a unified plan. The brick and concrete buildings are interconnected via tunnels and enclosed walkways, providing a continuous and controlled environment during both summer and winter. The residence halls are not connected. There are many courtyards with gardens between the buildings. The campus is virtually barrier-free, allowing easy access to students in wheelchairs.
The university's residence halls were named by the students during the late 1960s and reflect various themes and values of the times, e.g. Aquarius, Casa Futura, Methedras and Kama Sutra. Armstrong Hall was named after astronaut Neil Armstrong in honor of his trip to the moon in 1969. Manchester Hall was named for pop singer Melissa Manchester after a concert she gave on campus.
In 2009 the university opened a new dorm named Sweetland Hall in honor of a late president, Douglas Sweetland.
Residence Halls:
There are no fraternities or sororities on campus in order to promote a safe and friendly environment for all students.
Organizations:
The Southwest Marketing Advisory Center (SMAC) is located on the second floor of the Science and Technology building, Room 203. SMAC is a self-funded entity within the academic marketing program at Southwest State. Its mission is to serve the marketing and research needs of southwestern Minnesota while giving real-world experience to junior, senior and graduate-level student employees.
Each student attending Southwest Minnesota State University pays a .43 cent per credit fee to fund the Minnesota State University Student Association, a student-led nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of all students.
Athletics.
The school athletic teams are the Mustangs. Their colors are the prairie colors of brown and gold.
The Mustangs compete in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC), which is a part of NCAA Division II. Programs for men include basketball, wheelchair basketball, baseball, cross country, track, football, and wrestling. The programs for women are basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, volleyball and swimming.
Museums and public attractions.
SMSU features several facilities that are open to the general public and school groups.


Gaia Sausage

The Gaia Sausage or Gaia Enceladus is the remains of a dwarf galaxy (the Sausage Galaxy, or Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage, or Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus) that merged with the Milky Way about 8–11 billion years ago. At least eight globular clusters were added to the Milky Way along with 50 billion solar masses of stars, gas and dark matter.
The "Gaia Sausage" is so-called because of the characteristic sausage shape of the population in velocity space, in particular a plot of radial (formula_1) versus azimuthal velocity (formula_2) of stars (See spherical coordinate system), using data from the Gaia Mission. The stars that have merged with the Milky Way have orbits that are highly elongated. The outermost points of their orbits are around 20 kiloparsecs from the galactic centre at what is called the "halo break". These stars had previously been seen in Hipparcos data and identified as originаting from an accreted galaxy.
Components.
Globular clusters.
The globular clusters firmly identified as former Sausage members are Messier 2, Messier 56, Messier 75, Messier 79, NGC 1851, NGC 2298, and NGC 5286.
NGC 2808: Globular cluster or old core?
NGC 2808 is another globular-like cluster of Sausage. This cluster is composed of three generations of stars, all born within 200 million years of the formation of the cluster.
One theory to account for three generations of stars is that NGC 2808 is the former core of Sausage. This is also an explanation for the number of stars, more than a million, which is unusually large for a globular cluster.
Stars.
The stars from this dwarf orbit the Milky Way core with extreme eccentricities on the order of about 0.9. Their metallicity is also typically higher than other halo stars, with most having [Fe/H] > −1.7 dex, i.e., at least 2% of the solar value
The "Gaia Sausage" reconstructed the Milky Way by puffing up the thin disk to make it a thick disk, whilst the gas it brought into the Milky Way triggered a fresh round of star formation and replenished the thin disk. The debris from the dwarf galaxy provides most of the metal-rich part of the galactic halo.


Abraham Robertson

Abraham or Abram Robertson FRS (4 November 1751 – 4 December 1826), was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. He held the Savilian Chair of Geometry at the University of Oxford from 1797 to 1809.
Robertson was born at Duns, Berwickshire, the son of Abraham Robertson, “a man of humble station”. He attended school at Great Ryle in Northumberland, and later at Duns. At age 24, he moved to London, he had hopes of travelling to the East Indies, but his patron died.
He took himself alone to Oxford, where he sought to finance himself by opening an evening school for mechanics. This failed, and he served for a while as an assistant to John Ireland, a local apothecary. He then gained patronage from John Smith (1721—1796), the Savilian professor of geometry. Robertson completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1779 and completed his Master in Arts in 1782.
In 1784, he deputized for Smith, who was then acting as a physician at Cheltenham and then followed Smith as Savilian professor of geometry. His lectures were considered clear, and he was always anxious to encourage his pupils. Thus in 1804 he printed a demonstration of Euclid v, Definition 5, for the benefit of beginners.
In 1789, Robertson was presented by the dean and canons of Christ Church to the vicarage of Ravensthorpe, near Northampton, but his principal residence was still in Oxford. He married, about 1790, Miss Bacon of Drayton in Berkshire, who died a few years after he became professor. They had no children.
In 1795, the Royal Society elected him a fellow in recognition of his work on conic sections.
Robertson died on 4 December 1826 at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, and was buried in the churchyard of St Peter-in-the-East.
Robertson's chief works were the following:
References.
W. F. Sedgwick, "Abram Robertson (1751-1826)", rev. Alan Yoshioka, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004


Clark Chapman

Dr. Clark R. Chapman is Senior Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute's Boulder, Colorado, Department of Space Studies where his research focuses on asteroids and comets. He earned an undergraduate degree in Astronomy from Harvard, Master's Degree in Meteorology from M.I.T., and PhD in Planetary Science from M.I.T. (1972).
He is best known for his work on potentially hazardous asteroids and was among the first scientists to bring attention to asteroids and comets that are potentially hazardous to Earth. co-founder and on the Board of Directors of B612
Dr. Chapman has served extensively on the IAU's commission for the study of comets and minor planets, serving as member, vice president and present. He currently is a member of the division focused on planetary systems and astrobiology. Chapman also worked on the science teams of the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, Galileo and Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission.
In addition to 3 books on the inner planets, Chapman often contributes to Sky and Telescope, Astronomy Magazine, The New Scientist and The Planetary Report as well as articles on planetary subjects in The New Encyclopedia Britannica and The Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He also was the first editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
Awards.
1999 Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science
2000 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science


University of New Hampshire Observatory

University of New Hampshire Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of New Hampshire. It is located in Durham, New Hampshire (USA) near the old Durham Reservoir. The main telescope is a Schmidt–Cassegrain reflecting telescope donated to the observatory in 1984. It is used only for educational purposes.


September 2025 lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse will take place on September 7, 2025. The Moon will barely miss the center of the Earth's shadow.
Visibility.
It will be completely visible over much of Asia, Australia and eastern Africa, will be seen rising over the rest of Africa and Europe, and setting over eastern Asia and New Zealand.
Related eclipses.
Saros series.
Lunar Saros 128 contains 15 total lunar eclipses between 1845 and 2097 (in years 1845, 1867, 1881, 1899, 1917, 1935, 1953, 1971, 1989, 2007, 2025, 2043, 2061, 2079 and 2097). Solar Saros 135 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.
Metonic cycle (19 years).
This eclipse is the second of four Metonic cycle lunar eclipses on the same date, September 7, each separated by 19 years:
Half-Saros cycle.
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 135.


NGC 5548

NGC 5548 is a Type I Seyfert galaxy with a bright, active nucleus. This activity is caused by matter flowing onto a 65 million solar mass () supermassive black hole at the core. Morphologically, this is an unbarred lenticular galaxy with tightly-wound spiral arms, while shell and tidal tail features suggest that it has undergone a cosmologically-recent merger or interaction event. NGC 5548 is approximately 245 million light years away and appears in the constellation Boötes. The apparent visual magnitude of NGC 5548 is approximately 13.3 in the V band.
In 1943, this galaxy was one of twelve nebulae listed by American astronomer Carl Keenan Seyfert that showed broad emission lines in their nuclei. Members of this class of objects became known as Seyfert galaxies, and they were noted to have a higher than normal surface brightness in their nuclei. Observation of NGC 5548 during the 1960s with radio telescopes showed an enhanced level of radio emission. Spectrograms of the nucleus made in 1966 showed that the energized region was confined to a volume a few parsecs across, where temperature were around and the plasma had a dispersion velocity of ±450 km/s.
Among astronomers, the accepted explanation for the active nucleus in NGC 5548 is the accretion of matter onto a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the core. This object is surrounded by an orbiting disk of accreted matter drawn in from the surroundings. As material is drawn into the outer parts of this disk, it becomes photoionized, producing broad emission lines in the optical and ultraviolet bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. A wind of ionized matter, organized in filamentary structures at distances of 1–14 light days from the center, is flowing outward in the direction perpendicular to the accretion disk plane.
The mass of the central black hole can be estimated based on the properties of the emission lines in the core region. Combined measurements yield an estimated mass of . In other words, it is some 65 million times the mass of the Sun. This result is consistent with other methods of estimating the mass of the SMBH in the nucleus of NGC 5548. Matter is falling onto this black hole at the estimated rate of per year, whereas mass is flowing outward from the core at or above the rate of each year. The inner part of the accretion disk surrounding the SMBH forms a thick, hot corona spanning several light hours that is emitting X-rays. When this radiation reaches the optically thick part of the accretion disk at a radius of around 1–2 light days, the X-rays are converted into heat.


Icelandic calendar


Solar System Research

Solar System Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal which focuses on objects in the Solar system. The journal is published by Nauka through Springer Science+Business Media. It is the English version of the Russian publication Astronomicheskii Vestnik ("Астрономический вестник"), which was first published in 1967. The English version started in 2000 with Volume 34.
Abstracting and indexing.
The journal is abstracted and indexed in the following databases:
According to "Journal Citation Reports", the journal has a 2018 impact factor of 0.864.


Carl E. Heiles

Carl Eugene Heiles (born 1939) is an American astrophysicist noted for his contribution to the understanding of diffuse interstellar matter through observational radio astronomy.
Biography.
Heiles was born in Toledo, Ohio. He did his undergraduate work at Cornell University, receiving a degree in engineering physics, and then received his doctorate under George B. Field in 1966 from Princeton University in astrophysical sciences. He has worked at the University of California, Berkeley since, and is currently a professor of astronomy.
Research.
While Heiles was still a graduate student at Princeton, he wrote a paper with Michel Hénon about a third integral of motion in axisymmetric potentials, from which the Hénon-Heiles equation is drawn. Though his paper with Hénon has been cited more than all but one of his other papers, most of Heiles's work has been in the field of radio astronomy. Heiles was part of the team which discovered the first millisecond pulsar, PSR B1937+21. Heiles has also been pivotal in understanding the diffuse gas in the interstellar medium, primarily through observation of the hydrogen line. His role in this field is such that a conference at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on diffuse matter was held in honor of Heiles's 65th birthday. Observations of this gas has helped develop a better understanding of star formation and galactic gravitational and magnetic fields.
Honors.
He was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.


Chunshe

Chunshe (Spring Community Day) is a traditional folk festival originating from China. In Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou，it was a carnival where lovers could date. Gradually, it became a sacrifice ritual to appease/in honour of Tudishen (God of the Soil and the Ground). People usually celebrate this festival on the fifth Wu Day (according to Sexagenary cycle) after Lichun, which is near "Chunfen. According to folklore, the date could be February 2, February 8, February 12, February 15 based on the lunar calendar."
The record of Chunshe can be traced as far back as on oracle bones. With a history of more than 2000 years, it is one of China's oldest festivals. Chunshe remained a significant traditional festival in China before the Yuan Dynasty. Nowadays, though part of China (including mainland and Taiwan) still keeps the custom of worshiping Tudigong on "February 2 (lunar calendar)", the new celebration, now called Tudidan (the birthday of Tudigong), is not exactly the same as the traditional one. The Longtaitou Festival (meaning dragon raising its head), which is celebrated by the northern region of China, also retains some customs of Chunshe. A scholar once summarized the whole trajectory of Chunshe as "originating in the period of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, springing up in the Qin and Han dynasties, continuing in Wei, Jin, and the Northern and Southern dynasties, flourishing in Tang and Song dynasties and declining in Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.".
Like many other traditional festivals relevant to sacrifice, Chunshe can be divided into two types according to different hosts, namely the official Chunshe and the folk Chunshe. Official celebrations were grand and solemn with complex ceremonials, while the folk ones were full of life. People would hold parties in their communities and attend various leisure activities at that day. The customs included beating drums, feasting, drinking and watching drama in the community. Such merry occasions were rare. The Chinese word “Shehui" (society) actually has its root in community activities in Chunshe.
Every year, the festival of Sheri (Community Day) is held two times, one in spring and one in autumn. It was because ancient Chinese believed that "the prayer in spring can be rewarded in autumn":540. Shang Binghe, a famous scholar of "I Ching" at the turn of the Republic of China, described Sheri as "the oldest and the most prevailing festival in Chinese history". One of its legacies is the temples housing the Tudishen which are still common across China.
History.
Originates "in the period of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties".
In ancient China, "She", according to "Shuowen Jiezi," refers to the deity of the land . In ancient times, the main way of food acquisition in China changed from fishing, hunting and animal husbandry to agriculture. Therefore, people came to realize the importance of the land and began to worship it. The land was personalized and then the idea of "deity of the land" came into existence. The rulers, as well as the people at that period, began to offer sacrifices to the deity. The descriptions of the ceremony could be found in oracle bone scripts. Gradually, these customs of sacrifice developed into what people later called Chunshe. It is fair to say that Chunshe can be dated back to the time when the "deity of the land" was created, namely the late patriarchal clan society。.
In general, the purposes of Chunshe include:
A considerable amount of scholars reckon that In addition to the deity of the land, people also offer sacrifice to the deity of five grains.
In the early Qin Dynasty, celebrations of Chunshe could last for a relatively long time as all sacrifices made to the land in spring can be called Chunshe. At that time, the celebrations included two major types. One type was the sacrifices to the land and ancestors :42 while the other one called Chunxi (spring carnival) was more entertaining in which people can have orgies.
Before the Warring States period, "Shela" was the only festival:414. Once, after the recovery of a disease, King Zhaoxiang of Qin ordered to kill the cow and offer it as a sacrifice. However, he was dissuaded by Gongsun Yan as the time for Shela was yet to come.
Types of Chunshe.
Chunshe can be divided into different types according to its hosts. There are Da’ she (the one hosted by the King for the nation) , Guoshe ( hosted by feudatories for the people ), Hou’ she (the feudatories’ own celebration ) and Zhi'she (hosted by officials in groups). The sacrifices presided over by the rulers are often referred to as official Chunshe with all resources funded by the government. Since the early period of Qin, the official Chunshe did not see many changes in terms of ritual, process and function. However, in different dynasties where there are different political systems and various names for the administrative unit, the name of Chunshe also changed accordingly.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period, great changes took place in the social and political structure. The types of Chunshe was no longer determined by the rank of the host but by regions. Zhi'she gradually evolved into “Li'she” (the folk Chunshe). Li'she was usually presided over by the local government official and the cost was shared by the people themselves. This form of activity greatly boosted public enthusiasm to participate in social affairs, strengthened the social function of the folk Chunshe, and finally settle it as a festival.
The official sacrifice has to follow a full set of etiquette including burying the sacrificial offering, dropping blood on the ground and using a human sacrifice 。
During the spring and autumn period, there were mainly two ways of offering sacrifices in Li'she. One was to offer to gods the quarry hunted together by 25 families. The second was to offer sacrifices together. After the sacrifice, all participants gathered together, eating and drinking to their heart’s content . This was a festival that the whole community would participate in. It was a time for party and feast ，. There is a lively description of the scene of Chunshe in Lao Tzu “the street is dense with the merry crowd”. Shang Binghe called it “an orgy in the name of sacrifice” . The lively scene even attracted Duke Zhuang of Lu to the state of Qi to watch its sacrificial rites.
In the early Qin period, people attached great importance to social sacrifice . Zi Lu, a disciple of Confucius, was nearly sent to prison by the locals just because he tried to catch the bird in the tree for sacrifice. Luckily, the local people accepted their apology and forgave him.


Megan Donahue

Megan Donahue is an American astronomer who studies galaxies and galaxy clusters. She is a professor of physics and astrophysics at Michigan State University, and the president of the American Astronomical Society for the 2018–2020 term.
Education and career.
Donahue graduated in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985, and completed her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1990 under the supervision of J. Michael Shull and John T. Stocke.
After postdoctoral research at the Carnegie Institution for Science she joined the Space Telescope Science Institute for a second postdoctoral visit in 1993, and stayed on there in other capacities until joining the Michigan State faculty in 2003.
Books.
She is a co-author of three books in the Pearson Cosmic Perspective Series of astronomy textbooks: "The Cosmic Perspective" (8th ed., 2016, also published as two separate volumes), "The Essential Cosmic Perspective" (7th ed., 2014), and "The Cosmic Perspective Fundamentals" (2nd ed., 2015).
Awards and honors.
Donahue was the 1993 winner of the Robert J. Trumpler Award for best recent dissertation in astronomy.
In 2012 she became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2016 she was elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society.


Charles Todd (pioneer)

Sir Charles Todd (7 July 1826 – 29 January 1910) worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory 1841–1847 and the Cambridge University observatory from 1847 to 1854. He then worked on telegraphy and undersea cables until engaged by the government of South Australia as astronomical and meteorological observer, and head of the electric telegraph department.
Early life and career.
Todd was the son of grocer Griffith Todd and Mary Parker; he was born at Islington, London, the third of five children. Shortly after Charles's birth the family moved to Greenwich, where his father set up as a wine and tea merchant. Charles was educated and spent most of his life in Greenwich before moving to Australia.
In December 1841, he entered the service of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, under Sir George Biddell Airy. He was fortunate that his school leaving coincided with the Astronomer Royal being granted special funding to employ an additional four young men as computers to analyse, calibrate and publish a backlog of 80 years of data. While at the Royal Observatory he was one of the earliest observers of the planet Neptune in 1846.
He was promoted to Assistant Astronomer at the Cambridge Observatory in November 1847,and officially confirmed in the position the following February. While here he used the recently built Northumberland telescope, and he was the first person to take daguerreotype photographs of the moon through it. While at Cambridge he also gained experience in using the telegraph.
In May 1854, shortly before his appointment to South Australia, he was placed in charge of the newly formed Galvanic Department at Greenwich. This was to be an extension of work he had done using the electric telegraph at Cambridge.
In February 1855, he accepted the position of Astronomical and Meteorological Observer, and Head of Electric Telegraph Department in South Australia.
 Meteorology was work done by astronomers; it was the recording of data so that the climate in different regions was known. The Royal Observatory was run by the Admiralty. Accurate calculation of time was an important part of the Royal Observatory's responsibilities. Greenwich Time had long been used at sea; ship's navigators relied on its accuracy to calculate their longitude.
During Todd's time at the Greenwich and Cambridge observatories the railway system was expanding, and the electric telegraph was invented. Faster railway travel, and the need for timetables and signalling systems, necessitated a change from using solar time in different regions to a standardised railway or London time (later Greenwich Mean Time). The electric telegraph made it possible to transmit information, including time, at practically instantaneous speed. So the development of the electric telegraph was driven by the requirements of the railways.
At about the time Charles Todd moved to Cambridge, George Airy arranged the connection of the Greenwich Observatory to the nearby telegraph line that was being built by the South Eastern Railway. This gave the observatories access to the electric telegraph, and the railway company access to accurate time.
Once the electric telegraph was in place, the observatory was able to control clocks and time balls at any place there was telegraphic connection. It was also possible to perform a number of astronomical and other experiments. While at Cambridge, Charles Todd was a member of a team that determined the exact degrees of longitude at Greenwich and Cambridge using the electric telegraph.
Todd's work as head of the Galvanic Department at Greenwich was to be an extension of his work using the electric telegraph. In particular, it was to transmit electric time signals to slave clocks and time balls, and to co-ordinate simultaneous astronomical or meteorological observations at multiple distant locations.
Arrival in Adelaide.
Todd, along with his 19-year-old wife Alice Gillam Bell (after whom Alice Springs is named), arrived in Adelaide on 5 November 1855. They were accompanied by Todd's assistant, 24-year-old Edward Cracknell and his wife. (Cracknell subsequently became superintendent of telegraphs in New South Wales). On his arrival Todd found that his department was a very small one without a single telegraph line.
His first commission was to erect a telegraph line between Adelaide city centre and Port Adelaide. Such a line had been mooted some years before, and impatient with the lack of action and seeing its commercial possibilities, James Macgeorge installed one privately, cleverly avoiding obstacles put in his way by the government, and had it operating in 1855. Todd's line, more direct and technically superior (and far more expensive) was opened in February 1856, and in June of that year he recommended that a line between Adelaide and Melbourne should be constructed. Todd personally rode over much of the country through which the line would have to pass. Todd and Samuel Walker McGowan, his counterpart in Victoria, proceeded to link the two colonies' telegraph systems near Mount Gambier in July 1858.
Overland Telegraph Line.
In 1857 or 1859 Todd conceived the idea of the transcontinental telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin. Most of the country in between except for the explorations of Charles Sturt and others was unknown, and it was many years before Todd could convince the South Australian government of the practicability of the scheme.
In January 1863 Todd addressed the Adelaide Philosophical Society about the possibility of building telegraph routes that would link to an overseas cable. In 1868 the direct line between Adelaide and Sydney was completed and was used to determine the 141st meridian, the boundary line between South Australia and Victoria. Todd's calculations showed it to be 2¼ miles farther east than had previously been determined. This led to the long-drawn-out dispute between the two colonies.
By 1870 it had been decided that the Australian Overland Telegraph Line should be constructed from Port Augusta in the south to Port Darwin in the north, though the other colonies declined to share in the cost. The southern and northern sections of the line were let by contract, and the 1000 miles in between was constructed by the department.
The contractor at the northern end threw up his contract and Todd had to go to the north himself and finish it. Everything had to be sent by sea and then carted, but he met each difficulty as it arose, and overcame it successfully. The line was completed on 22 August 1872, but the undersea cable to Darwin had broken and communication with England was not effected until 21 October. After the first messages had been exchanged over the new line, Todd was accompanied by surveyor Richard Randall Knuckey on the return journey from Central Mount Stuart to Adelaide, to be met by an enthusiastic crowd.
His next great work was a line from Port Augusta, South Australia to Eucla in Western Australia – a distance of – in 1876, again surveyed by Knuckey.
Postmaster General of South Australia.
In 1870 the Post Office and the Telegraph Department were amalgamated, and Charles Todd was appointed Postmaster General. At this time Todd was busy with the construction of the Overland Telegraph. There were problems with the running of the Post Office culminating in two robberies. Consequently, in 1874 a Government Inquiry was held into the workings of the Post Office. The outcome of the inquiry was positive; Todd was able to implement reforms that improved both the working conditions of Post Office employees and the services provided by them.
He was held in high esteem by his staff, and he continued to control his department with ability.
When the colonies were federated in 1901 it was found that, in spite of its large area and sparse population, South Australia was the only one whose post and telegraphic department was carried on at a profit. Todd continued in office as deputy-postmaster-general until 1905.
Meteorological work.
Charles Todd was one of the pioneers of meteorology in Australasia. As the Government Meteorological Observer for the Colony of South Australia, he worked with his counterparts in the other British colonies and established the Australia-New Zealand weather observation network. His work in meteorology started with his arrival in South Australia, as he had brought with him a number of meteorological instruments that had been calibrated to instruments at Greenwich.
However, his main contribution to meteorology began with the completion of the Australian and New Zealand telegraph systems in the mid to late 1870s. Being at the centre of the network, Todd used weather observations from all the Colonies to create extensive synoptic charts. In the early 1880s Todd and his staff at the West Terrace Observatory in Adelaide were drawing inter-continental weather charts that had greater geographical reach than any other jurisdiction in the world.
Todd's ability to pull together the individual threads of technology, weather science, and a widely dispersed group of weather observers put him in the forefront of the profession. His chief mentor in this field was James Glaisher, one of the founders of the science of meteorology.
Todd is believed to be one of the first meteorologists to suggest that local climate was affected by global phenomena. Todd noted that abnormally high atmospheric pressure in India was matched with similar extremes in Australia, typically resulting in parallel droughts thousands of kilometres apart. This particular phenomenon is now recognised as part of the Southern Oscillation which in turn is part of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). These globally linked meteorological phenomena are termed teleconnections and Todd was one of the first to recognise their effect.
One of Todd's legacies is the 63-volume Weather Folio collection covering the period 1879–1909. These volumes have been digitally imaged by volunteers of the Australian Meteorological Society in conjunction with the South Australian Regional Office of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Atmospheric pressure data from these journals has been digitised and sent to the NOAA for inclusion in the International Surface Pressure Databank as part of the ACRE project.
Government Electrician.
Charles Todd had many responsibilities, but during his lifetime he referred to himself as "Government Electrician". He promoted the use of electric light in the colony by giving demonstrations of the electric arc lamp, the first in 1860. In 1867 he demonstrated the arc lamp in King William St, lighting up from the Town Hall to North Terrace (about 500m). He was instrumental in having electric lighting installed at the 1887 Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition, the first in Australia to do so.
Also in 1887, the South Australian Electrical Society was established with Charles Todd as president. He was influential in setting up the first electrical engineering course in SA.
Todd was appointed to a commission to add electric lighting to Parliament House in 1890; he supervised the installation the following year. Two years later the GPO finally had electric light.
In 1899 Todd, with his son-in-law William Henry Bragg, demonstrated a wireless system that could be used over a distance of 4 km; but at this time was too expensive to be put into practice.
Finally, Todd was responsible for drawing up the draft document which would regulate electricity supply in the newly federated Australian states.
Astronomical work.
Though so much of his time was taken up by the duties of the postal department, Todd did not neglect his work as government astronomer. Using the Adelaide Observatory (completed in 1860), which was thoroughly equipped with astronomical and meteorological instruments, he contributed valuable observations to the scientific world on the transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882, the cloudy haze over Jupiter in 1876, the parallax of Mars in 1878, and on other occasions.
He selected the site of the new observatory for Perth in 1895 and advised on the building and instruments to be obtained. He was the author of numerous papers on scientific subjects, many of which were printed in the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society".
Surveying.
As "Astronomical Observer" Todd was responsible for accurate setting of the position and the time at the colony, these were part of his initial tasks on his appointment.
The precise position of the Adelaide Observatory was calculated by astronomical observations, enabling a standard point for geodetic surveys to be set.
In 1882 the South Australian Institute of Surveyors was established with Charles Todd as its inaugural president.
From 1886 until his retirement in 1905, Todd set and marked the astronomy paper that formed part of the exams for candidates aiming to become licensed surveyors. His best known work in surveying was his participation in setting the boundary line between South Australia and New South Wales that resulted in a call for a change in the existing boundary between South Australia and Victoria. This call led to a lengthy dispute between the two colonies which was finally settled in Victoria's favour.
Other achievements.
The accurate determination of time was achieved by astronomical observations using a transit telescope. The Adelaide Post Office clock was installed in 1875 and it became a key timekeeper for Adelaide.
In his official report to Parliament in 1862 Todd pressed the Government for a time ball to be installed near the port. An accurate signal would be sent by telegraph from the Adelaide Observatory to the port. Time balls were dropped daily at ports so that ship navigators could set their chronometers accurately, a small inaccuracy in a chronometer resulted in large inaccuracies in navigation.
Todd and the Harbour Master made repeated requests for a time ball in the following years. Port Adelaide was visited by more ships after the completion of the Overland Telegraph, and approval by Parliament was eventually given in 1874 to build the time ball at Semaphore. It was completed in 1875, and is believed to have been designed by Todd and manufactured locally.
Later career.
In 1885 he attended the international telegraphic conference at Berlin, the following year Todd travelled to Great Britain, where he was made an honorary M.A. of the University of Cambridge. In 1889 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, London. He was also a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Meteorological Society and of the Society of Electrical Engineers. Todd continued in his duties to posts and telegraphs in South Australia, until the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia took over all such services on 1 March 1901 and Todd became a federal public servant at the age of 74. He retired in December 1906, having been over 51 years in the service of the South Australian and Commonwealth governments.
Death and legacy.
Todd died at his summer home, Semaphore, near Adelaide, on 29 January 1910, and was buried at North Road Cemetery, Adelaide, on 31 January. The Sir Charles Todd Building at the University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus is named after him. The Astronomical Society of South Australia have also named the observatory that houses their 20-inch Jubilee Telescope, the Sir Charles Todd Observatory. Each year the Telecommunications Society of Australia invites a prominent member of the telecommunications industry to present the Charles Todd Oration and awards a medal to the industry high achiever best embodying the pioneer spirit. He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Institute of Engineers Australia.
The ephemeral Todd River and its tributary, the Charles River, in the Northern Territory were named after Todd, and a waterhole in the bed of the Todd River was named Alice Springs for his wife, Alice, and subsequently used for the telegraph station, and later the town.
Family.
Todd married Alice Gillam Bell (7 August 1836 – 9 August 1898) on 5 April 1855. Their children were:


Cora Dvorkin

Cora Dvorkin is an Argentine physicist who is an Associate Professor at the Physics Department at Harvard University. Prof. Dvorkin is a theoretical cosmologist. Her areas of research are: the nature of dark matter, neutrinos and other light relics, and the physics of the early universe. Dvorkin is the Harvard Representative at the newly NSF-funded Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI)'s Board.
She has been awarded the 2019 DOE Early Career award and has been named the "2018 Scientist of the year" by the Harvard Foundation for "Salient Contributions to Physics, Cosmology and STEM Education". She has also been awarded a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship and a Shutzer Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute. In 2020, Dvorkin gave a talk on machine learning applied to the search for dark matter as part of the TEDx Río de la Plata event.
Early life and education.
Dvorkin was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She received her diploma in Physics at the University of Buenos Aires with honors. She moved to the University of Chicago for her graduate studies,where she earned her Ph.D. in the Department of Physics in 2011 and where she won the "Sydney Bloomenthal Fellwship" for "outstandung performance in her research". She has conducted postdoctoral research at the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2011-2014) and at the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2014-2015), where she was both a Hubble Fellow and an ITC fellow.
Research and career.
Dvorkin joined the faculty at Harvard University in the fall of 2015. She makes use of Cosmic microwave background observations, gravitational lensing and the Large-scale structure of the Universe of the universe to better understand the nature of the dark sector.
Dvorkin has made significant theoretical contributions to the study of dark matter, focusing on a broad range of observational probes.
She has pushed the frontiers of sub-GeV dark matter using CMB and large-scale structure data. She has been involved in leading the science goals for the DOE-funded next-generation CMB experiment ("CMB-S4"), for which these scenarios are being proposed as the main driver of the dark matter science case.
She has developed with her research group a novel formalism aimed at probing dark matter at small scales using gravitational lensing, by means of statistical measurements of dark matter substructure. She has also pioneered the use of machine learning techniques to find dark matter subhalos in lensing systems.
Dvorkin has pioneered a model-independent method for probing the shape of the inflationary potential. She has also constructed new theoretical templates for higher-order correlation functions of the initial curvature perturbations that could shed light on the physical properties of particles with non-zero spin during inflation as well as possible phase transitions during the early universe. She developed statistical tools to look for these correlation functions in the Cosmic Microwave Background and the large-scale structure data measured by current and future surveys.
In 2014-2015, she joined the joint analysis between BICEP2, the Keck array, and Planck collaboration. She worked on the likelihood analysis of a multi-component model that included Galactic foregrounds and a possible contribution from inflationary gravity waves. No statistically significant evidence for primordial gravitational waves and a strong evidence for galactic dust were reported in this work.
Dvorkin is also extremely dedicated to supporting underrepresented minorities and women in science.


Sailor Moon Sailor Stars

The fifth and final season of the "Sailor Moon" anime series, titled , was directed by Takuya Igarashi and produced by Toei Animation. Like the rest of the "Sailor Moon" series, it follows the adventures of Usagi Tsukino and her fellow Sailor Guardians. The series is divided into two story arcs. The first 6 episodes consist of a self-contained arc in which the Sailor Guardians encounter Queen Nehelenia again. The remaining 28 episodes adapt material from the "Stars" act of the "Sailor Moon" manga series by Naoko Takeuchi, in which the Sailor Guardians meet up with the Sailor Starlights, led by Princess Kakyuu. They discover that Sailor Galaxia, the leader of the "Shadow Galactica" organization and a corrupted Sailor Guardian, plans to increase her powers and rule the Milky Way.
The season began broadcasting on TV Asahi on March 9, 1996 and ended on February 8, 1997 for 34 episodes. It was later released on DVD in six compilations with five episodes, by Toei, from September 26 to November 21, 2005. In May 2014, Viz Media announced that they licensed the series from the start for an uncut release, and also that they plan to release the fifth season on Blu-ray and DVD. On December 14, 2015, Viz Media streamed the first episode of "Sailor Moon Sailor Stars", along with the series finale of "Sailor Moon SuperS", on Hulu in the United States, followed by a streaming release of the entire show on Tubi TV in Canada on July 15, 2016. The first 17 episodes of "Sailor Stars" were released on Blu-ray and DVD in a dual-language format on June 18, 2019. The rest were released on November 12, 2019.
Three pieces of theme music were used: one opening theme and two ending themes. The opening theme, titled "Sailor Star Song", is performed by Kae Hanazawa. The ending theme, used for the first 33 episodes, is "Kaze mo Sora mo Kitto..." performed by Alisa Mizuki. The second and final ending theme is "Moonlight Densetsu" performed by Moon Lips.
Bandai released two video games in 1996 to promote this season: "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Stars" for Sega Pico, and "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Stars: Fuwa Fuwa Panic 2" for Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Episode list (1996–1997).
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Solar minimum

Solar minimum is the period of least solar activity in the 11-year solar cycle of the Sun. During this time, sunspot and solar flare activity diminishes, and often does not occur for days at a time. The date of the minimum is described by a smoothed average over 12 months of sunspot activity, so identifying the date of the solar minimum usually can only happen 6 months after the minimum takes place.
Solar minimum is contrasted with the solar maximum, when hundreds of sunspots may occur.
Solar minimum and solar maximum.
Solar minima and maxima are the two extremes of the Sun's 11-year and 400-year activity cycle. At a maximum, the Sun is peppered with sunspots, solar flares erupt, and the Sun hurls billion-ton clouds of electrified gas into space. Sky watchers may see more auroras, and space agencies must monitor radiation storms for astronaut protection. Power outages, satellite malfunctions, communication disruptions, and GPS receiver malfunctions are just a few of the things that can happen during a solar maximum.
At a solar minimum, there are fewer sunspots and solar flares subside. Sometimes, days or weeks go by without a spot.
Predicting solar minimum cycles.
Their non-linear character makes predictions of solar activity very difficult. The solar minimum is characterized by a period of decreased solar activity with few, if any, sunspots. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) also developed a computer model of solar dynamics (Solar dynamo) for more accurate predictions and have confidence in the forecast based upon a series of test runs with the newly developed model simulating the strength of the past eight solar cycles with more than 98% accuracy.
In hindsight the prediction proved to be wildly inaccurate and not representative of the observed sunspot numbers.
During 2008–09 NASA scientists noted that the Sun is undergoing a "deep solar minimum," stating: "There were no sunspots observed on 266 of [2008's] 366 days (73%). Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008. Sunspot counts for 2009 dropped even lower. As of September 14, 2009 there were no sunspots on 206 of the year's 257 days (80%). Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center came to the following conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum." His statement was confirmed by other specialists in the field. "This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agreed sunspot expert David Hathaway of the National Space Science and Technology Center NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center.
Grand solar minima and maxima.
Grand solar minima occur when several solar cycles exhibit lesser than average activity for decades or centuries. Solar cycles still occur during these grand solar minimum periods but are at a lower intensity than usual. The grand minima form a special mode of the solar dynamo operation.
A list of historical Grand minima of solar activity includes also Grand minima ca. 690 AD, 360 BC, 770 BC, 1390 BC, 2860 BC, 3340 BC, 3500 BC, 3630 BC, 3940 BC, 4230 BC, 4330 BC, 5260 BC, 5460 BC, 5620 BC, 5710 BC, 5990 BC, 6220 BC, 6400 BC, 7040 BC, 7310 BC, 7520 BC, 8220 BC, 9170 BC.


Warner and Swasey Observatory

The Warner and Swasey Observatory is the astronomical observatory of Case Western Reserve University. Named after Worcester R. Warner and Ambrose Swasey, who built it at the beginning of the 20th century, it was initially located on Taylor Road in East Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The observatory, which at that time housed a refractor, was donated in 1919 to the Case School of Applied Science. The newer Burrell Schmidt telescope was built in 1939.
Due to rising light pollution in Cleveland, a new station in Geauga County's Montville Township was established in 1950s. Named after Jason John Nassau, the station initially housed the Burrell telescope, which was later moved to Kitt Peak National Observatory. Instead of Burrell the station was equipped with the 36-inch robotic telescope. In 2008 Nassau Station was sold to the Geauga Park District and subsequently incorporated into its Observatory Park.
The observatory currently operates the old 9.5-inch refractor (now known as the rooftop telescope) at the university's University Circle campus, and the Burrell Schmidt telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The old site on Taylor Road was sold in 1983.
History.
The observatory was originally built by Worchester R. Warner and Ambrose Swasey, owners of Warner & Swasey Company, which made precision instruments and telescopes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They became trustees of the Case School of Applied Science (later renamed to Case Institute of Technology), and built an observatory in East Cleveland, which they gave to the school in 1919. This original observatory building was located on Taylor Road four miles east of the university campus and housed a 9.5-inch refractor, and was dedicated in 1920. The building was designed by the firm of Walker and Weeks. In subsequent years the observatory grew to house several more telescopes and instruments, such as the 24-inch Burrell Schmidt telescope, as well as an astronomical library and public lecture hall.
In the 1950s, it became apparent that the light pollution from Cleveland was beginning to make cutting-edge research impossible from the East Cleveland site. A new site was constructed 30 miles to the east in Geauga County, known today as the Nassau Station, and the Burrell Schmidt telescope was moved to this location. In order to compensate for the move, a 36-inch telescope was soon installed at the Taylor Road facility.
In 1978, the Astronomy Department of Case Western Reserve University made a deal with the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) to build a new observatory at Kitt Peak National Observatory to house the Burrell Schmidt. The telescope was moved from Ohio to Arizona in May 1979, and in 1980 the 36-inch reflector on Taylor Road was moved to the Nassau Station. This meant no further astronomical work was done at the Taylor Road facility, and as a result the faculty and resources of the original observatory were moved to the main campus of Case Western Reserve University in 1982. The Taylor Road facility was sold in 1983, was abandoned, and remained neglected until 2005 when it was sold to a couple who planned to convert the building into a residence. The plans stalled when its new owner was convicted of mortgage fraud and sent to prison in 2007.
Telescopes.
Burrell Schmidt Telescope.
The 24-inch Burrell Schmidt Telescope was originally built in 1939 by Warner & Swasey Company of Cleveland, Ohio and was housed at the Taylor Road facility. It is currently housed at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. The telescope recently had its optics upgraded with a very wide field of view CCD array, which is much more sensitive than the photographic plates. It is the instrument used today by the Case astronomers.
Nassau Station Robotic Observatory.
The Nassau Station, originally constructed in the 1950s, currently houses a 36-inch reflecting telescope. It is named after observatory director Jason John Nassau, who was a prominent astronomer at the time. Work was carried out in the 1990s to make the telescope capable of remote viewing, making it one of the first telescopes to be used in this manner. However, it was seldom used by Case astronomers due to increased light pollution from Cleveland and the enhanced capabilities of the Burrell Schmidt. As a result, the observatory was left unused for several years until 2008, when it was sold to the Geauga Park District. The park district reopened the facility as part of its Observatory Park on June 16, 2012. The park was designated as a dark sky park by the International Dark Sky Association.
Rooftop Telescope.
The Rooftop Telescope is a 9.5-inch refractor that was originally constructed in 1894 by Warner and Swasey for their own use. The telescope was the first instrument of the Warner and Swasey Observatory and was originally used at the Taylor Road facility, but was put into storage when the Astronomy Department of Case Western Reserve University was relocated to the A. W. Smith building on the main campus. In 1986 the telescope was reinstalled in a new dome on the roof of the A. W. Smith building.
The telescope remains in excellent condition today and is available for use by all students, faculty, and staff at CWRU once they go through a seminar on proper telescope use. It is also often used for public observing nights by the university's Physics and Astronomy Club.
Research.
Observers using the Warner and Swasey Observatory have made important contributions to astronomical research. An early example is work carried out by the observatory's then director, Jason Nassau, on the classification of carbon stars and M-type stars in 1949; more recently, observations made using the Burrell Schmidt telescope led to the discovery of the galaxy Andromeda VIII in 2003. This galaxy orbits the more famous Andromeda Galaxy, and was previously undiscovered due to its position in front of the bright disk of the parent galaxy. The Burrell Schmidt has also recently been used to image the intracluster light in the Virgo Cluster. The intracluster light is a thousand times fainter than the night sky, and was observed after combining seventy images of the cluster which were taken with the Burrell Schmidt telescope.


December 2009 lunar eclipse

A partial lunar eclipse was visible on December 31, 2009. It was the last and largest of four minor lunar eclipses in 2009. This lunar eclipse is also notable, because it occurred during a blue moon (a second full moon in December). The next eclipse on New Year's Eve and blue moon will occur on December 31, 2028.
Only a small portion of the Moon entered the Earth's umbral shadow, but there was a distinct darkening visible over the Moon's southern surface at greatest eclipse.
Visibility.
It was visible from all of Africa, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Australia. In the Philippines, the lunar eclipse was started last January 1, 2010, when it was very visible at mid-dawn until before sunrise.
Photos.
<BR>Progression from Degania A, Israel
Related eclipses.
Lunar year (354 days).
This eclipse is the one of four lunar eclipses in a short-lived series. The lunar year series repeats after 12 lunations or 354 days (Shifting back about 10 days in sequential years). Because of the date shift, the Earth's shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.
Half-Saros cycle.
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two partial solar eclipses of Solar Saros 122.


Andrea Di Paola

Andrea Di Paola (born 1970) is an Italian astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets.
He works at the Rome Observatory and has been significantly involved in the CINEOS project. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the co-discovery of 11 numbered minor planets during 1996–1997, all made in collaboration with Italian astronomer Andrea Boattini.
The main-belt asteroid 27130 Dipaola, discovered by Andrea Boattini and Maura Tombelli in 1998, is named in his honour. Naming citation was published on 6 August 2003 ().


Francis Mugliston

Francis Hugh Mugliston OBE (7 June 1886 – 3 October 1932) was an English cricketer. A right-handed batsman and right-arm slow-medium bowler, he played first-class cricket for various teams between 1905 and 1911, mainly for Cambridge University. He was an all-round sportsman at Cambridge University where he won Blues for cricket, Association football and golf.
Career.
Born 7 June 1886 in Singapore, Mugliston was educated at Rossall School and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was captain of the Cambridge football team and also played soccer for Corinthian F.C., the amateur club, including a tour of South Africa with the team in 1907.
Mugliston's first recorded cricket match was for the Straits Settlements against the Federated Malay States in February 1905. The same year, he made his first-class debut, playing for Cambridge University against Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, also playing three matches for the Lancashire Second XI that year.
He played twice more for Cambridge University in 1906, also playing two County Championship matches for Lancashire against Somerset and Sussex that year. He played several first-class matches for the University side in 1907 and 1908, gaining his blue in both years. He also represented the university at golf and football.
He played his final five matches for Lancashire in 1908, following which he played first-class cricket sporadically between 1909 and 1911, including one match for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
After cricket.
After leaving Cambridge, he studied law and was called as a barrister to the Inner Temple in 1911; instead of practising law, however, he joined the Sudan civil service, though he was soon invalided home after catching dysentery. He joined the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in September 1914 and was severely wounded at Ypres the following year. Discharged from the army, he joined the Aliens branch of the Home Office and was deputy chief inspector of the Aliens department at the time of his death. He died 3 October 1932 in Mayfair, London.
Francis Mugliston was indeed severely injured at Hooge (Ypres) on 27/28 June 1915. He was rescued by Private Jones (6 / DCLI), my Great Uncle. Under heavy rifle and shell fire Private Jones rescued two men who had been completely buried. He then proceeded to dress a severely wounded officer (Lieutenant Mugliston), carrying him (still under heavy fire) to a dressing station two miles away. For these acts of ‘conspicuous gallantry’ Private Jones was awarded the DCM - the first in Kitchener’s New Army. A picture confirming this was published in the Daily Mirror. He was Gazetted on 6 September 1915.
As an act of gratitude Lieutenant Mugliston presented my Great Uncle with a silver cigarette case inscribed with my Great Uncle’s initials and ‘ From F.H.Mugliston, Hooge 1915’. Private Jones was transferred into the Machine Gun Corps and subsequently listed as ‘Missing presumed K.I.A.’
His body was never found and he is recorded on the Thiepval Monument, Pier and Face 5C and 12C.


Skinakas (hypothetical basin)

The Skinakas basin is the informal name given to a structure on Mercury that appeared to be an extremely large impact basin. The limited-resolution images available showed a double-ringed structure, with the inner ring having a diameter of around 1600 km, which would have made it one of the largest impact basins in the solar system. It appeared to be even larger than the Caloris basin on Mercury, which has been known since the "Mariner 10" flybys of that planet. The part of the outer ring that was imaged appeared to correspond to a diameter of around 2300 km.
The basin was supposedly centered at about and lay on the hemisphere of Mercury that was not imaged by "Mariner 10". This place is situated near an albedo feature Solitudo Aphrodites (). In 2001, it was observed and imaged by ALPO (Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers) members. But it was followed by L. Ksanfomality from lucky imaging observations in 2004. The informal name is after the Skinakas observatory on Crete where the observations were taken. Despite radar images having a far greater resolution they are not useful for detecting very large impact basins such as this one; for example, the Caloris basin is also not visible in radar.
However, careful examination of images by MESSENGER spacecraft showed no evidence of the Skinakas basin.


Bryan Robin

Bryan Percival Robin (12 January 188717 June 1969) was bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, South Australia from 1941 to 1956.
Early life.
Robin was educated at Rossall School and the University of Liverpool.
Religious life.
Robin was made a deacon at Michaelmas 1910 (25 September) and ordained a priest the next Michaelmas (24 September 1911) — both times by William Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon, at Ripon Cathedral. After a curacy at St Margaret's Ilkley he was a member of the Bush Brotherhood of St Barnabas in Northern Queensland from 1914 to 1921. He published a book "The Sundowner" of his experience as a bush brother which attracted others to join the brotherhood. He was canon and Sub-Dean of St James's Cathedral, Townsville and then Warden of St John's College, Brisbane. Returning to England he was Rector of Woodchurch and also Rural Dean of Wirrall North until his appointment as Bishop of Adelaide. He was consecrated bishop on 25 July 1941 at Westminster Abbey. Robin encouraged members of the Society of the Sacred Mission to come to Adelaide from Kelham in England to establish a theological college at St Michael's House in 1947 in order to boost clergy numbers.
In 1956 he retired and returned to England, where he served as Assistant Bishop of Portsmouth from 1958 to 1967.
Later life.
On 17 June 1969 Robin died in his home at Petersfield, Hampshire. He was cremated.


Nigel Howard

Nigel David Howard (18 May 1925 – 31 May 1979) was an English cricketer, who played for Lancashire and England. Born in Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire, he captained England on the tour to India in 1951-52. In the only four Test matches he played in, England won one and drew three, although the series was tied after the Fifth Test was lost (Howard was ill and Donald Carr captained England in his absence). Howard was chosen to lead the side to the sub-continent largely because he was the best available amateur (Len Hutton became the first professional England captain of the 20th century a few months later) and a successful leader of Lancashire (1949–53).
Youth and early career.
Howard's younger brother Barry, also played for Lancashire, and their father Rupert was secretary of Lancashire County Cricket Club for several years. Howard went to Rossall School and played for Rossall Cricket Club. He showed early promise, leading his club's averages for the 1941 and 1942 seasons while still in his teens. As well as performing well at cricket, Howard was also a capable golfer and hockey player, representing Cheshire in both sports.
He made his debut for Lancashire on 25 May 1946. Playing against Middlesex, Howard batted at number four and made scores of 4 and 3 as Lancashire won by seven wickets. It was the only first-class match he played in the year. In the 1946 and 1947 seasons, he scored 131 runs in 7 matches at an average of 14.56. He established himself as a regular player in the 1948 season, in which he scored 944 runs in 23 matches at an average of 36.30. This included his only century of the year; he made 145 against Derbyshire, the highest score of his career, and was awarded his county cap in 1948.
Captaincy.
Howard was officially given the Lancashire captaincy in 1949 at the age of 23, becoming the youngest player to captain Lancashire. He guided the team to a share of the County Championship title in 1950; Lancashire did not win again until 2011. He remained Lancashire's captain until he retired from first-class cricket at the end of 1953.
He led the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) most capably on, and equally importantly in view of the considerable diplomatic demands of those times, off the field, during the tour to India in 1951-52. He soldiered on despite developing pleurisy during the second half of the tour. At county level he was a stylish batsman and excellent fielder.
Post-cricket.
After his cricketing career ended, Howard entered the family textile business. He retired in 1976 and moved to the Isle of Man where he died on 31 May 1979, aged 54.


Hydrus in Chinese astronomy

The modern constellation Hydrus is not included in the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions system of traditional Chinese uranography because its stars are too far south for observers in China to know about them prior to the introduction of Western star charts. Based on the work of Xu Guangqi and the German Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell in the late Ming Dynasty, this constellation has been classified under the 23 "Southern Asterisms" (近南極星區, "Jìnnánjíxīngōu") with the names "Snake's Tail" (蛇尾, "Shéwěi"), "Snake's Abdomen" (蛇腹, "Shéfù"), "Snake's Head" (蛇首, "Shéshǒu") and "White Patched Nearby" (附白, "Fùbái").
The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 水蛇座 ("shuǐ shé zuò"), which means "the water snake constellation".
Stars.
The map of Chinese constellation in constellation Hydrus area consists of:


Astronomical clock, St. Nicholas Church, Stralsund

The astronomical clock of St. Nicholas Church, Stralsund is a 14th century monumental astrolabe clock. It was probably damaged in the 16th century, and has not worked since then. It is the only clock of its kind to have been preserved almost entirely in its original condition. The clockwork and the indications have not been restored.
The Stralsund clock is the oldest mechanical clock in the world to have been preserved in its original state, and one of the oldest fittings in St. Nicholas, first mentioned in 1394. It is positioned in the church's choir, directly behind the high altar. The clock features a self-portrait of its maker Nikolaus Lilienfeld, which is considered to be the oldest portrait of a clockmaker in the German-speaking world.
History.
According to an inscription on the clock, it was completed on Saint Nicholas Day (6 December) 1394 by Nikolaus Lilienfeld. It was probably operational only until the of 10 April 1525 during the Reformation.
In 1894, the dial's gothic decorations were restored.
In August 1942, the clock dial was moved to the tower of St. Mary's Church, Grimmen, to protect it from damage during the War. After the War, it was returned to St. Nicholas. The decorations restored in 1894 were lost.
In 1994, the case was restored and the clockwork cleaned and conserved. The clockwork's missing parts were not reintroduced for reasons of conservation, so the clock was deliberately not restored to working order.
Description.
Clock case.
The clock's case is square, with sides of approximately 4 metres. The dial is round, and touches the sides of the case frame. In the four corners, the are depicted:
On the narrow left side wall of the clock, windows are painted; Nikolaus Lilienfeld, the clockmaker, looks out of one.
Underneath the dial.
The clock case sits on top of a central console with a wide barred window. This was possibly intended to accommodate a calendar disc. The panel paintings either side of the window depict, on the left, a man pushing a door open, with the Latin banner "post deum omnium vivencium vita sol et luna" (After God, the sun and the moon are the life of all living things), representing the morning, and on the right, a man pulling a door closed, with the Latin banner "matutinae imensa munera sed saepe male finiunt" (The morning promises rich rewards, but things often finish badly), representing the evening.
Dial.
In the clock, the sober display of the time and the movements of the heavens are combined. It is both a clock and a clockwork astrolabe.
The Baltic Sea clock family.
Manfred Schukowski classes the Stralsund astronomical clock and several similar clocks in churches around the Baltic Sea as comprising the “Baltic Sea clock family”. All have wooden cases with dimensions of several metres, which are fastened at a height of a few metres between two inner pillars of the church. Often, as in Stralsund, they are positioned behind the high altar, with the dial facing the eastern outer wall of the church. Under the dial there are often wooden pillars, with a rotating calendar disc between them – in Stralsund these are absent, the pillars are merely painted on narrow panels.


Mary R. Calvert

Mary Ross Calvert (June 20, 1884 – June 25, 1974) was an American astronomical computer and astrophotographer. She started as her uncle Edward Emerson Barnard's assistant and ended publishing his (and their) work that cataloged over 300 dark objects (Dark Nebulae) — primarily those that extinguish the most starlight reaching the earth lie between the bulk (inward local sector, central bulge, and other sectors of the Milky Way) thus between the Local Arm (Orion Arm) and the Sagittarius Arm. She went on to publish other photographic works on astronomy.
Early life.
Calvert was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 20, 1884, to Alice Rosamond (Phillips) and Ebenezer Calvert (1850-1924). She was the eldest of their four daughters. Her father's elder sister Rhoda had married the astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard, and out of respect, her parents had called her sister Alice Barnard Calvert.
Her father and his younger brother Peter Ross Calvert (1855-1931) ran Calvert Photography Studio, above the United Cigar Store at the southeast corner of 4th and Union Streets in Nashville. The studio had been founded by J. H. Van Stavoren; Rodney Poole bought it at a chancery court sale in 1871, and the Calvert brothers bought it from Poole in 1896.
Career.
In 1905, she started work at Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin as assistant and computer for her uncle who was also professor of astronomy at the University of Chicago. She stayed at her uncle's house whilst employed by him. He was known for his discovery of the high proper motion of Barnard's Star.
In 1923, when Barnard died, she became curator of the Yerkes photographic plate collection and a high-level assistant, until her retirement in 1946.
Barnard's work "A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way" was completed after his death in 1923 by Edwin B. Frost, director of the Yerkes Observatory, and Calvert. The work was nominally his although Calvert had done the preliminary work under his supervision, but it was she who did the computations necessary to complete the tables, numbered and sketched in darker objects added annotation to the reference stars. Calvert and Frost decided that it should be published in two volumes. The atlas contained 349 dark objects although later editions covered 352 as three had been omitted by mistake. There were several more dark objects that were on the plates but that were not catalogued possibly due to Barnard's death, as both Calvert and Barnard had been aware of them.
Only 700 copies were printed in 1927, making the original edition a collector's item. "The Astronomy Compendium" calls it a "seminal work".
In 1934 she and Frank Elmore Ross published a photographic study, "Atlas of the Northern Milky Way", based on Ross's photographs.
Later life.
After she retired from Yerkes in 1946, without receiving a pension. She returned to Nashville, where she worked in her sister's photographic studio part-time.
She died in Nashville in 1974.


Ismenius Lacus quadrangle

The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle is located in the northwestern portion of Mars’ eastern hemisphere and covers 0° to 60° east longitude (300° to 360° west longitude) and 30° to 65° north latitude. The quadrangle uses a Lambert conformal conic projection at a nominal scale of 1:5,000,000 (1:5M). The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle is also referred to as MC-5 (Mars Chart-5). The southern and northern borders of the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle are approximately and wide, respectively. The north-to-south distance is about (slightly less than the length of Greenland). The quadrangle covers an approximate area of 4.9 million square km, or a little over 3% of Mars’ surface area. The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle contains parts of Acidalia Planitia, Arabia Terra, Vastitas Borealis, and Terra Sabaea.
The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle contains Deuteronilus Mensae and Protonilus Mensae, two places that are of special interest to scientists. They contain evidence of present and past glacial activity. They also have a landscape unique to Mars, called Fretted terrain. The largest crater in the area is Lyot Crater, which contains channels probably carved by liquid water.
Origin of names.
Ismenius Lacus is the name of a telescopic albedo feature located at 40° N and 30° E on Mars. The term is Latin for Ismenian Lake, and refers to the Ismenian Spring near Thebes in Greece where Cadmus slew the guardian dragon. Cadmus was the legendary founder of Thebes, and had come to the spring to fetch water. The name was approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1958.
There appeared to be a large canal in this region called Nilus. Since 1881–1882 it was split into other canals, some were called Nilosyrtis, Protonilus (first Nile),and Deuteronilus (second Nile).
Physiography and geology.
In eastern Ismenius Lacus, lies Mamers Valles, a giant outflow channel.
The channel shown below goes quite a long distance and has branches. It ends in a depression that may have been a lake at one time. The first picture is a wide angle, taken with CTX; while the second is a close up taken with HiRISE.
Lyot Crater.
The northern plains are generally flat and smooth with few craters. However, a few large craters do stand out. The giant impact crater, Lyot, is easy to see in the northern part of Ismenius Lacus. Lyot Crater is the deepest point in Mars's northern hemisphere. One image below of Lyot Crater Dunes shows a variety of interesting forms: dark dunes, light-toned deposits, and Dust Devil Tracks. Dust devils, which resemble miniature tornados create the tracks by removing a thin, but bright deposit of dust to reveal the darker underlying surface. Light-toned deposits are widely believed to contain minerals formed in water. Research, published in June 2010, described evidence for liquid water in Lyot crater in the past.
Many channels have been found near Lyot Crater. Research, published in 2017, concluded that the channels were made from water released when the hot ejecta landed on a layer of ice that was 20 to 300 meters thick. Calculations suggest that the ejecta would have had a temperature of at least 250 degrees Fahrenheit. The valleys seem to start from beneath the ejecta near the outer edge of the ejecta. One evidence for this idea is that there are few secondary craters nearby. Few secondary craters were formed because most landed on ice and did not affect the ground below. The ice accumulated in the area when the climate was different. The tilt or obliquity of the axis changes frequently. During periods of greater tilt, ice from the poles is redistributed to the mid-latitudes. The existence of these channels is unusual because although Mars used to have water in rivers, lakes, and an ocean, these features have been dated to the Noachian and Hesperian periods—4 to 3 billion years ago.
Other craters.
Impact craters generally have a rim with ejecta around them; in contrast volcanic craters usually do not have a rim or ejecta deposits. As craters get larger (greater than 10 km in diameter), they usually have a central peak. The peak is caused by a rebound of the crater floor following the impact. Sometimes craters will display layers in their walls. Since the collision that produces a crater is like a powerful explosion, rocks from deep underground are tossed unto the surface. Hence, craters are useful for showing us what lies deep under the surface.
Fretted terrain.
The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle contains several interesting features such as fretted terrain, parts of which are found in Deuteronilus Mensae and Protonilus Mensae. Fretted terrain contains smooth, flat lowlands along with steep cliffs. The scarps or cliffs are usually 1 to 2 km high. Channels in the area have wide, flat floors and steep walls. Many buttes and mesas are present. In fretted terrain the land seems to transition from narrow straight valleys to isolated mesas. Most of the mesas are surrounded by forms that have been called a variety of names: circum-mesa aprons, debris aprons, rock glaciers, and lobate debris aprons. At first they appeared to resemble rock glaciers on Earth. But scientists could not be sure. Even after the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) took a variety of pictures of fretted terrain, experts could not tell for sure if material was moving or flowing as it would in an ice-rich deposit (glacier). Eventually, proof of their true nature was discovered by radar studies with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed that they contain pure water ice covered with a thin layer of rocks that insulated the ice.
Glaciers.
Glaciers formed much of the observable surface in large areas of Mars. Much of the area in high latitudes, especially the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle, is believed to still contain enormous amounts of water ice. In March 2010, scientists released the results of a radar study of an area called Deuteronilus Mensae that found widespread evidence of ice lying beneath a few meters of rock debris. The ice was probably deposited as snowfall during an earlier climate when the poles were tilted more. It would be difficult to take a hike on the fretted terrain where glaciers are common because the surface is folded, pitted, and often covered with linear striations. The striations show the direction of movement. Much of this rough texture is due to sublimation of buried ice. The ice goes directly into a gas (this process is called sublimation) and leaves behind an empty space. Overlying material then collapses into the void. Glaciers are not pure ice; they contain dirt and rocks. At times, they will dump their load of materials into ridges. Such ridges are called moraines. Some places on Mars have groups of ridges that are twisted around; this may have been due to more movement after the ridges were put into place. Sometimes chunks of ice fall from the glacier and get buried in the land surface. When they melt, a more or less round hole remains. On Earth we call these features kettles or kettle holes. Mendon Ponds Park in upstate New York has preserved several of these kettles. The picture from HiRISE below shows possible kettles in Moreux Crater.
Latitude dependent mantle.
Much of the Martian surface is covered with a thick ice-rich, mantle layer that has fallen from the sky a number of times in the past.
Climate change caused ice-rich features.
Many features on Mars, especially ones found in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle, are believed to contain large amounts of ice. The most popular model for the origin of the ice is climate change from large changes in the tilt of the planet's rotational axis. At times the tilt has even been greater than 80 degrees Large changes in the tilt explains many ice-rich features on Mars.
Studies have shown that when the tilt of Mars reaches 45 degrees from its current 25 degrees, ice is no longer stable at the poles. Furthermore, at this high tilt, stores of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) sublimate, thereby increasing the atmospheric pressure. This increased pressure allows more dust to be held in the atmosphere. Moisture in the atmosphere will fall as snow or as ice frozen onto dust grains. Calculations suggest this material will concentrate in the mid-latitudes. General circulation models of the Martian atmosphere predict accumulations of ice-rich dust in the same areas where ice-rich features are found. When the tilt begins to return to lower values, the ice sublimates (turns directly to a gas) and leaves behind a lag of dust. The lag deposit caps the underlying material so with each cycle of high tilt levels, some ice-rich mantle remains behind. Note, that the smooth surface mantle layer probably represents only relative recent material.
Upper Plains Unit.
Remnants of a 50–100 meter thick mantling, called the Upper Plains Unit, has been discovered in the mid-latitudes of Mars. First investigated in the Deuteronilus Mensae region, but it occurs in other places as well. The remnants consist of sets of dipping layers in craters and along mesas. Sets of dipping layers may be of various sizes and shapes—some look like Aztec pyramids from Central America.
This unit also degrades into brain terrain. Brain terrain is a region of maze-like ridges 3–5 meters high. Some ridges may consist of an ice core, so they may be sources of water for future colonists.
Some regions of the upper plains unit display large fractures and troughs with raised rims; such regions are called ribbed upper plains. Fractures are believed to have started with small cracks from stresses. Stress is suggested to initiate the fracture process since ribbed upper plains are common when debris aprons come together or near the edge of debris aprons—such sites would generate compressional stresses. Cracks exposed more surfaces, and consequently more ice in the material sublimates into the planet's thin atmosphere. Eventually, small cracks become large canyons or troughs.
Small cracks often contain small pits and chains of pits; these are thought to be from sublimation of ice in the ground. Large areas of the Martian surface are loaded with ice that is protected by a meters thick layer of dust and other material. However, if cracks appear, a fresh surface will expose ice to the thin atmosphere. In a short time, the ice will disappear into the cold, thin atmosphere in a process called sublimation. Dry ice behaves in a similar fashion on the Earth. On Mars sublimation has been observed when the Phoenix lander uncovered chunks of ice that disappeared in a few days. In addition, HiRISE has seen fresh craters with ice at the bottom. After a time, HiRISE saw the ice deposit disappear.
The upper plains unit is thought to have fallen from the sky. It drapes various surfaces, as if it fell evenly. As is the case for other mantle deposits, the upper plains unit has layers, is fine-grained, and is ice-rich. It is widespread; it does not seem to have a point source. The surface appearance of some regions of Mars is due to how this unit has degraded. It is a major cause of the surface appearance of lobate debris aprons. The layering of the upper plains mantling unit and other mantling units are believed to be caused by major changes in the planet's climate. Models predict that the obliquity or tilt of the rotational axis has varied from its present 25 degrees to maybe over 80 degrees over geological time. Periods of high tilt will cause the ice in the polar caps to be redistributed and change the amount of dust in the atmosphere.
Deltas.
Researchers have found a number of examples of deltas that formed in Martian lakes. Deltas are major signs that Mars once had a lot of water because deltas usually require deep water over a long period of time to form. In addition, the water level needs to be stable to keep sediment from washing away. Deltas have been found over a wide geographical range. Below, is a pictures of a one in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle.
Pits and cracks.
Some places in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle display large numbers of cracks and pits. It is widely believed that these are the result of ground ice sublimating (changing directly from a solid to a gas). After the ice leaves, the ground collapses in the shape of pits and cracks. The pits may come first. When enough pits form, they unite to form cracks.
Volcanoes under ice.
There is evidence that volcanoes sometimes erupt under ice, as they do on Earth at times. What seems to happen it that much ice melts, the water escapes, and then the surface cracks and collapses. These exhibit concentric fractures and large pieces of ground that seemed to have been pulled apart. Sites like this may have recently had held liquid water, hence they may be fruitful places to search for evidence of life.
Exhumed craters.
Some features on Mars seem to be in the process of being uncovered. So, the thought is that they formed, were covered over, and now are being exhumed as material is being eroded. These features are quite noticeable with craters. When a crater forms, it will destroy what's under it and leave a rim and ejecta. In the example below, only part of the crater is visible. if the crater came after the layered feature, it would have removed part of the feature.
Fractures forming blocks.
In places large fractures break up surfaces. Sometimes straight edges are formed and large cubes are created by the fractures.
Polygonal patterned ground.
Polygonal, patterned ground is quite common in some regions of Mars. It is commonly believed to be caused by the sublimation of ice from the ground. Sublimation is the direct change of solid ice to a gas. This is similar to what happens to dry ice on the Earth. Places on Mars that display polygonal ground may indicate where future colonists can find water ice. Patterned ground forms in a mantle layer, called latitude dependent mantle, that fell from the sky when the climate was different.
Dunes.
Sand dunes have been found in many places on Mars. The presence of dunes shows that the planet has an atmosphere with wind, for dunes require wind to pile up the sand. Most dunes on Mars are black because of the weathering of the volcanic rock basalt. Black sand can be found on Earth on Hawaii and on some tropical South Pacific islands.
Sand is common on Mars due to the old age of the surface that has allowed rocks to erode into sand. Dunes on Mars have been observed to move many meters.
Some dunes move along. In this process, sand moves up the windward side and then falls down the leeward side of the dune, thus caused the dune to go toward the leeward side (or slip face).
When images are enlarged, some dunes on Mars display ripples on their surfaces. These are caused by sand grains rolling and bouncing up the windward surface of a dune. The bouncing grains tend to land on the windward side of each ripple. The grains do not bounce very high so it does not take much to stop them.
Ocean.
Many researchers have suggested that Mars once had a great ocean in the north. Much evidence for this ocean has been gathered over several decades. New evidence was published in May 2016. A large team of scientists described how some of the surface in Ismenius Lacus quadrangle was altered by two tsunamis. The tsunamis were caused by asteroids striking the ocean. Both were thought to have been strong enough to create 30 km diameter craters. The first tsunami picked up and carried boulders the size of cars or small houses. The backwash from the wave formed channels by rearranging the boulders. The second came in when the ocean was 300 m lower. The second carried a great deal of ice which was dropped in valleys. Calculations show that the average height of the waves would have been 50 m, but the heights would vary from 10 m to 120 m. Numerical simulations show that in this particular part of the ocean two impact craters of the size of 30 km in diameter would form every 30 million years. The implication here is that a great northern ocean may have existed for millions of years. One argument against an ocean has been the lack of shoreline features. These features may have been washed away by these tsunami events. The parts of Mars studied in this research are Chryse Planitia and northwestern Arabia Terra. These tsunamis affected some surfaces in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle and in the Mare Acidalium quadrangle.
Gullies.
Gullies were thought for a time to have been caused by recent flows of liquid water. However, further study suggests they are formed today by chunks of dry ice moving down steep slopes.
Ring mold craters.
Ring Mold Craters are a kind of crater on the planet Mars, that look like the ring molds used in baking. They are believed to be caused by an impact into ice. The ice is covered by a layer of debris. They are found in parts of Mars that have buried ice. Laboratory experiments confirm that impacts into ice result in a "ring mold shape." They are also bigger than other craters in which an asteroid impacted solid rock. Impacts into ice warm the ice and cause it to flow into the ring mold shape.


Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies

The Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies (IFAS) is an umbrella group comprising most of the National and Regional Astronomical Societies on the Island of Ireland.
History.
IFAS was formed in October 1999 to provide an umbrella organisation for mutual benefit and co-operation for almost all Irish astronomical clubs and societies on the Island of Ireland, north and south.
Since its inception it has formed an on-line community for astronomers though its website.
Currently (July 2014) there are over 2,200 registered users from around the world taking part in over 12,000 different topics of astronomical interest. A monthly, sponsored astrophotography competition allows for people to pursue an added interest and better their skills, and perhaps win a prize.
Structure.
The federation council is made up of 2 members from each club/society, regardless of the size of the society.
Out of the council, a Chairman, vice Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer are elected annually.
The IFAS Constitution details the running of IFAS.
Events.
IFAS holds its Annual General Meeting September and October each year.
Member clubs.
According to the IFAS constitution, membership is open to any astronomical clubs or societies on the island of Ireland "which are governed by a democratically elected council or committee".
The current members are:


Oil Region Astronomical Observatory

Oil Region Astronomical Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Oil Region Astronomical Society. The Oil Region Astronomical Society was founded in 1993. It is located in Venango County, Pennsylvania (USA).