Today (in the UK at least) marks the spring (vernal) equinox, with the Earth at zero tilt, and the Sun crossing the celestial equator at zero declination. Having purchased a Tal-1 last week, I managed to catch some very clear views of Saturn, above a fall moon last night…being the second time I’ve used this telescope, it was a very pleasing sight.
http://www.astronom-bg.com/main_files/TAL_files/Tal1%20AstronomyNow.pdf
Fascinated by any developments on the mapping / modelling of cosmic expansion, I found yet another technique which goes back to measuring red shifts of galaxies as opposed to type 1a Supernovae, but with a twist. This time the distortions generated by the motion of galaxies on red shift measurements, e.g local gravitational effects from neighbouring objects, and comparing the data at different epochs (distant and nearby galaxies), is an idea proposed by European astronomers.
from physicsworld…
Measuring galaxy distortions is not new in itself, but by doing so at different cosmic epochs researchers may be able to learn more about the cosmic acceleration. “A discrepancy between the amount of distortion at different times would be a smoking gun for a new theory of gravity,” says Luigi Guzzo of the Brera Astronomical Observatory in
Italy.
more here…
On the 25th of January last year, the first visibly isolated GRB, namely GRB 070125 was detected by the Inter-Planetary Network. Following the sighting of a ‘fast-fading’ after glow from the Palomar Observatory in California, further analysis was conducted using the Gemini North and Keck telescopes in Hawaii. This revealed no absorption of light from dense gas or dust surrounding the GRB, and was later confirmed when the glow had faded…there was no sign of a galaxy.
The next step is to take a long exposure shot using the Hubble Space Telescope, to confirm if the star formed in a ‘tidal-tail’ which make up 1% of star formations in our local universe.
more here…
http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Fox12-2007.htm
arxiv article detailing the observations…