The Great Melbourne Telescope
The Isaac Newton Telescope
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The Grubb Telescope Company
Tony Healey gave a fascinating talk on the great innovations in telescope design and manufacturing by Thomas Grubb who founded the Grubb Telescope Company.
The company traded from 1833 till 1985 and were responsible for designing and building the optical components for telescopes all over the world, all of which are important astronomical instruments currently in use.
These include:
• 18-inch Coelostat and 12-inch objective, Mt Stromlo Observatory, Australia, 1927
• 36-inch reflector, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, UK, 1930
• 74-inch reflector, David Dunlap Observatory, Canada, 1935
• 74-inch reflector, Mt Stromlo, Australia, 1955-2003
• 154-inch reflector (tube and optics), Siding Spring, Australia, 1974
• 39-inch reflector, La Palma, 1979
• 100-inch mirror only, (new INT mirror), La Palma
• 170-inch Herschel reflector, La Palma, 1985
• plus MANY more!
The instruments weren't only engineering marvels, but also elegant works of art which people travelled great distances to see.
The Isaac Newton and Herschel telescopes were the last great telescopes made by the Grubb-Parsons factory before they closed in 1986.
They were also responsible for developing the "multi-point floating cell supports" used in modern telescope mirror cells.
More Information can be found at www.backyardvoyager.com/Grubb.html
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Astrofest update/Combined Societies Meeting
Tony Samson has volunteered as our clubs representative for Astrofest 2011. He has received conformation from Camp Duckadang operators that the flood damaged roads will be repaired and that the tennis court and basketball facilities will be operational.
The Astrofest committee has suggested that the "Combined Societies Meeting" be held on the last Friday of Astrofest. A vote was called at the meeting with 2 people voting for, and 2 voting against, the rest were undecided.
If any members have suggestions for Astrofest please contact Tony at tonys@bas.asn.au
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Orion Nebula - What we see...
Orion Nebula - What we guess...
 The Crab Nebula explosion
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On YouTube
Great site for 3D animations of galactic structures
Mike Giulianini presented animations from YouTube. These were designed to make members aware of the great astronomical content on YouTube and also encourage discussion and exchange of ideas during the break.
The animations were:
• The Orion Nebula - What we see... - View here
• The Orion Nebula - What we guess... (A 3D flythrough its structure) - View here
• The Crab Nebula explosion - View here
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View larger image
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Astrophotography
Saturn through a webcam
Tony Surma-Hawes presented his latest picture and videos of the planet Saturn. He captured the video with an SPC880NC webcam which he bought from a store in the UK (mailed with 1/14” eyepiece adapter) for $50.00.
The firmware was flashed to SPC900NC. He captured with K3CCDTools, processed in Registax. He imaged it through a 200mm LX50 OTA mounted on a Skywatcher NEQ6, magnification was increased with a Televue 4X Powermate, yielding an f-ratio of 40, or an effective focal length of 8000mm. He said "I’m pretty much at the limit of what I can capture with this aperture, but I hope to get some improved results when seeing gets better and Saturn reaches opposition."
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Kepler Mission Update
The Search for Habitable Planets
Peter T gave a brief overview of the specifications and goals of the Kelper Space Telescope mission. The telescope is staring almost continuously at a 10 degree square area in the constellation Cygnus which contains an estimated 4.5 million stars.
The onboard detectors are monitoring the light from stars, waiting for a planet to transit. This will cause a dimming which will reveal the size and location of the transiting planet.
A great way to get you up to speed with what's happening is to view the videos below.
 Video Overview of Kepler mission (requires quicktime player)
 Video - Jan 2011 Mission Update (requires quicktime player)
You can view more Kepler mission multimedia at:
• Videos
• Images
Kepler System Characteristics:
• Spacebased Photometer: 0.95-m aperture
• Primary mirror: 1.4 meter diameter, 85% light weighted
• Detectors: 95 mega pixels (21 modules each with two 2200x1024 pixel CCDs)
• Bandpass: 430-890 nm FWHM
• Dynamic range: 9th to 16th magnitude stars
• Fine guidance sensors: 4 CCDs located on science focal plane
Discoveries
Planet Candidates - 1235
Eclipsing Binary Stars - 2165
Confirmed Planets - 15
To find out more visit the official Kepler website
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