Astrofest

On the Astrofest Oval telescopes are clustered together in "Pods"! A map of the Pods and what objects are on show will be added closer to the event. Read on and you'll discover more information about the objects you may see. Enjoy the views of the Universe with WA's wonderful astronomy groups, clubs and organisations.

Please note, objects on show may change if cloud interrupts the view of the night sky.

Some of the cool objects we look at include:

The Moon

Image: NASA

Distance: 384 000km
Size: 1/4 x Size of Earth
Mass: 1/81 x Mass of Earth
Orbital Period: 27.3 Earth Days
Rotation: Tidally locked to Earth

The Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite. Only 59% of the Moon’s surface can ever be observed from the Earth, this is because the moon is tidally locked to the Earth; this means that the Moon rotates around its axis at the same period as it orbits the Earth. Due to the lower gravity you would weigh 16.6% of your earth weight. When a month has two full moons, the second full moon is called a blue moon; this occurs once every two to three years.
The dark spots we see on the Moon that create the image of the man in the Moon are actually craters filled with basalt, which is a very dense material.
There is an ongoing project called the “Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment” which measures the distance between the earth and the Moon using lasers bouncing off of reflectors left behind by the Apollo 11, 14 & 15 missions.
The Moon has been discovered to be slowly receding from the earth at a rate of 3.8 cm a year.
A total of 12 men have landed on the Moon so far over 6 Apollo missions between 20 July 1969 and 14 December 1972.
The Moon is believed to have formed 4.5 billion years ago when an object the size of Mars impacted the Earth; the resulting ejected material coalesced to form the Moon as we know it today.
The ocean tides on the earth are produced by the gravitational influence of the Moon, the closest and furthest points on the Earth to the Moon experience high tides and the sides of the earth experience low tide.
A high portion of the craters on the moon were created 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago during a period know as the Late Heavy Bombardment, this was a period where all the rocky planets are known to have received frequent impacts.
Due to a lack of atmosphere, weather and geological processes many of these billions of year old craters have been preserved on the moon. Due to a lack of any significant global magnetic field astronauts who have visited the moon are subject to much higher doses of radiation as the magnetic field of the Earth protects us.
When Alan Sheppard was on the moon during Apollo 14, he hit a golf ball and drove it 732 meters.

Jupiter

Image: NASA

Size: 11 x Size of Earth; Mass: 318 x Mass of Earth
Orbital Period: 11.9 Earth Years
Planet Number: 5; Rotation Speed: 9.9 Hours
Moons: 92 (as of February 2023)

Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System.
Ancient Astronomers named Jupiter after the king of the Roman Gods.
Jupiter is the 5th closest planet to our sun.
The atmosphere of Jupiter consists of about 84 percent Hydrogen and about 15 percent helium, with small amounts of acetylene, ammonia, ethane, methane, phosphine, and water vapor.
Jupiter’s four largest moons Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto can are known as the Galilean moons as they were discovered by Galileo in Padua in 1610.
The discovery of these moons orbiting Jupiter was seen as proof that the Earth was not the centre of the universe.
Jupiter’s moon Europa is an ice covered water world and is one of the most likely places to find life in our solar system besides the Earth
Jupiter has the biggest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede. It is even bigger than Mercury and Pluto.
If you weigh 80kg on Earth, you will weigh 202.16kg on Jupiter.
The mass of Jupiter is 70% of the total mass of all the other planets in our Solar System.
Jupiter's volume is large enough to contain 1,300 planets the size of Earth.
Jupiter rotates faster than any planet in the Solar System.
The great red spot on Jupiter is a storm that has been going on for over 300 years.
You can fit 2-3 Earths into Jupiter's great red spot.
Jupiter has a ring just like Saturn and Uranus.
Jupiter is covered by an ocean of hydrogen with a sludge-like consistency.
Unlike other planets, Jupiter sends out a strong radio radiation that can be detected on Earth.
In 1994, pieces of a comet called shoemaker-Levy 9 broke apart and crashed into Jupiter. This left patches in Jupiter's atmosphere that lasted for many months.

Saturn

Image: NASA

Size: 9 x Size of Earth; Mass: 95 x Mass of Earth
Orbital Period: 29.5 Earth Years
Planet Number: 6; Rotation Speed: 10 Hours 39 minutes
Moons: 146 (as of June 2023)

Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. Saturn has the brightest ring system of all of the giant planets, as it is made predominantly of water ice, which is very reflective.
Saturn is the furthest planet visible to the naked eye, and has been observed by humans for thousands of years.
Saturn takes 29 earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun, meaning seasons on Saturn last for a little over 7 earth years. In contrast, Saturn rotates very quickly, with a single Saturnian day lasting only 10 hours and 42 minutes.
Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of methane, ammonia and various ices.
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only place in the solar system -except for Earth- to have liquids present on the surface. however, the liquid is not water - its liquid hydrocarbons! Titan is also the only moon to have a thick, permanent atmosphere, that extends dozens of km above the surface of the moon. Another of Saturn's moons, Enceladus, has a subsurface ocean. Ice volcanoes at the south pole of Enceladus are constantly erupting, throwing ice and water out into Saturn’s rings.

47 Tucanae (47 Tuc)

Image: NASA

Magnitude: +3.95
Distance: 15,000 Light Years
Object: Globular Cluster
Constellation: Tucana

47 Tuc is the second brightest globular cluster in the night sky, after Omega Centauri.
Like all globular clusters it is extremely old, around 10 billion years.
It is located in the constellation Tucana as such is only visible from the southern hemisphere.
It contains approximately 1 million stars.
Globular clusters are located in the halo of the Milky Way Galaxy, meaning that they are either above or below the main disk of the galaxy and therefore do not get disturbed by the material in the disk.
There are around 160 globular clusters currently known to be in the halo of the Milky Way.
All the stars in a globular cluster are metal poor, making them an unlikely location to find exo-planets.
Due to the density of a globular cluster it is a good place for astronomers to look for black holes.

Double Stars

Image: Alpha Centauri by NASA

Magnitude: +3.29
Distance: 4.3 Light Years
Object: Double Star
Constellation: Centaurus

Alpha Centauri is one of the most famous double stars. It’s one of the “Pointers” to the Southern Cross and is the third brightest star in our night sky. It can only be seen in the southern hemisphere.
It is actually a triple star system, with the third star being Proxima Centauri. Proxima is some distance away from the bright pair of Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. Proxima is not visible in the same field of view through a telescope.
Alpha Centauri is the next closest star after our sun. The bright pair of Alpha A and Alpha B orbit one other every 79.2 years. This motion/orbit is measurable in during an observer’s lifetime. The greatest separation between the two stars was in 1976, and minimum was in 2016. The separation is widening now and will be at its greatest again in 2056.

Star Clusters

Image: Butterfly Cluster by NASA

Magnitude: +4.19
Distance: 1,600 Light Years
Object: Open Cluster
Constellation: Scorpius

M6 The Butterfly Cluster was seen by Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D. It contains 80 stars spread over a 54 arc minute area. It is between 50 to 100 million years old. Like all open clusters these stars are believed to have formed from the same giant molecular cloud and are still loosely gravitationally bound to each other.
Open clusters are key objects in the study of stellar evolution, having been born in the same cloud they contain similar chemical compositions allowing for easier determination of their other properties such as distance and age.

"Pod Luck" Telescope Pod

You'll never know what you'll see at this telescope pod!