14 Andromedae is an orange/red K class star with a solar mass equal to 2.2 Suns that lies 248.3 light years away in the constellation of Andromeda. On July 2008 it was announced that this star had a planetary companion with a minimum mass of 4.8 Jupiter’s. Designated 14 Andromedae b, the super gas giant orbits within 0.83 astronomical units of it’s star and takes just 186 days to complete one orbital period.
Like the gas and ice giants of our own Solar System, 14 Andromedae b probably has several moons in orbit around it. If one of these satellites were similar say to the moons of Europa or Enceladus in our own Solar System then it’s plausible to think that the frozen surface may never have formed given the close proximity with which 14 Andromedae b orbits it’s star. In this instance a frozen moon could quite possibly be transformed into an ocean world where just maybe some form of primitive life could take hold. I’m no exo-planetologist and it might be a completely fictitious idea, but it does make for an interesting prospect.
Tags: 14 Andromedae, 14 Andromedae b, Andromeda, Extrasolar Planet
Posted in Astro Art | No Comments »
For the first time in what feels like forever the skies over east central Scotland on Monday finally cleared and brought the opportunity to once more dust off my old 60mm Tasco refractor for a short study of Venus. Using a magnification of 160X I managed a closer observation albeit with a lot more chromatic aberration, but then Venus is not a planet that often yields much in the way of surface detail when using a small instrument so I felt I could live with it.
Shining at a magnitude of -4.25 Venus was a blazing beacon in the evening sky and through the telescope I could clearly see that the planet was fast approaching it’s quarter phase. If you’re interested in catching Venus during it’s quarter phase then the best time to do so will be between the 6th and 13th of January by which point the planet will also have brightened between -4.31 and -4.34 in magnitude.
As well as taking in a view of Venus I also decided to track down a planet that I have never observed before: Neptune. For this task I used my Strathspey 25×100 binoculars and it wasn’t long before I had the tenuous planet within my field of view. Caught in the glare of Venus and at a magnitude of 7.96 Neptune proved to be a slight challenge. Here I had to use averted vision to precisely locate this distant ice giant and while the 25×100s did not resolve a planetary disc or anything remotely in the way of detail I can at least say that I have finally seen Neptune.
Tags: Neptune, Strathspey 25x100, Tasco 60mm, Venus, Weather
Posted in Astro Art, Observing | 5 Comments »
