Scienceworks

I had never seen a total solar eclipse before, and I was very excited to travel to Queensland to watch Australia's first solar eclipse in a decade just before 6AM this morning. 

It was incredible to wander down to the beach at 4AM and see it already packed with eclipse chasers! Thousands of people were at Palm Cove alone, more in surrounding Cairns and Port Douglas, while some headed inland where the weather prospects were better.

Eclipse chasers on the beach at Palm Cove, Queensland, awaiting the total solar eclipse.
Image: Tanya Hill
Source: Tanya Hill  

We saw a magnificent sunrise over the water, but minutes later, when the partial eclipse was due to begin, the Sun disappeared behind clouds. It was an anxious wait but half an hour later, the clouds parted and we all donned our eclipse glasses to see a large chunk missing from the Sun.

The totality was perfect. Just beforehand you could tell that the surrounding light was different; it seemed sharp and unnatural. Then the brilliant diamond ring effect lit up the bottom of the sun and the moment had begun.

The moment of perfect totality, when the Moon was exactly in front of the Sun.
Image: Tanya Hill
Source: Tanya Hill  

I was amazed by the colour - we could really see the pink prominences dancing around the Sun. Everyone cheered and just enjoyed the beauty of this natural show. We could see Venus shining bright above the Sun, the wispy corona and the Sun's outer gaseous layer, along with a dazzling bright ring encircling the Moon. It was surprising how long the two minutes lasted. The second diamond ring effect was blinding and spectacular as the Sun began to emerge once again.

The Yolngu of Arnhem Land tell their eclipse story of the sun-woman and moon-man coming together in the sky as husband and wife. It struck me that this is a phenomena that has been seen by so many, across thousands of years. I feel so fortunate to have shared in the experience.

Links:

'Eclipse groupies take shot in the dark,' The Age, 11 November 2012

'Eclipse sheds light on sizzling sun,' The Age, 14 November 2012 

Melinda is the manager of MV's Governance and Planning Department.

Between our three museums—Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks and the Immigration Museum— we exhibit world cultures, the science of our planet and universe, and Victoria's history and biodiversity. We take the show on the road and online, through the Discovery Program and our website.

Point Lonsdale Primary School students at the launch of the Surprises of the Cosmos exhibition at Scienceworks in 2011.
Image: Ben Healley
Source: Museum Victoria  

Muthi Muthi Elder and artist Aunty Barb Egan with one of her artworks in her River Woman exhibition that was on show at Birrarung Gallery, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre earlier this year.
Image: James Henry
Source: Museum Victoria  

We also look after the Royal Exhibition Building, and our 158-year-old scientific and cultural collections assist research into critical contemporary issues.

King Marong and members of the Safara Music School perform outside Flinders Street Station at the media launch of the West Africa exhibition at the Immigration Museum, 2010.
Image: Heath Warwick
Source: Museum Victoria  

Planning for Museum Victoria's future is a mammoth and exciting task. We would like to hear what you value about Museum Victoria to help us steer the museum on behalf of all Victorians.

Please tell us: What do you like best about Museum Victoria? What do you think we could be doing better? What new things would you like to see us doing in the future?

You can leave your answers as a comment on this post, or if you'd prefer to reply privately, drop us a line via the Discovery Centre form. 

Coming up on the 14th November we have the chance to see a solar eclipse. From here in Melbourne it will be a partial eclipse, with 52 per cent of the Sun's diameter covered by the Moon. But up in Far North Queensland and the topmost of the Northern Territory, they will be treated to totality, where the Moon will completely block the Sun for just on two minutes.

A partial eclipse will be seen from Melbourne on the 14 November 2012.
Source: Museum Victoria  

The eclipse will occur during the early morning of 14 November, with the Sun still low in the east. Therefore, a good view of the horizon will be needed. The timing for Melbourne is as follows:

It is important never to look directly at the Sun, even during an eclipse. While the Sun may appear less bright it can still cause long lasting eye damage.

There are safe ways to look at the eclipse – at the Scienceworks shop you can purchase eclipse glasses that will allow you to watch the event, while protecting your eyesight.

You can also create a simple "pinhole" projection. It's as easy as making a small pinhole in a piece of paper or cardboard. Do not look through the hole, but allow the Sun to shine through and project an image onto a second piece of cardboard. Even a blank wall or clear patch of ground can make good surfaces for projection.

Sometimes nature helps out too. If you can see sunlight travelling through the leaves of a tree, you’ve got yourself some ready made pinhole projections. Check the ground and it might be covered with little crescent Sun images. Take a look at this great example on the Astronomy magazine website.

I’ve never seen a Total Solar Eclipse, so I'm heading up to Queensland for my first chance. I've been told that it's quite an eerie experience to have darkness fall while it's still early morning.

If you will also be in the path of totality for this eclipse, then be sure to check out the Eclipse Megamovie Project. Use your smartphone to upload images and videos of the Sun during totality and the Space Sciences Laboratory in California will combine the footage to create the first ultra-high time resolution movie of a solar eclipse.

What I'm most looking forward to is the chance to see the Sun's corona, the bright and tenuous gas that surrounds the Sun. Normally it's invisible, drowned out by the Sun's glare, but being able to see hidden things is something that's always captivated me about astronomy.

During totality the Sun's diffuse corona and thin pink chromosphere can be seen.
Source: Luc Viatour. www.lucnix.be  

Alpha Centauri is one of my favourite stars and it just got even more interesting. Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory have found a planet orbiting around it.

These days finding another exoplanet, that is a planet that orbits a distant star, isn’t so unusual. We know of over 800 exoplanets and the Kepler spacecraft has spied 2,000 more that are waiting confirmation.

But this one is special because of its star. Here’s why…

Alpha Centauri is lovely and bright, the third brightest star in the night sky, and it is prominent in our southern sky. It is the brighter star of the Two Pointers, which lead us to the Southern Cross.

Alpha Centauri (yellow star on the far left) and Beta Centauri (blue star to the right of Alpha Centauri) point towards the Southern Cross.
Image: Akira Fujii
Source: Akira Fujii  

Alpha Centauri is also great to look at through a telescope. What appears as a single bright star in the night sky, becomes two stars when seen through even a modest telescope. Both of the Sun-like stars – Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B – are quite similar so it looks like you’re seeing double. (A fair distance away there’s a third star too, Alpha Centauri C or Proxima Centauri, a faint red dwarf star).

At just over four light years away (or roughly 40 million million km) Alpha Centauri is the closest star to our Sun. If ever we manage to develop the capability for space travel, this is sure to be the star system we set our sights on.

And now it has a planet! The planet is orbiting Alpha Centauri B and it was hard to find, taking over four years of observations. Many follow up investigations will now begin so as to be absolutely certain.

Artistic impression of the planet around Alpha Centauri B.
Source: ESO/L. Calcada/Nick Risinger  

The new found planet has a mass similar to Earth, but takes only 3.2 days to orbit the star. It’s a scorched world, with temperatures soaring over 2000°C.

But finding one planet in this star system is really encouraging and there just might be others. If a planet was found at a more reasonable distance from this Sun-like star, it would be very interesting as far as life is concerned.

Any night sky talk I’ve ever given always includes Alpha Centauri. It’s exciting after all these years to learn something new about it.

I was sad to hear the news yesterday that Neil Armstrong had passed away.

Neil Armstrong in Apollo Lunar Module after his historic moonwalk in July 1969.
Source: NASA  

It was just last week that I had been talking about the Apollo missions to a group of Grade 3 students. It was my son's class and they had asked me to talk about life on Mars. They were studying the idea that over time, living things need to adapt in order to survive, and so they were thinking about what people would need to live on Mars one day.

As we spoke about things like the need for water and oxygen, along with the differences between Mars and Earth, I asked if they'd ever seen what happened when the astronauts walked on the Moon. The group, including my son, looked at me blankly and I realised that they had never heard of the famous Moon landings.

So we checked out the NASA clips of Apollo 11's landing and those great action shots of astronauts bouncing around on the Moon due to its weak gravity. The kids were astounded!

Photo of Apollo Lunar Module on the surface of the Moon with Armstrong's shadow in the foreground
Image: Neil Armstrong
Source: NASA  

I was born just as the Apollo missions were coming to an end. Even so, it was always a part of my world. The Apollo astronauts were amazing men and my tribute to Neil Armstrong will be to make sure that young generations know of the incredible things he and his fellow astronauts did. May they always be an inspiration to all.

Links:

Statement from Armstrong Family (via spaceinfo.com.au)

NASA sure has got it right this time. Not only did they achieve a perfect controlled landing on Mars, but they also re-ignited the public’s fascination with space exploration.

In New York, around 1,000 people watched the landing on the big screen in Times Square.
Image: Leslie Mullen
Source: NASA  

It must be said, I’ve always been an advocate for human space exploration. I want to live vicariously through the adventures of astronauts. I want to imagine what it would be like to be the first person to walk on Mars. But this week, I found myself just as excited about a mechanical machine taking that first bold step – and I wasn’t alone!

The landing on Mars was brilliant, but just as successful was the range of interesting communication strategies that NASA used to get us all talking about Curiosity.

Have you tried your hand at the Mars Rover Landing game? It’s free for the Xbox Kinect. My boys had some fun over the weekend trying to land the rover for themselves – for what it is, it’s a great little game, and best of all, they now have a clear idea of exactly what the landing involved and why it was such an amazing thing to get right.

Do you have the right stuff to land Curiosity? Test your skills with the Mars Rover Landing game.
Source: NASA  

Then there was the “seven minutes of terror” animation. At the Melbourne Planetarium, we’re now showing a special version that was specifically made for planetariums, using the planetarium's fulldome cinema format. Rather than watching a square screen, the action fills the planetarium dome and is a great treat for our visitors.

And wasn't it great to see all the action live? It was so easy to get online and be right there in the control room! Who can’t but get excited when you see the elation and hear the whoops of joy from those NASA guys as their “seven minutes of terror” came to the perfect conclusion.

The exhilaration of a nail-biting achievement.
Source: NASA  

Lastly the tweets – nothing makes a spacecraft more lovable than hearing its own excited reaction (so what if it’s make-believe!).

It once was one small step... now it's six big wheels. Here's a look at one of them on the soil of Mars #MSL pic.twitter.com/uzO99NZz

Happy snaps from Curiosity on the surface of Mars.
Source: NASA  

Congrats to Curiosity and NASA. Wish you all the best for the next Martian year and let’s hope the excitement continues as you discover more about the red planet.