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MESSAGE OF THE MONTHStation celebration
To celebrate the International Space Station’s 25th birthday (the anniversary of the launch of the first segment in November 1998), I took these images (below). During the pass, the ISS had a yellow colour, and after processing the images it seems that it had caught the setting Sun, giving it a beautiful golden hue. Several modules were docked, including Dragon (SpaceX), Progress and Soyuz. The second image, although not sharp as it was at lower altitude, clearly shows the Station’s solar arrays capturing the setting Sun too. The capture was on 24 November from Wiltshire, UK, using an 8-inch manually tracked Dobsonian telescope with a ZWO ASI462MC camera, 2.5x Tele Vue Powermate and an UV/IR cut filter.
Dr Konstantinos Beis, Imperial College London, Research Complex at Harwell
A fabulous way to mark the occasion, Konstantinos. The glorious colour is a fitting birthday tribute! – Ed.
This month’s top prize: two Philip’s titles
The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of two top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2024 and Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Northern Constellations
Winner’s details will be passed on to Octopus Publishing to fulfil the prize
ad_astra_nightscapes • 17 December This was a practice run for the peak of the Geminids, but as the peak the following night was totally overcast we got very lucky with a clear sky. I didn’t get as many meteors in frame as I hoped but we saw loads including some huge fireballs. @bbcskyatnightmag
Redshift riddle
There’s a question that has been niggling away recently, concerning the so-called ‘crisis in cosmology’ or ‘Hubble tension’. I understand that the Hubble constant relies on the relationship between the apparent magnitude of Cepheid variable stars and their true magnitude, which is known from the star’s period of pulsation. The ‘crisis in cosmology’ is that the Hubble constant doesn’t match with calculations based on observations of the cosmic microwave background.
So my question is: when the true magnitude and true period of distant Cepheid variable stars is calculated, are both their observed period and magnitude adjusted to account
