Saturday, 31 October 2020 09:54

SAASST on "spaceweather.com"

A nice picture of the sunspot AR2778 appeared on the "spaceweather.com" website on Oct. 27, 2020. The picture was taken by Mr. Mohamed Talafha from the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology. AR2778 is the biggest sunspot of young Solar Cycle 25, with nearly a dozen dark cores spawling almost 100,000 km across the solar surface. The picture was taken using the 10 cm solar telescope at the SAASST Sharjah Optical Observatory with an H-Alpha filter. The zoomed insert is with a white light filter. More sunspots of the new Solar Cycle 25 are appearing over the hours, recently sunspot AR2779 in addition to AR2778.

Saturday, 31 October 2020 09:52

SAASST’s Lecture: 40-m Radio Interferometer

As part of its bi-monthly lecture, the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology organized a virtual lecture on the SAASST 40-m radio interferometer on Oct. 28, 2020. The lecture was given by Ms. Asmaa Al-Hameed, a research assistant in the “Radio Astronomy Laboratory.” Ms. Asmaa gave a general introduction to the different types of radio waves used for different applications and emphasized the one used primarily for radio astronomy. A brief history of the detection of the galactic and extragalactic radio signals was also presented.

His Excellency Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy, Chancellor of the University of Sharjah, President of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences, and General Director of the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy Space Sciences and Technology (SAASST), announced the establishment of the Arab Planetariums Society. The new Society is to stress the importance of such an institution in the Arab world at the present time. He also declared SAASST's Planetarium as the focal point for planetariums in the Arab world. This announcement came during Prof. Hamid's opening speech at the Arab Space Week conference held by the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences in cooperation with the Regional Centre for Space Science Technology Education for Western Asia (RCSSTEWA). SAASST actively participated in the event.

The Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology has organized a lecture on Wednesday titled “Stellar Evolution.” The lecture was presented by Prof. Mashhoor Wardat, SAASST Deputy General Director for Academic Affairs. These lectures are organized every two weeks for the general purpose of promoting astronomy education to SAASST employees and students and the general public. Prof. Mashhoor covered the evolution of stars from their molecular clouds stage to their cradle. Stars have different evolutionary tracks depending upon their stellar masses, one of the most important physical properties of a star. The type of chemical elements a star can produce depends upon its mass as well as its faith. Our star, the Sun, is presently in its main sequence phase fusing Hydrogen to make Helium. Once 90% of the Hydrogen is consumed, the Sun will move to its second phase, fusing Helium to make Carbon. And this will be it. Our star will then become a white dwarf with no more nuclear fusion.

World Space Week is an UN-declared celebration of space held annually, every October 4 to 10. It is the largest space event on Earth, with over 8,000 events reported in 2019 and held in 96 countries. These events are organized by thousands of organizations, including space agencies, aerospace companies, astronomy clubs, and museums. In 2020, World Space Week is dedicated to satellites, and their broad benefits under the theme “Satellites improve life.”

The 71st International Astronautical Congress, IAC 2020, is organized as a Cyberspace Edition without registration fee, free of charge for a global community. This will allow the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) to reach out to new communities and stakeholders that would typically not have the means and/or time to travel to an IAC physically.

World Space Week is an UN-declared celebration of space held annually, every October 4 to 10. It is the largest space event on Earth, with over 8,000 events reported in 2019 and held in 96 countries. These events are organized by thousands of organizations, including space agencies, aerospace companies, astronomy clubs, and museums. In 2020, World Space Week is dedicated to satellites, and their broad benefits under the theme “Satellites improve life.”

The Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology has organized a farewell ceremony to Mr. Sahith Madara, a SAASST research assistant at the CubeSat Laboratory. Mr. Sahith is leaving us to start an MSc. program in space engineering in France. Mr. Sahith has been working with us for more than two years.

Saturday, 03 October 2020 12:13

Harvest Moon 2020

The Harvest Moon is the closest full Moon to the autumnal equinox (usually Sep. 22). Its name refers to centuries ago during the harvest season when the farmers need to work late into the night using the help of the Moon's light. In most years, the Harvest Moon falls in September, but this is one, it falls in October. From UAE, the Harvest Moon will be on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020, appearing opposite the Sun at 18:05 local time.

For the IAC 2020 Cyber Edtion (Oct. 12-14, 2020), SAASST had eight research papers accepted for this prestigious conference.  Due to the pandemic, the organizers requested a video to be prepared for each paper and sent to IAC before Sep. 25, 2020.