Science Week '25: Space and Astronomy News

There's always lots of happening in the skies above our heads, and there's even more to learn about and celebrate during Science Week!

New BINTEL Online calculator

To wrap up Science Week, we launched a new BINTEL astronomy FOV (field of view) online calculator. This features various calculators for both visual and photographic scenarios:

• Field of view for eyepiece/telescope combinations
• Magnification calculator
• Exit pupil calculations 
• Field of view for camera/telescope combinations
• Northern/southern hemisphere selection
• Choice of image catalogues
• Download of JPG images with field of view and equipment indicators 
• Plus, lots more on the way!

By using established astronomical catalogues and databases such as DSS2 Colour, PanSTARRS etc, you can see how practically any deep-sky object will fit into your telescopes field of view. You're not limited to a small handful of objects. 

The BINTEL FOV Calculator showing the size of NGC 253 (The Silver Dollar Galaxy) in a Celestron 8" Newtonian telescope with a 12mm Plossl eyepiece

The BINTEL FOV Calculator can provide framing for a wide range of camera, telescope and reducer/corrector combinations. This will assist in the selection of targets and equipment. 

How the great globular cluster Omega Centauri will appear in a Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED using a ZWO ASI553MC Pro camera.  

Currently support equipment:

Currently, there's hundreds of different pieces of equipment and we are adding continuously to this list. There's too many for a drop-down list. Just start typing and you'll quickly find what you're after.  

We're aiming for this new calculator to be useful for astronomers globally. The brands included are not just those sold by BINTEL as well. If you'd like to add your own gear, let us know and we'll do our best to add it in. 

In both visual and imaging modes you can download JPG images showing the framing as well.  Please note these images are for showing the field of view and the size of the astro object in your gear. They're not for showing how bright your object will appear or the level of detail it will show. 

While the main idea is to select from a wide range of telescope gear, there's also an Advanced Mode that allow you to tweak the parameters further.

Additional parameters shown in advanced mode

This is the first public release of the BINTEL FOV Calculator. It's a beta release and you may run into problems. We'd very much welcome any feedback or bug reports if that's the case.

One thing we are after are Solar System images of the planets such as Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and even Mercury, Uranus and Neptune. If you have any that we could use - with full credits of course - we'd be happy to include them.

(Sorry, we might have to give Pluto a miss!)

Please free to test the BINTEL FOV Calculator out here.

New evidence for a planet orbiting our closest star

Many of our BINTEL family would already know one of the brightest stars in the sky, Alpha Centauri or the lower of the two "pointers" to the Southern Cross, is a multiple star system. A single star to your eyes alone, it's easily split into two stars (Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B) with even a modest telescope. 

The third member of the Alpha Centauri system, Proxima Centauri, is much smaller and dimmer than the two larger stars and is extremely difficult to spot or image. It's also the closest star to Earth. We know of three planets around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri; however, it's a very different type of star compared to the Sun. 

An artist's illustration of a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A. Image via: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)

Astronomers have announced that there's now strong evidence of a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A. This planet, thought to be a gas giant, would only be the closest planet to Earth around a star around the same age and size of our own Sun. This new planet is in the habitable zone around Alpha Centauri A, although being a gas giant, it's not a place where terrestrial type life could survive.  This discovery was made using an instrument on the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope), the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). 

One of the researchers, Charles Beichman, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech’s IPAC astronomy centre commented:

“With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own. Yet, these are incredibly challenging observations to make, even with the world’s most powerful space telescope, because these stars are so bright, close, and move across the sky quickly."

Combined with the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope due for launch in the next year or two, these observations might open techniques for discovering and observing exoplanets.

Read more at the NASA website here.

A new way to search for life on Mars using a simple test

Can scientists teach an old (Mars roving) dog new tricks?

Researchers from Imperial College London’s Department of Earth Science & Engineering have realised that an existing instrument carried on many spacecraft going back to the Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s can be used in a novel way to detect signs of existing and recently deceased life.  Using a chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), they identified a life-based chemical bonds that space missions are not looking for. 

What's more, this technique could be used with existing hardware that's already on the surface of Mars as part of the Curiosity Mars Rover as well as on the upcoming ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover.

"Space Agencies such as NASA and ESA don't know their instruments can already do this,” said Professor Sephton, lead author of the study. “Here we have developed an elegant method that rapidly and reliably identifies a chemical bond that shows the presence of viable life,” he says. “The Curiosity rover just turned 13 on Mars, but who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover taking a selfie on the red planet. Image via: NASA/JPL-Caltech

PhD student Solomon Hirsch commented: “Our expectation of finding things alive on the Martian surface is low due to the hostile temperature and radiation conditions. Still, we aren’t ruling out the possibility - life finds amazing ways to survive in extreme circumstances. Furthermore, future missions such as the ExoMars mission plan to drill metres deep into the surface of the planet where the likelihood of finding active life is significantly higher.”

Read more here.

Oh, there's another BINTEL Calculator

Before we go, another Science Week product launch is the new BINTEL Moon Phase Calculator.

There's a few such tool available both online and as apps. However, we've designed this to as simple as possible and aimed at astronomers, both visual It shows for the next 30 days the:

• Moon phase
• Rise and set times

By default, it selects your current location, or you can input another. 

August to September 2025 Moon phases with local, Sydney times

Please feel to try this calculator here.

Cheers,

Earl White

BINTEL

15th August 2025