Skywatcher's Odyssey

Full Moon Behind the Clouds this Week

2012-02-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

Lots of Clouds are in the forecast this week….again! Action at Jupiter will be missed this week behind the clouds! Moons Io and Europa events will happen on or just off the planet's eastern (following) limb. Jupiter's Great Red Spot transits the planet's central meridian after dark on Monday evening. More events that we will miss in my cloudy sky this week are:

Saturday, The Moon shines in the feet of Gemini this evening, with Castor and Pollux to its left and Orion farther to its right. Well below the Moon sparkles Procyon.

Sunday, This evening spot Pollux and Castor upper left of the Moon, and Procyon to the Moon's lower right. Farther below the Moon is the much dimmer Head of Hydra asterism.

Tuesday, Full Moon (exact at 4:54 p.m. EST). The Moon shines in western Leo. Look lower left of the Moon for Regulus, as shown here.

Wednesday, The evening Moon in the eastern sky is to the lower right of Regulus and farther upper right from Mars. Saturn is at its stationary point. It now starts moving west against the stars (retrograding), on its way to opposition April 15th.

Thursday, The waning gibbous Moon rises in mid-evening with Mars and fainter Denebola lined up to its left. Uranus is 0.3° south (lower left) of Venus right after dark.

Friday, In the western sky, bright Jupiter and brighter Venus are 30° apart and closing. Watch the gap between them narrow by 1° per day as they approach their March 13th conjunction.

News from the Net:
The Milky Way’s Magnetic Personality
New Study Shows How Trace Elements Affect Stars’ Habitable Zones
Beautiful Conjunction: Comet Garradd Meets M92
Can We Land On a Comet?
Hubble Captures a Classic Barred Spiral Galaxy
NASA’s Blue Marble…Side B.
Astrophoto: Jupiter and Venus at the Beach by Brendan Alexander

The Moon and Stars trail into February

2012-01-29T16:28:00.000-08:00

What has happened to winter? January ends with warm and cloudy nights. Unseasonably warm! This next week will bring more clouds and a chance of rain! We may have a couple of clear nights to observe. Follow the moon, as it brightens the night sky and discover several familiar Constellations this week.

Sunday night, The Moon shines about 8° right or upper right of Jupiter this evening (for North America.

Monday, The first-quarter Moon shines about 8° upper left of Jupiter this evening (for North America).

Tuesday, Jupiter is lower right of the Moon this evening. Continue the line much farther lower right to hit Venus. OK Rock hounds, On Tuesday, January 31, asteroid 433 Eros will come closer to Earth than it has in 37 years, traveling across the night sky in the constellations Leo, Sextans and Hydra. At its closest pass of 16.6 million miles (26.7 million km) the relatively bright 21-mile (34-km) -wide asteroid will be visible with even modest backyard telescopes, approaching magnitude 8, possibly even 7.

Wednesday, The Moon shines between the Pleiades and Aldebaran

Thursday, Now that it's February, Orion strides high in early evening. It's below the Moon tonight. Orion's top left corner is fiery Betelgeuse. Far below Betelgeuse shines brighter Sirius. Betelgeuse and Sirius form the equilateral Winter Triangle with Procyon off to their left.

Friday, After dinnertime, the waxing gibbous Moon is shining high in the southeast. Look to its upper left for bright Capella, to its upper right for Aldebaran, lower right for Orion, and lower left for Gemini including Castor and Pollux.

Saturday, The Moon shines in the feet of Gemini this evening, with Castor and Pollux to its left and Orion farther to its right. Well below the Moon shines Procyon

News from the Net:
‘Oceanus Borealis’ – Mars Express Finds New Evidence for Ancient Ocean on Mars
Asteroid To Make Closest Approach Since 1975
Astrophoto: Transit of Europa by David Billington
Progress Resupply Ship Docks at the International Space Station
“Bad Boy” Sunspot Unleashes Powerful X-Class Flare
Emerging Supermassive Black Holes Choke Star Formation
Orion Capsule Embarks on Cross Country Public Tour

Stars beneath the Dragon’s Breath

2012-01-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

The first day of the Chinese New Year – Year of the Dragon… begins at midnight on January 23, 2012. Unstable and unusual weather patterns for this time of year! It continues to be a strange month/week, weather wise. Small fronts make it cold then the coast winds blow back warmer air, bringing clouds that cover the stars at night!

Bright Orion stands upright at its highest in the south around 8 or 9 p.m. this week. Orion's top left corner is fire-colored Betelgeuse, one of the stars of the equilateral Winter Triangle. The other two are Procyon, about two fist-widths at arm's length lower left of Betelgeuse, and bright Sirius, a similar distance below Betelgeuse.

If the clouds break, you can find Venus and a Crescent Moon dancing close this week. Jupiter is still Center Stage, with the four moons stage left and stage right.

News from the Net:
Can Solar Flares Hurt Astronauts?
Opportunity arrives at Greeley Haven – 5th Winter Haven Worksite on Mars
NOAA: Largest Solar Radiation Storm Since 2005 Now in Progress
NASA Finds 2011 is Ninth-Warmest Year on Record

An Old Nebula in a Bull's Eye

2012-01-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

A Binocular Highlight this week and not too hard to find, it is the Crab Nebula. M1 in Taurus looks like a small amoeba in my telescope! This diffuse little glow is near the dimmer of Taurus's two horn tips. At magnitude 8.4 it needs a dark sky if you're using a small instrument! This week we can still enjoy the sights of Orion's Belt and Sword in a telescope. With the weather turning warmer this week, more clouds will roll in, giving us only one or two nights of clear skies. Forecast says Tuesday and Wednesday night will be clear! Last Saturday night’s event at the TPL site was another success. Larry reports that several telescopes from the Group were working the sky with a large group of stargazers attending.

It’s a Last-quarter Moon late Sunday night (exact at 4:08 a.m. on the 16th EST). The Moon rises around midnight local time tonight, with Spica a little above it and Saturn farther to its left.
Wednesday, As dawn begins to brighten Thursday morning, look southeast for the waning crescent Moon with Antares to its lower right — an early preview of a landmark star of summer evenings.

News from the Net:
A Wrinkled Moon
Why Does Sirius Twinkle?
Astrophoto: Venus Above Kendal Castle
Citizen Scientist Project Finds Thousands of ‘Star Bubbles’
A Space Moonrise (and the PromISSe of a New Future)
Supernova Primo – Out To Far Frontiers
India has Red Planet Fever
Doomed Phobos-Grunt Mars Mission Destructively Plunges to Earth
Strait of Hormuz Shot from the International Space Station – World Strategic Flashpoint
Scientists Still Searching for the Beagle 2 Crash Site on Mars

The First Full Moon of Y2K+12 and Stargazing.

2012-01-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

A Full Moon starts this week’s night Sky,(exact at 2:30 a.m. Monday morning EST). The Moon is in Gemini, with Castor and Pollux to its left in the evening and Orion farther to its right. Since we're still near the winter solstice, the full Moon passes almost overhead in the middle of the night (as seen from mid-northern latitudes). The weather here is unstable! Warm, then Cold! A Pacific system moving through us brings more Clouds and a chance of rain. We have a good chance for Startgazing on one clear night sky this week. The end of the week, the Group will try to set up at the TPL for another Event. Clouds are forecast, but maybe that will change? Take a note on a few items to view in this week’s night sky. Hope for Clear Skies:

In early evening at this time of year, the Great Square of Pegasus balances on one corner high in the west. The vast Andromeda-Pegasus constellation complex runs all the way from near the zenith (Andromeda's foot) down through the Great Square (Pegasus's body) almost to the western horizon (Pegasus's nose). We can look for Faint Neptune (magnitude 7.9) is 1.3° north (upper right) of Venus — which is 60,000 times brighter at magnitude –4.0. The Red Planet, Mars shines above the waning Moon before and during dawn Saturday morning. If it is clear next Saturday night, The tight telescopic double star Gamma (γ) Virginis shines above the waning Moon before and during dawn Sunday morning. Brighter Mars glows to the star's right, and Saturn is less far to the star's left.

News from the Net:
The Contributor to SN 2011fe
Solar Powered Dragon gets Wings for Station Soar
Tranquillityite – Moon Mineral Found In Western Australia
Exomoons? Kepler‘s On The Hunt
A Solar Flare of Many Colors
Dazzling Photos of the International Space Station Crossing the Moon!
Suburu Telescope Captures Hidden Planets In Stellar Dust Ring
Why Pluto is No Longer a Planet More “Hollowed Ground” on Mercury

Starry Starry Nights Y2K+12

2012-01-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

This week brings Falling Stars and a bright moon. A chance to view favorites Jupiter and Orion in my night sky. Venus is still anchored near the Moon as the week moves into our first weekend. The Quadrantid meteor shower bursts across our sky this week. This should be a fine year for one of the best, but least observed, annual meteor showers. The Quadrantids should be most active in the early morning hours of Wednesday the 4th. The Moon sets around 3 a.m. local time then, leaving the sky dark until the first light of dawn around 6. The ISS makes several appearances this week through Friday night. Check the page for NB area at Heavens Above.com. If it is cloudy over your back yard, the Bowl Games are on this week. College Football is coming to a close!

Some events for the rest of the week:
Wednesday, The waxing gibbous Moon shines near the Pleiades tonight. Jupiter's Great Red Spot crosses the planet's central meridian around 7:08 p.m. EST. Earth is at perihelion, its closest to the Sun for the year (just one part in 30 closer than at aphelion in July).

Thursday, The bright Moon is between the Pleiades and Aldebaran.

Friday, The Moon tonight shines between the horns of Taurus. The horn tip stars are Beta Tauri, to the Moon's left in early evening for North America, and Zeta Tauri (slightly fainter), to the Moon's lower left.

News from the Net:
Space Station Crew Anticipating SpaceX Dragon’s Arrival
The Sun Blows Off a Little Steam
Nebula of Many Names Revealed in Beautiful New Image
NASA Provides Live All-Sky Video Feed for Quadrantid Meteor Shower
Dusty Plasma From Enceladus Might Affect Saturn’s Magnetosphere
What Can You See in the Night Sky in January 2012?

A Feast of Stars and Planets this week

2011-12-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Merry Sol Invictus! The Feast of Christmas started in the Fourth Century by Christians to celebrate the Sun's movement past that season of darkness with a promise of New Life and Light to come. Lot's of gifts exchanged and food consumed over the past weekend. We can work off the celebrations with fair skies and clear nights this last week of 2011! A clear, cold night will start us off with Venus and a Crescent Moon Monday evening. At seven degrees apart use the binoculars to scan the scene. Alpha Capriconi is near the moons right or upper right and is a double star. Tuesday evening we get a second shot at this scene. If you are using a scope, be sure and check out Jupiter this week for the GRS and Moon crossings! The bright wandering star is high in the South at 9pm. Near by, you can spot the planet Uranus, not far from Jupiter and is worth a look in a telescope because of its intense teal color. It will not be very bright, but you will be able to see it is round and not just a blue-green speck of light.

News from the Net:
Happy New Year from the Crew of the International Space Station
NASA’s Dawn Orbiter snaps Best Ever Images of Vesta
Astrophotos: The Great Orion Nebula
Astrophoto: Comet Lovejoy from Canberra by Barry Armstead
Absolutely Spectacular Photos of Comet Lovejoy from the Space Station
Soyuz Rocket’s Comet-like Re-Entry Captured on Video
Why Do We Live in Three Dimensions?
Two More Earth-Sized Planets Discovered by Kepler, Orbiting Former Red Giant Star
Astrophotos: Christmas Crescent Moon from Around the World
Phobos-Grunt Predicted to Fall in Afghanistan on January 14
An Enlightening Mosaic: Sunsets in 2011

The Longest Night Before Christmas

2011-12-19T08:57:00.000-08:00

It’s another wet and cloudy week! We may get one or two clear, cool nights to observe this week, before Christmas.…maybe not!

Wintry Orion is up in the southeast after dinnertime and higher later in the evening. Introduce it to someone! The bright, fire-colored star marking Orion's left corner is Betelgeuse, a prototype red supergiant. The bright star forming Orion's right corner is white Rigel. Midway between them is Orion's three-star Belt, nearly vertical. In the evening at this time of year, the Great Square of Pegasus balances on one corner high in the west. The vast Andromeda-Pegasus constellation complex runs all the way from near the zenith (Andromeda's foot) down through the Great Square (Pegasus's body) and almost to the western horizon (Pegasus's nose).

Before dawn Tuesday morning, look above the waning moon for Saturn and Spica.

Wednesday, Dec. 21 : Longest night of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere). Winter begins at the solstice: at 12:30 a.m. on the 22nd EST, 9:30 p.m. on the 21st PST. This is when the Sun reaches its farthest south of the year and begins its six-month return northward. Happy Yule.

Saturday, Dec. 24, Christmas star: On this date every year, you can go out around 8 p.m., spot Orion well up in the southeast, and look down below it for bright Sirius on the rise. When Sirius is low it often twinkles vigorously with vivid, flashing colors, an effect that's especially visible in binoculars. All stars do this, but Sirius is so bright that the effect is especially pronounced. Our New Moon is Saturday afternoon, (exact at 1:06 p.m. EST).

News from the Net:
DARPA’s New Spy Satellite Could Provide Real-Time Video From Anywhere on Earth
First Earth-Sized Exoplanets Found by Kepler
Underwater Neutrino Detector Will Be Second-Largest Structure Ever Built
Curiosity Starts First Science on Mars Sojurn – How Lethal is Space Radiation to Life’s Survival
Missions that Weren’t: NASA’s Manned Mission to Venus
Astrophoto: The Flaming Star Nebula by Robert Collins
NASA Considers Sending a Telescope to Outer Solar System
NASA Terminates Power, Locks Cargo Doors on Retiring Shuttle Discovery

Dodging Meteors and Asteroids

2011-12-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

Mostly Cloudy with Damp Skies are forecast for the upcoming week.
We may not see stars, so we will miss a bunch of events that are due to happen this second week of December. Kick the Tires and light the fires, make a Journey to the outer regions and keep dodging those shopping asteroids at the malls this week.

What we will miss this week:
Tuesday, The annual Geminid meteor shower should be strongest late tonight and tomorrow night. But the light of the waning gibbous Moon will hide all but the brightest meteors. The shower's radiant, or perspective point of origin, is near Castor and Pollux above the Moon. The meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, but their paths, if traced backward far enough across the sky, would cross the radiant.

Wednesday, Wintry Orion is up in the east-southeast after dinnertime, and higher in the southeast later in the evening. Introduce it to someone! The bright, fire-colored star marking Orion's left corner is Betelgeuse, a prototype red supergiant. The bright star forming Orion's right corner is white Rigel. Midway between them is Orion's three-star Belt, nearly vertical. GEMINID METEOR UPDATE: Today, Earth is passing through a stream of debris from near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Often the encounter produces more than 100 Geminids per hour, but this year many of the meteors are obscured by bright moonlight. Visual rates are currently in the dozens, not hundreds.

Thursday, The waning Moon rises in the east late this evening with Regulus to its left or upper left. Mars follows them up an hour later.

Friday, The waning Moon rises around 11 or midnight tonight with Mars to its left and Regulus higher above it.

Saturday, will give us a Last-quarter Moon (exact at 7:48 p.m. EST). The Moon rises in the east around the middle of the night tonight. Above it are Mars and, higher, Regulus and the Sickle of Leo.

News from the Net:
Opportunity Discovers Most Powerful Evidence Yet for Martian Liquid Water
In The Dragonfish’s Mouth – The Next Generation Of “SuperStars”
Astronomy Without A Telescope – How Big Is Big?
Skywatchers Share Lunar Eclipse Photos, Videos
Massive Stars Start Life Big… Really BIG!
International Measure The Moon Night – December 10, 2011
Mars Orbiters Will Attempt to Take Pictures of the Curiosity Rover as It Lands
Twisting and Eclipsing on the Sun

Bright Moon, Cold Nights

2011-12-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

This week the moon will dominate the night sky. We may have a few clear, cold nights to enjoy the moon light this first week of December. Our first hard freeze the first part of the week will give us a couple of clear very cold nights, then the the clouds come back Friday. The week ends with a lunar eclipse. A total eclipse of the Moon happens for western North America before dawn Saturday morning. Look for the dim, ruddy eclipsed Moon sinking low in the west-northwest before or during dawn.

Between the clouds with a few clear nights, we can see these events from my backyard:
Monday Jupiter shines lower left of the Moon this evening. Although they look close together, Jupiter is 1,550 times farther away — and 40 times larger in diameter.
Tuesday, Jupiter shines to the right of the Moon in twilight. Later in the evening it swings to the Moon’s lower right.
Thursday, The Moon shines in Taurus near the Pleiades this evening, as shown above. You may need binoculars to pick them out of the lunar glare.
Friday, if the clouds break, Look lower right of the full Moon for Aldebaran this evening, and higher above Aldebaran for the Pleiades. Way off to their left shines Capella.
Saturday evening among the clouds, the Moon shines amid Capella to its upper left, Aldebaran to its upper right, Betelgeuse to its lower right, and Pollux and Castor farther to the Moon’s lower left.

News from the Net:
Pinning The Tails On Galaxy Clusters
Astrophoto: Tracking Curiosity by Glen James Nagle
Astronomers Find the Most Supermassive Black Holes Yet
Coming Attraction: Geminid Meteor Shower 2011
Rainbow of Colors Reveal Asteroid Vesta as More Like a Planet
Armadillo Aerospace Successfully Lauches a Sounding Rocket from Spaceport America
Voyager 1 Spacecraft Enters New Region of Solar System
Kepler Confirms First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-Like Star
Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy – A Beast With Four Tails?

Orion in my FOV

2011-11-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

Orion is up! With winter approaching, bright Orion rises into good view in the east-southeast by 8 or 9 p.m. now. Lots of highlights to view in this constellation. I am still waiting for the red star Betelguese to super nova! In its middle, Orion's three-star Belt is nearly vertical — as is always the case when Orion displays itself in this week’s sky. Dress warm and take breaks on the cold nights of Stargazing ahead. Do it early this week, more clouds and rain due in by Friday!

Watching College football over the weekend, the camera left the field and zoomed to an early crescent moon with Venus close by. WOW! This was a great scene in an early evening sky. Look for Venus shining well to the Moon's lower right in twilight. Use binoculars to try a last look for rapidly-fading Mercury, farther down in nearly the same direction. Hope you have a better horizon than I have from backyard.

Set up the scope early and dress warm when Jupiter's Great Red Spot crosses Jupiter's central meridian Monday evening, around 11:31 p.m. EST (8:31 p.m. PST).

Wednesday, Far to the lower left of the Moon sparkles 1st-magnitude Fomalhaut. It's due south at its highest soon after dark now.

Look for a First-quarter Moon Friday, (exact at 4:52 a.m. on this date). The Moon, high in the south at dusk, shines below the western side of the Great Square of Pegasus. It's between the Water Jar of Aquarius to its right, and the dimmer Circlet of Pisces to its left.

News from the Net:
Telescope Review: Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian Reflector
Incredible ‘Sideways’ Look at Mercury’s Limb
Astrophotos: Who Wants to Play Some Halo?
Astrophotos: Moon-Venus Conjunction Photos
Comet Curiosity? MSL Looks Like a Comet as it Heads Toward Mars
Video: Curiosity Rover Launches to Mars
Beginner’s Guide To Binoculars
Astrophotos: Jupiter Sightings

Time to Feast on bright points of Light

2011-11-20T18:49:00.000-08:00

Week four brings us a new moon, Thanksgiving and at least one clear night to explore and observe the Constellations. The Astronomy Group met last Thursday and will try to Stargaze at the TLP site again this week on Wednesday evening. Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving is forecast clear, so far. A couple of fronts will bring us more clouds to deal with this week.

During dawn Monday morning the waning crescent Moon points down to Saturn and Spica. On Tuesday morning, the three form a roughly horizontal line.
Comet Garradd continues glowing this week at about magnitude 6.5 as predicted, but it's getting low. Find it in the west with binoculars or a telescope right at the end of twilight. To locate the exact spot to examine, start from the head-star of Hercules (Rasalgethi). Keep the binoculars out and put the Andromeda Galaxy in the FOV. Moonless evenings this week are a fine time to get out the telescope and explore before the big feast with family!

It’s a New Moon Friday morning, (exact at 1:10 a.m. on this date EST).By the end of this Thanksgiving week, Saturday evening, as twilight fades, look low in the southwest for the very thin crescent Moon hanging to the right of Venus — a beautiful sight! They're 3° to 5° apart.

News from the Net:
Curiosity Powered Up for Martian Voyage on Nov. 26 – Exclusive Message from Chief Engineer Rob Manning
Deep Blue Astrophotography – Imaging Galactic Shells
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Mass Is Energy
NASA’s Curiosity Set to Search for Signs of Martian Life
Do-It-Yourself Guide to Measuring the Moon’s Distance
Neutrinos Still Breaking Speed Limits Video: Walking on the Moon is Hard

Too Cloudy for the Leonids?

2011-11-14T13:41:00.001-08:00

With another Pacific front moving east toward the Hill Country, the clouds will be closing in the night sky. This will leave us with a few nights of NO OBSERVING!
There are a couple of Clear nights forecast….! But clouds are due back into the picture Thursday and Friday, this might give us another missed year for catching the Leonids!

The Leonid meteor shower this week, Thursday. November 17, late night until dawn the following morning. The Leonid meteor shower is famous. Historically, this shower has produced some of the greatest meteor storms in history – at least one in living memory, 1966 – with rates as high as many thousands of meteors per hour. These storms sometimes recur in cycles of 33 to 34 years. Most years, the Lion whimpers rather than roars, producing a maximum of perhaps 10-15 meteors per hour. Like the October Orionids, the Leonids ordinarily pick up steam after midnight and display the greatest meteor numbers just before dawn. This year, however, the last quarter moon will be shining near the radiant point of the shower in the constellation Leo. The unwelcome presence of the moon is sure to dampen the 2011 Leonid display. If you’re game, you can try watching from late night November 17 till dawn November 18, though the moonlit glare will subdue the 2011 Leonid meteor shower.

The Great Andromeda Galaxy, M31, crosses near your zenith in mid-evening if you're in the mid-northern latitudes. The exact time (sometime around 9 p.m. this week) depends on how far east or west you are in your time zone. Lie on the ground with binoculars, look straight up, and examine the sky just off Andromeda's upraised knee for a dim little elongated glow among the pinpoint stars. The two brightest points on the eastern side of the sky are Jupiter, high in the southeast, and Capella, in the northeast. The Last-quarter Moon is Friday this week, (exact at 10:09 a.m. EST). The Moon shines near Mars and Regulus Friday morning and Saturday morning.

News from the Net:
Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks – November 17-19, 2011
Saturn’s Moon Plays Hide-and-Seek With Cassini
Soyuz Launches to Station amid Swirling Snowy Spectacular
The Holidays Are Coming! A Beginner’s Guide to Telescopes
Seeing the Phases of Exoplanets
Another AMAZING Space Station Timelapse — with Aurora
Mars in a Minute: Is Mars Really Red?
Orion Spacecraft to Launch in 2014

Voyage into week II, November

2011-11-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

We are still trying to adjust to the time change over the weekend. After a weekend of cloudy skies, we may have a few clear, cooler nights ahead. Another front will move through Tuesday night, giving us a clear sky tonight!

Star Notes this week:
Three Planets appear in the November evening sky and the other two in the morning sky. Jupiter was the bright "star" to the lower left of the Moon Monday evening. The bright "star" near the Moon tonight is Jupiter again. Jupiter rises in the east around 5:30 p.m. NEA Alert… The near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 is passing closer to us than the Moon; closest approach is at 6:28 p.m. EST. This rock presents an exceptionally strong radar target. Watch for Venus in the early evening sky. Next to Venus is tiny Mercury! Mercury sits just left of Venus and can be spied with binoculars. As a bonus sighting, the bright star Antares, which marks the heart of Scorpius, is near Venus and Mercury. Mars is in the early morning sky, look near Regulus in Leo. Try and catch Saturn, near Spica. The Full Moon is Thursday night; the Moon shines between bright Jupiter on its right and the Pleiades on its left.

News from the Net:
Just In: NASA’s Latest Image of Asteroid 2005 YU55
Hoping to See Asteroid 2005 YU55? There’s an App for That!
Andromeda Dwarf Galaxies Help Unravel The Mysteries Of Dark Matter
Awesome Action Animation Depicts Russia’s Bold Robot Retriever to Mars moon Phobos

Jupiter, King of Planets

2011-10-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

Last night I moved the DOB (with a little help) out to the South Porch and waited for this bright star to move above the Tree Line. Around 10 pm, I was able to center it in my FOV, an unusually good view of the planet's belts, storms, and moons.

The largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, reaches maximum brightness the night of October 28. On this date, the planet lies opposite the Sun from Earth in our sky — this is called opposition. Jupiter will rise at sunset, appear highest around local midnight, and set as the Sun rises. The king of planets will glow at magnitude −2.9, far brighter than any other point of light in the sky. The gas giant currently lies in Aries the Ram and is about 100 times more brilliant than the brightest star in that constellation. You’ll be able to spot its dark equatorial cloud belts and even its four major moons, which align with Jupiter’s equator. The planet’s South Equatorial Belt returned in November 2010 after it mysteriously faded away for about six months.At opposition, the planet’s disk will span 49.7" across its equator but 46.5" through the poles. This difference is because the planet is gaseous and spins rapidly, thus squashing its shape.

Fast facts about Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. More than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it, and all the other planets together make up only about 70 percent of Jupiter’s volume.
It takes Jupiter about 12 years to orbit the Sun once, but only about 10 hours to rotate completely, making it the fastest-spinning of all the solar system’s planets.
Jupiter rotates so rapidly that its polar diameter, 83,082 miles (133,708 kilometers), is only 93 percent of its equatorial diameter, 88,846 miles (142,984 km).
Jupiter reflects 52 percent of the sunlight falling on it, more than any other planet except Venus (65 percent).

Jupiter’s four large moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto — are easily visible through small telescopes. Io takes less than two days to orbit its plamet, so its relative position visibly changes in an hour or so — less when it appears close to Jupiter.
Our line of sight lies in the plane of the jovian moons’ orbits, so we see occultations (when a moon moves behind Jupiter), eclipses (when Jupiter’s shadow falls on a moon), and transits (when a moon passes in front of Jupiter) at various times. Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the solar system’s largest satellite, with a diameter of nearly 3,300 miles (5,300 km), which is greater than that of Mercury

StarLog ^1028Y2K+11

Jupiter is at opposition tonight, opposite the Sun as seen from Earth. This an unusually close opposition of Jupiter, one of the closest in its 12-year cycle.

I counted 3 moons visible and the bands were bright and clear on the surface. There was a black shadow, mid way on the second band. This was from the Io, just completing transit.
G------------(J)---E-------C

After 11pm I put the bright planet and 4 moons in the FOV.
G-----------I-(J)----E------C

I swung the scope over to Andromeda and spotted the Galaxy, floating where I left it the last time I captured it in my FOV. Left the scope idle, did not make it back out, this crisp, cold night.

November, week one highlights:
Look for Saturn and Spica low in the dawn sky
Saturday night the crescent Moon is higher and easier to spot now after sunset. Its round side points to the lower right, toward very low Venus and Mercury.
Sunday the waxing crescent Moon is 4 days old. It's a great time to explore the Moon with binoculars or a small telescope
Monday night, Halloween evening finds the crescent Moon lowering in the southwest and bright Jupiter rising higher in the east. Perfect for setting up your telescope in the driveway and giving looks to visiting trick-or-treaters!
The First-quarter Moon is Wednesday, (exact at 12:38 p.m.). The half-lit Moon stands high in the south at sunset. As the stars come out, the Moon reveals itself to be above the dim star-pattern of Capricornus.
Look lower left of the Moon Thursday evening, by two or three fist-widths at arm's length, for Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star.
Next week end, Daylight-saving time ends (for most of North America) at 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Clocks "fall back" an hour.

News from the Net:
Asteroid Lutetia May Have A Molten Core
Astrophoto: Comet Garradd by Bob Christmas
Russia Fuels Phobos-Grunt and sets Mars Launch for November 9
NASA Issues Report On Commercial Crew as SpaceX’s CEO Testifies About SpaceX’s Progress
Science Fiction No More: Humans and Robots to Explore Space Together
Observing Alert: Bright Spot On Uranus Reported
Astrophoto: Mu Cephei by Jan Inge Berentsen Anvik
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Dark Matter Science

Earthshine and a Meteor

2011-10-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

Early morning visual astronomy in a crisp, clear sky just before sunrise. Heading out for an early breakfast , we saw the last quarter crescent moon high in the night sky with the glow of the earth shining visible on the surface. Always an awsome sight to behold. Yesterday morning a report from the wife on her early morning walk : a meteor hit the atmosphere with an obvious explosion (bright color, light) about 40 degrees in the North. After the bright colorful light, it streaked downward to the west, then disappeared. Space junk? Most likely a meteor! These are great events and seen often, but I suspect they happen a lot more than reported. Always feel special when we can catch them streaking across the sky.

It should be clear and crisp again, after this cold front blows in Thursday...
Jupiter and Mars still provide the planetary show. At opposition to the Sun next Friday the 28th, Jupiter rises just after sunset, is nicely up in the east by the time the sky is dark, and is with us all night, crossing the meridian to the south around local midnight (1 AM Daylight Time). The planet is so bright (minus-third magnitude) that it is drawing considerable public attention. About half an hour after Jupiter moves into the sky's western half, Mars, now scurrying toward the Sickle of Leo, rises, the orangy-red color of the planet making a nice contrast with blue-white Regulus.

News from the Net:
Stunning New Cassini Image: A Quartet of Moons
Astrophoto: Moon And Saturn by Jeff Swick
ROSAT’s Crash Site Determined

My Sky in October's Last Week

2011-10-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday at the Group meeting, seven of us discussed the cloudy forecast for the Saturday Night Stargazing event at the TPL. By noon Friday the forecast had changed some and the Event went to GO! The clouds did move in and out all day Saturday. A note from Larry Sunday, indicated that the Event was a Big Success!

Five Planets in the Night Sky this week:

In their outward order from the sun, the visible planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These planets are easy to see without an optical aid, so they were known to our distant forebears since time immemorial.
Tonight, Mercury is 2.6 degrees to the lower right of Venus. Look for Venus and Mercury with binoculars very low in the WSW 30 minutes after sunset.
Saturn is emerging from behind the Sun. Look very Low in the east 35 minutes before sunrise. The red planet Mars lights up the wee morning hours, not far from Regulus, the constellation Leo’s brightest star. Jupiter (magnitude –2.9, in southern Aries) shines low in the east-northeast in twilight, then blazes higher in the east to southeast all evening. Look above it for the stars of Aries and below it for the head of Cetus, rather dim. Jupiter is nearly at its highest in the south by midnight. It's a big 49 arcseconds wide, as big as it will appear at its October 28th opposition.

We are expecting cloudy skies Wednesday and Thursday nights with a real Cold front due here. There is a New Moon in the sky Wednesday (exact at 3:56 p.m. EDT). This is a period for a high tide alert!

By Friday, with a clear cold night, after the front moves through, look in bright twilight for the thin waxing crescent Moon very low in the southwest. Venus is to its lower right.

By 9 or 10 p.m. this week, the Autumn Star, Fomalhaut, shines at its highest in the south (not all that high). Fomalhaut is 25 light-years away — exactly the same distance as Vega, shining brighter high in the west. So, the difference in brightness that you see is the two stars' actual difference in true luminosity. Vega looks 1 magnitude brighter than Fomalhaut (in other words, 2.5 times brighter), and so it really is.

News from the Net:
Bringing Satellites Out Of Retirement – The DARPA Phoenix Program
Astrophoto: Cassiopeia by Matt W. Childs
What Happened On the International Space Station this Week?
Astrophoto: The Prawn Nebula
Curiosity Buttoned Up for Martian Voyage in Search of Life’s Ingredients
ROSAT Satellite has Re-Entered; No Reports of Debris
Stunning Loops and Filaments on the Sun Today
Astrophoto: Close-up Image of the Moon by Andrei Juravle
Astrophoto: The Pleiades by Eduardo Marino

Mid October Skies

2011-10-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

Now that it's mid-October, Deneb has replaced Vega as the zenith star after nightfall (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes). Accordingly, Capricornus has replaced Sagittarius as the most notable constellation low in the south. Jupiter shines brightly in the east during evening. Capella shines a little less brightly in the northeast, somewhat lower (depending on your latitude). These are the two brightest lights in the whole eastern side of the sky. Now find the midpoint between them. A little below that point are the Pleiades.

Our Last-quarter Moon is Wednesday evening (exact at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon rises around midnight local time, below Gemini and left of Procyon. Later this week, before and during dawn Friday morning, look for Mars to the left of the Moon.

Friday Evening This year’s Orionids will peak on the evening of October 21/22. These meteor fragments radiate from the top of Orion’s upraised club, near the Gemini border. Meteor specialists have meteor counts for this pass averaging a modest 20 per hour under dark skies. The moonlit glare of the waning crescent Moon, however will probably reduce the numbers somewhat this year. The best time to view these meteors is usually in the wee hours before dawn. That time holds true no matter what time zone you’re in.

Next Saturday, the first Stargazing Event will be held up at the TPL. The Group will have several folks at the event with Scopes set up with great items in the FOV. Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star, shines low in the south-southeast after dusk next Saturday. It's due south later in the evening. The western (right-hand) side of the Great Square of Pegasus, very high in the sky, points down nearly to Fomalhaut.

The ROSAT X-ray observatory, launched in 1990 by NASA and managed for years by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), will return to Earth within soon. The massive ROSAT X-ray space telescope continues to descend toward Earth. Latest estimates place the re-entry around noon Universal Time on Oct. 23rd. Uncertainties exceed 10 hours, which makes it impossible to say exactly where ROSAT will re-enter. Many sky watchers are seeing ROSAT in the night sky shining about as brightly as a 1st magnitude star. Check Spaceweather's Satellite Tracker for local flyby times. (There's an app for that, too.)According to a DLR study, as many as 30 individual pieces could survive the fires of re-entry. The largest single fragment would likely be the telescope's mirror, which is very heat resistant and may weigh as much as 1.7 tons.

More News from the Net:
A Tale of Three Moons: Is There Life in the Outer Solar System?
Astrophoto: Flame Nebula and Horsehead Nebula by Fabricio Siqueira
Dawn Discovers Surprise 2nd Giant South Pole Impact Basin at Strikingly Dichotomous Vesta
Coming in 2012: Our Last Transit of Venus
Wake Up! The Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks On October 20…
Digging Deeper For Dark Matter
NASA to Test New Atomic Clock
All-Sky Camera Captures Mysterious Flashes

Sky-Watching in the Second week of October

2011-10-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

The forecast is not the best until mid week when we get a partly cloudy sky in the evening. We did have some “good rain” here over the past few days! The Night Sky is expected to clear by the weekend for the Alignment and first light at the TPL Dome Telescope.

Our Full Moon is Tuesday evening, (exact at 10:06 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon is in dim Pisces, below the Great Square of Pegasus. There's a full Moon tonight and according to folklore it has a special name--the Hunter's Moon. It gets its name from Native American hunters who tracked and killed their prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead. This year's Hunter's Moon is beautifully close to the planet Jupiter. [sky maps: Oct. 11, 12, 13]

Try and catch bright Jupiter in my FOV Wednesday night and Thursday night, which is nearing its opposition, shines close to the Moon, which is just past its own opposition (full Moon).

At the end of the week, Friday, Binoculars show the Pleiades left of the waning Moon this evening. Saturday night, the moon will be above the Seven Sisters. Next Saturday, a few folks from the Group plan to place the 11” scope in the Dome at the TPL and align the Telescope for first light there.

News from the Net:
Amazing New View of the Mt. Everest of Vesta
Video: A Rover’s 3-Year Drive Across Mars
A Meteorite Visits the Comettes
Suitable For Framing: Latest Eye Candy from Cassini
Welcome To The Heart Of The Milky Way…
Did The Draconids Perform?
Astrophoto: The Distant Worlds of Uranus and Neptune by Rolf Wahl Olsen

October Night Skies

2011-10-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

This October started with a Star Party at the TPL new site, last Saturday night. Larry and a few others from the Group set up their scopes in the parking lot ( I did not make it). The Dome has been moved, but not completely set up with a scope yet. The Pier for the scope has to set up a week first. Several folks from the Library were there and viewed the sights from the eyepiece at the scopes. Larry mentioned that there was some city lights that interfered a bit in East and there was moonlight from an early crescent moon!

The winds of change from the NE have brought us cooler nights...finally! By the end of the week, a Pacific front will bring back the clouds! Bad news for the IOMN Event set up at the NB Library at the end of the week, next Saturday! Also we wll miss the meteor shower set to pass over us next weekend. This week I hope to catch Jupiter, and try and view that Comet again in Hercules this week.

It is the time of year, if you’re in the northern hemisphere, try looking northeast this evening for two prominent constellations, Cassiopeia and Perseus. The easier to see will be Cassiopeia, which has a distinctive M or W shape, depending on what time of night you see it. This constellation represents a Queen in ancient mythology. Cassiopeia is easy to identify and so it is one of the most famous constellations in the sky. You’ll see it in the northeast this evening, and higher up in the evening sky in late fall and winter. Perseus (the Hero) follows Cassiopeia across the night sky. As night passes, you’ll see them both ascending in the northeast — then arcing high in the north — then descending in the northwest — with Perseus following Cassiopeia all the while.

Our First-quarter Moon is Monday(exact at 11:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon hangs above the Sagittarius Teapot after dark. I am already seeing moon beams across the drive!

Look a little above or upper right of the Moon Wednesday evening for Alpha and Beta Capricorni. Binoculars easily reveal Alpha as a wide, yellow double star. Beta (nearer to the Moon) is also a double, but its closer, unequal components are harder to resolve.

The weekend forecast has Rain! Too many clouds will hide the stars above my backyard. But here is what I will miss should the clouds remain over my portal:

Look high in the east Friday evening, if it is not cloudy, far left of the Moon, for the Great Square of Pegasus. It's balancing on one corner. Your fist at arm's length probably just fits inside it.

Forecasters say Earth is heading for a stream of dust from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. A close encounter with the comet's fragile debris could spark a meteor outburst over parts of our planet on October 8th. [full story] [meteor radar] The Draconid (Giacobinid) meteor shower may put on an intense burst of activity during good observing hours for Europe or possibly elsewhere. Various predictions put one or more outbursts between about 17:00 and 20:30 Universal Time (GMT). The shower's radiant is near the head of Draco, but the meteors themselves can flash into view anywhere in the sky. Unfortunately, the light of the waxing gibbous Moon will obscure all but the brightest of them.

Star Hop East to SW

2011-09-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Friday night I moved the scope out and pointed it east to put the Andromeda Galaxy in my FOV. As summer turns to fall, the Sagittarius Teapot moved west of due south right after dark and was tipping, as if pouring away the last nights of summer. Found a cup full of clusters. Pulled a T.U.B.A. chart and scanned the Sagittarius area with binoculars and then the scope before this constellation fell behind the trees in the SW. That tumbling satellite passed over our sky but did not burn into our part of the world. It seems that another High Pressure is once again bringing back some warmer temperatures (100+) into next week, with a chance of rain! Really?. So, where’s the cooler fall temperatures? Still in Canada?

A few events to observe in this first week of fall: Sunday night Uranus at opposition: opposite the Sun in the sky. It's in Pisces shining dimly at magnitude 5.7. Use S&T’s printable finder chart, or see the September Sky & Telescope, page 53. If you are up Monday night, in a small telescope, Jupiter's moon Io will disappear into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 12:04 a.m. Tuesday morning Eastern Daylight Time. Io will be barely off the planet's western limb. Our New Moon is Tuesday morning (exact at 7:09 a.m. EDT). At the end of the week, once Mars is up in the early-morning hours Saturday morning, Binoculars or a telescope will show that it's passing through the Beehive Star Cluster, M44 in Cancer. Larry wants to try to set up another Stargazing event for the Group at the TPL site this Saturday. So far the forecast is partly clear skies.

News from the Net:
Opportunity spotted Exploring vast Endeavour Crater from Mars Orbit
Massive Sunspot 1302
UARS Update: Satellite Fell in Pacific Ocean

Fall Equinox this Week

2011-09-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend will be full of clouds and a chance of rain. We haven’t seen that forecast in a while. This system should hang around through next week, when next Friday morning, The September equinox occurs at 5:05 a.m. EDT, that’s when the Sun crosses the equator heading south for the season… Fall begins. Looking forward to some cool, clear nights to observe. The Group gathered Thursday night for our monthly Astronomy discussion. Six of us reviewed the progress at the TPL dome site and when a Stargazing event might be set up. The event for Saturday has been cancelled due to CLOUDS. This was the first time friend Larry missed a meeting for many, many years. He will be happy to hear about the progress at the dome site. We heard about and discussed the fireball across the western sky the other night. Some of the group observed and followed the Supernova in M101 this past week. I have been putting Jupiter, Mars and the moon in my FOV before the clouds started rolling in the past week. We have been enjoying the moon and Jupiter in the early morning hours, when the clouds break. Jupiter was to the right of the waning gibbous Moon shortly after dark Friday. Also observing the Pleiades in binoculars. Finding the Seven Sisters from my backyard is easy. In September, this star cluster is up in the east at late evening, or high in the south before dawn. Late tonight, or tomorrow before dawn, the moon can guide your eye to the Pleiades.

Our Last-quarter Moon is Tuesday (exact at 9:39 a.m. EDT). The Moon rises around midnight daylight saving time, in the feet of Gemini left of Orion.

Before dawn next Friday, look east and you can spot Mars upper left of the waning Moon.

News from the Net:
Astrophoto: Dumbbell Nebula by Andrei Juravle
Cassini’s Majestic Saturn Moon Quintet
Dramatic Videos of Station Undocking, Gorgeous Earth Descent and Soyuz Touchdown by Russian American Trio
Expedition 28 Soyuz Crew Lands Safely in Kazakhstan
Astrophoto: Moon Rushed by David DeHetre
Astrophoto: Moon-Venus Conjunction by Preshanth Jagannathan
Construction Begins on the 1st Space-Bound Orion Crew Module
Kepler Mission Discovers “Tatooine-like” Planet
Reports of a Bright Meteor over Southwestern US
A current ISS video that captures the Earth as it travels in orbit

Harvest Moon Lights up the Night Sky

2011-09-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

There is lots of smoke and dust in the air from all those fires in surrounding counties. Another week of triple digit day time highs forecast! Our Full Harvest Moon is Sunday night (exact at 5:27 a.m. Monday morning EDT). Look for the Harvest Moon in the ESE at dusk. The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon closest to the first day of fall. Watch for the Harvest Moon effect. The nearly full Moon rises about a half hour later each evening rather than an hour later each night as is the case for other times of the year. Lots of moonlight to dim the dark areas of the sky! The Great Square of Pegasus is off to the Moon's left, early Sunday evening. The Galaxy M31 follows, in tow. Looks great even in moonlight! I’ve been scanning the night sky with the moon this past week. Getting ready for a Moon event October 8, if the local Library has the event? The Moon has always been a great target to fill my FOV!

Friday night lights have begun at area High Schools! This week, the season for Tail Gating your favorite NFL teams starts on Sunday. Sky-Watching Events for the week start after dark and continue to day break. A third of the way down from Vega to Arcturus is the Keystone of Hercules and M13. Orion points the way to the Planet Jupiter in the morning darkness and is below the waning gibbous Moon next Thursday evening! Jupiter and Mars are easy to find early. Before dawn Thursday morning, Mars lies on a straight line with Castor and Pollux, to their lower right. Before dawn the air is cooler and the sky seems a bit clearer. Mercury is still too low for me to view in the east before sunrise. Too many trees in my Horizion. Two Asteroids are in view now. Ceres, the largest asteroid, is at opposition this week: magnitude 7.6 and located at the Cetus-Aquarius border. Vesta, the brightest asteroid is well past opposition, magnitude 6.6 in Capricornus.

News from the Net:
Astrophoto: Great Globular Cluster in Hercules by Robert Collins
Astronomy Without A Telescope – New Physics?
NASA launches Twin Lunar Probes to Unravel Moons Core
Astrophoto: Moonrise by Owen Llewellyn

Search for a Comet and a Super Nova

2011-09-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

These first September nights are still warm, but I welcome this month! This long Diablo Summer continues with hot days in triple digit temps. Theory is La Niña is the culprit for our drought! The clouds are making a comeback with TS Lee rolling around the gulf near Louisiana. Soon, they say our night time temperatures will dip into the cool 60s! Fall is just around the corner of that barbed wire fence!

Here, it was clear so I used my Binoculars to scan the area near the coathanger for Garradd after dark Friday night. I pulled a chart off T.U.B.A. but I could not locate it based on the newsletter info. Or maybe it was there and my tired old eye just did not see it! In this photo you can hardly make it out! But it was there! The fuzzy blob could not be seen by the hanger with my binoculars. Next time I will use a Scope! For now Comet Garradd is a telescopic object. It is, however, approaching the sun and brightening. Recent projections place it at peak magnitude 6, on the threshold of naked-eye visibility, in February 2012. Because Comet Garradd is a first-time visitor to the inner solar system, it could behave in unexpected ways, perhaps exceeding those expectations. Stay tuned-

Ok Skywatchers, grab your binoculars and telescopes, and head for some clear dark skies. A new supernova has been discovered near the Big Dipper. At a mere 21 million light-years away from Earth, a relatively small distance by astronomical standards, the supernova is appearing so bright that Earthlings may be able to see it with a good pair of binoculars over the next few weeks. Watch this video! In this video, Berkeley Lab’s Peter Nugent explains how to find the event with a small telescope or pair of binoculars.

The best time will be in the first few hours after sunset. According to astronomers, this is the closest and brightest supernova of this type detected in the last 30 years and will be closely studied for years to come.

A normal Type Ia supernova at M101's distance, 23 million light-years, should reach magnitude 10.0 at its peak, assuming none of its light is lost to interstellar absorption in M101 itself. It's well within visual reach in a 4-inch scope. You'll be using the supernova to find the galaxy, not the other way around! Moonlight will increasingly return to the evening sky starting around September 3rd or 4th.

A quiet week to observe Events :
With Andromeda rising, M31 is on my list in the FOV. Jupiter and Orion before dawn. The Moon is by the Scorpions head Saturday night. Before dawn, Mars is gliding near Pollux and Castor. At the end of the week, Mercury can bee seen near Regulus in Leo, before dawn. The First-quarter Moon is Sunday afternoon (exact at 1:39 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). Look for the reddish star Antares located in Scorpius. I will need a better horizon to catch that Super Nova in M101! Too many trees to the North!

News from the Net:
How to See a Supernova From Your Backyard This Weekend
Astrophoto: Diamond Ring by Narayan Mukkavilli
NASA Robot arrives at ‘New’ Landing Site holding Clues to Ancient Water Flow on Mars
September is Moon Month!
Weekend Observing Alert: Moon Occults Delta Scorpii
Astrophoto: Milky Way by Barry Armstead
James Webb Space Telescope Nearing Completion
The Genesis of Galaxy Eris…

August closes with Andromeda Rising

2011-08-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

The Heat is still hard to handle in the evening @ ten pm (90°). August is ending with way too many 100+ days. Scanning the sky this past week has been warm, to say the least. It has been a long, HOT Summer! September should bring a change in our weather pattern!? Young astronomers are back in School and time review the eight Planets in our solar system. I say eight, because Pluto did not make the cut five years ago. A current Target TV commercial reminds us of that fact. ”The Sad little planet that was” (Great Back to School clip).

Planets in the Night Sky this Week:
Mercury is an easy target this week, look in Leo before dawn. Mars, in the constellation Gemini, glides near the Twins. Jupiter is still bright for those who are willing to start observing the Planet before midnight. In September find the giant planet in the constellation Aries/Cetus. Uranus, at magnitude 5.7, can be viewed with binoculars, anchored in the constellation Pisces.

The Great Square of Pegasus is in the east. Andromeda soon follows the flying horse to be in a good position to observe M31 and the double star Almach. Cassiopeia is in the northeast as the Big Dipper goes down in the northwest. This area is rich in stars, locate the star cluster NGC 457, called ET. A great find in a scope's FOV. Capella, one of the brightest stars in the sky, shines in the northeast. Friday night find the Coathanger and look for that Comet again. The Moon will brighten for the weekend and be in first quarter Sunday. We are looking forward to some cooler nights in September!

News from the Net:
Deadly and Destructive Path of Hurricane Irene seen in NASA Videos and Images
Astrophoto: The Moon by Denis Vida
International Space Station Could be De-Crewed by November
Comet Garradd C/2009 P1 Crossing M71 Globular Cluster in Sagitta Video
Astrophoto: Solar Prominence and Sunspot 1271 by John Chumack
Astrophoto: Jupiter with 3 Moons by Jamie Ball

The Hunter and Two Planets

2011-08-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

StarLog110824-B
Early morning Stargazing @ 5:30 AM in a Clear sky, seeing was good, temperature 80°! No Scope, just my good eye and a good pair of binoculars. Mars rising in the East at 2 Am was observed at my tree top level, its Magnitude 1.4 moving at the feet of Gemini. The crescent moon was anchored just west of the Red Planet and Jupiter was high in the south. If you had the great gas planet in your FOV…the smaller objects floating near by were these Moons of Jupiter:
E------------- (J) --------I---G-------C

That great hunter, Orion, was well up over my tree-line and the bright nebula M42 was visible below the three stars in the belt. Orange Betelgeuse and blue Rigel were bright and clear.

DAY 45 WITH 100+ TEMPS! THE HEAT WAVE CONTINUES WITH NO RAIN.
THAT SUBTROPICAL RIDGE CURRENTLY CENTERED OVER NORTHWESTERN TEXAS WILL CONTINUE TO BE THE DOMINANT FEATURE FOR SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS.

News from the Net:
Breaking: “Emergency Situation” as Russian Progress Re-Supply Ship Fails
Managers Still Assessing How Progress Crash Will Affect ISS Operations
WISE Discovers Some Really “Cool” Stars!
Astrophoto: Noctilucent Clouds by James Adams
Looking Into a Pair of Cosmic Eyes
Opportunity Arrives at Huge Martian Crater with Superb Science and Scenic Outlook
How Did Jupiter Shape Our Solar System?
Stunning New Timelapse: Tempest Milky Way
Human Mission to an Asteroid: Why Should NASA Go?
Nifty Video: Clouds in Motion on Mars

Catch a Comet in the FOV

2011-08-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

After 40 days of this 100+ heat this summer, our sun is leaving us with a "scorched earth" memory. Today was number 40, the HEAT just keeps coming! The days are getting oppressive and nights are uncomforable. But there may be some relief moving into the Caribbean, late next week, that may bring us some rain!

At our Group meeting last night, most folks said they have not stayed out long in the evening observing, just too warm! We heard from the IOMN folks about setting up an moon observing event through the Library. The NB Library has a kids program set up and they may pursue this event. If so, we might set up a few scopes at a location with the NB Library in October.

I starting looking for Comet Garradd this past week. There was photo on the APOD when it was near M15.This 'cotton ball' target will pass near M71 in a week as it moves across our sky. Larry mentioned that it will me near the "Coathanger" September 2. It is due to brighten while in the neighborhood. You can go to this Chart, and find where the comet is located(in August) on a given night. Search with binoculars and when you find the position, it should pop out as a fuzzy smudge in your FOV!

Folks up North got to see a streak of Fire in the sky. From Spaceweather.com: "The deep atmospheric penetration of this fireball combined with its deceleration and doppler radar echo strongly suggests a fall somewhere in the countryside east of Clevelend," continues Cooke. Pushpins in this Google map show some possible fall locations based on different assumptions about the meteorite's speed and mass. There could be debris anywhere in the countryside around the Ohio towns of Warren, Kinsman, and Hermitage. Readers who find a candidate meteorite are encouraged to contact the Meteoroid Environment Office for further instructions.

We should have some clear, dark nights in the coming week…

Saturday early, the Moon is between Jupiter and Pleiades midnight until dawn.

Sunday, Last-quarter Moon (exact at 5:54 p.m. EDT). Look for the Pleiades above the moon after midnight.

Monday, Neptune, in Capricornus, is at opposition tonight.

Tuesday, Here it is still only August, with summer only 2/3 of the way through — but already the Great Square of Pegasus is up in the east after dark, balancing low on one corner.

Wednesday, As dawn begins to brighten on Thursday morning the 25th, look for Mars to the left of the thin crescent Moon (for North America), as shown here.

Thursday, Did you know that two tiny planetary nebulae lurk right near the big, familiar Wild Duck star cluster, M11 in Scutum? One of them can be spotted in many amateur telescopes, especially with an O III filter. The other is a stiffer challenge. See Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders column, chart, and photo in the August Sky & Telescope, page 58.

Friday, Jupiter's Great Red Spot (currently pale orange) should be crossing the planet's central meridian around 3:09 a.m. Saturday morning EDT. For all Red Spot transits in August, as well as all Jupiter satellite events, see "Action at Jupiter" in the August Sky & Telescope, page 54.

Saturday night, Comet Garradd will be near M71 in Sagitta! The two brightest stars of summer are icy white Vega, now high overhead at dusk (if you live in the mid-northern latitudes), and Arcturus, pale yellow-orange, shining lower in the west. The shadow of Ganymede, Jupiter's biggest moon, crosses Jupiter's face from 1:36 to 3:41 a.m. Sunday morning Eastern Daylight Time.

News from the Net:
Astrophoto: The Milky Way and Venus over Andes
First JWST Instrument Passes Tests
GRAIL Lunar Twins Mated to Delta Rocket at Launch Pad
Rewriting Lunar History
Video: Watch a Solar Storm Slam into Earth
Enhanced Technique for Tracking Solar Storms All the Way From Sun to Earth

Darker Skies, next week…

2011-08-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Not-so-transparent skies, clouds and moonlight have slowed my viewing a lot this past week. The almost full Moon brightens the night sky making it difficult to see the Perseid meteor shower. Last night I stepped out into the warm evening just after dark. The big moon was shrouded by clouds, still behind the tree line. Clouds covered the sky but there were breaks between to allow a few stars to shine. At 9pm the ISS passed over my sky like a a bright star gliding across my cloud covered sky. The spaceship moved right to left a fist above my tree line then went dim in the NE. Always a great sight to behold! With moon rising higher and brighter, I did not stay up for the meteor shower. Breaks in the clouds and hopefully a break in the triple digit heat will bring us a few Clear Skies in week three of this long HOT summer month! Planets and Asteroids will highlight the coming week’s FOV.

Whenever you see Vega passing the zenith, you know the Sagittarius Teapot and the rich Sagittarius Milky Way are at their highest in the south — full of deep-sky objects awaiting view in binoculars or a telescope.

Tuesday, Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross Jupiter's central meridian around 4:54 a.m.
Wednesday morning Eastern Daylight Time. For all the Red Spot transits in August, as well as all Jupiter satellite events, see "Action at Jupiter" in the August Sky & Telescope, page 54.

Wednesday, Before dawn Thursday and Friday mornings, Mars in the eastern sky appears 1½° south (lower right) of the star Epsilon Geminorum. Mars is magnitude 1.4; Epsilon Gem is magnitude 3.0. Binoculars help as dawn brightens.

Thursday, One of the richest patches of the Milky Way is the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, also known as Messier 24. Charles Messier probably made M24 a Messier object because it stands out quite sharply. That's because, unbeknownst to him, it's bounded on all sides by opaque dark nebulae. "M24 is like a patch of blue sky seen through a hole in the clouds," writes Gary Seronik in the August Sky & Telescope; see page 45 for his Binocular Highlight article and chart for M24 and its surroundings.

Friday, Watch bright Jupiter rise below the waning gibbous Moon late tonight, as shown here. They're up in the east by about 11 or midnight daylight saving time, depending on where you live in your time zone.

Saturday, Vesta, the brightest asteroid — and now host to NASA's Dawn spacecraft — is up in fine view by mid- to late evening, shining in Capricornus at magnitude 5.9. It's an easy find in binoculars. Use the finder chart in the August Sky & Telescope, page 53, or our Vesta and Ceres finder charts online. Ceres, a future destination for Dawn (it'll get there in February 2015), lurks two constellations farther to the east in Cetus. It's currently magnitude 8.0.

Speaking of Darker Skies...they broke ground this month to build a new Buc-ees seveal miles to the east of my location. This massive 13 acre travel center may give off a glow that will surely have an effect on my night sky....Progress and not-so-dark skies, the city keeps growing with more light pollution!!

SciFi at the Movies this month: Cowboys and Aliens
One review from Astronaut Leroy Chiao:
What is really cool is the alien technology. The vehicles use their tentacle-like "legs" to form and quickly change the shape of the flying surfaces and shift the center of gravity, allowing amazing agility and maneuverability. The vehicles also use their "legs" to "curl up" in an extreme flare, in order to stop on a dime and do vertical landings and takeoffs.
The alien weaponry is also impressive.

News from the Net:
Enjoy the Perseid Meteor Shower Even if it’s Cloudy
Pardon Me, But Your Black Hole Is Leaking…
GRAIL Twins ready for NASA Science Expedition to the Moon: Photo Gallery
Test Flight of DARPA’s Hypersonic Plane Ends in Crash
Red-Burning Galaxies… Let’s Get The Party Started!
Just for You: A Necklace from Hubble
How To Enjoy The 2011 Perseid Meteor Shower
Astronomers Discover a Dark Alien World

Shooting Stars in Moonlight

2011-08-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

The Perseid Meteor Shower will peak this weekend, even with lots of Moon light! A full Moon on August 13 will not help those who have a serious count in mind. However, we should be able to see a few of these bright meteors streak across the sky in the early morning hours after midnight this week. This shower is part of Comet Swift-Tuttle and is named for the radiant point they appear to come from in the Constellation Perseus.

Perseid Meteor Shower Facts:
They enter Earth's atmosphere at 133,200 MPH, visible at 60 miles up at 3,000 degress F
The Comet, Swift-Tuttle is the largest comet to make repeated passes, a nucleus of 6 miles across.

The forecast calls for Clear and Partly Clear Nights, so if the clouds break in the early hours Friday, The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks late tonight, but the light of the practically full Moon fills the sky all night and will hide all but the brightest meteors. (You can look forward to next year, when the Moon will be just a waning crescent.)

Saturday, the Full Moon (exact at 2:57 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon is between dim Aquarius and Capricornus.

News from the Net:
HARPS Tunes In On “Noisy” Planets
SpaceX: Mars Is Our Future
What Does the Moon Look Like from Space?
SDO’s Guide to Solar Flares
Sun Erupts with Largest Solar Flare of the Cycle
Ring System Around Pluto?
Opportunity Snaps Gorgeous Vistas nearing the Foothills of Giant Endeavour Crater

Star Hop in Moon Light

2011-08-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

The Second week of August brings more warm nights with a bright moon after dark. Moonshine will interfere with any deep sky exploration! But there are meteors to watch for as we find Planets, Asteroids and bright stars to put in our FOV. Start looking for Comet Garradd! C/2009 P1, is now coming into small telescope/binocular view. You can find it in the late evening sky in the constellation Pegasus. Predicted to be just below naked eye visibility near it's peak in February 2012!

The brightest asteroid, 4 Vesta, is just past opposition this week, shining at magnitude 5.7 in Capricornus. It's an easy find in binoculars in late evening and can be seen with the unaided eye from a dark site once the Moon sets. Use the finder chart in the August Sky & Telescope, page 53, or our Vesta and Ceres finder charts online. The Dawn spacecraft is orbiting Vesta and sending back high-res pictures. Dawn will spiral down to a much lower orbit for closeup imaging by early 2012. Meanwhile, 1 Ceres lurks two constellations farther east in Cetus. It's magnitude 8.3 and brightening. After Dawn departs Vesta in summer 2012, it will fly on to take up orbit around Ceres in February 2015.

Saturday, The First-quarter Moon is today (exact at 7:08 a.m. EDT). The Moon is in the middle of Libra, to the right of the stars of upper Scorpius.

Sunday, The Moon shines in the head of Scorpius this evening, near Antares. In the southeastern sky after dusk, about a third of the way from the horizon to overhead, are the dim but distinctive stars of the western end of Capricornus. Mars is moving east at a rate of 2/3 of a degree per day. Mars passes 1.3 north of Eta Geminorum. Look for Mars in the ENE an hour and a half before sunrise.

Monday, This evening the Moon shines between the head of Scorpius to its right and the top of the Sagittarius Teapot to its left.

Tuesday, Ganymede, Jupiter's biggest satellite, will disappear into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 3:24 a.m. Wednesday morning Eastern Daylight Time. Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross the planet's central meridian about 44 minutes later, around 4:08 a.m.

Wednesday morning EDT. The "red" spot appears very pale orange-tan. It should be visible for about an hour before and after in a good 4-inch telescope if the atmospheric seeing is sharp and steady. A light blue or green filter helps.

For complete Jupiter satellite phenomena and Red Spot predictions for August, good worldwide, see "Action at Jupiter" in the August Sky & Telescope, page 54.

Friday, The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks late tonight, but the light of the practically full Moon fills the sky all night and will hide all but the brightest meteors. (You can look forward to next year, when the Moon will be just a waning crescent.)

Saturday, August 13, The Full Moon is in the afternoon (exact at 2:57 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon is between dim Aquarius and Capricornus.

The Planets this week:
Mars (magnitude +1.4, approaching the feet of Gemini) rises around 2 or 3 a.m. daylight-saving time. By dawn it's in good view in the east.

Jupiter (magnitude –2.5, in southern Aries) rises in the east-northeast around 11 or midnight daylight saving time.

Saturn (magnitude +0.9, in Virgo) is sinking ever lower in the west-southwest at dusk.

Uranus (magnitude 5.8, in western Pisces) and Neptune (magnitude 7.8, in western Aquarius) are well up in the east or southeast by midnight. Here's a printable finder chart for both.

News from the Net:
96 New Reasons To Love Star Clusters
Juno Blasts off on Science Trek to Discover Jupiter’s Genesis
Two More Kepler Planets Confirmed
Now in the Night Sky: Comet Garradd
The Russian Hubble?
New Evidence for Flowing Water on Mars

Brightest; Hottest Star this week…Our Sun

2011-08-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Our nearest Star, the Sun, is blazing hot these days. We just cannot seem to break this High Dome over us! Triple digit temps this week are making the night observing very uncomfortable. Our aging sun is active again with sunspots. As described in today’s Space-weather post: Double sunspot 1263 is a whopper. Its two dark cores are each wider than Earth, and the entire region stretches more than 65,000 km from end to end. Yesterday in the Netherlands, Emil Kraaikamp took advantage of a break in the clouds and "a few moments of steady air" to capture this magnificent photo. "To image this monster, I used a 10-inch Newtonian telescope capped by a white light solar filter," says Kraaikamp. He used the same setup to photograph nearby sunspot 1261. The clarity of both images is impressive. Note the granulation of the stellar surface surrounding the main dark cores. Those are Texas-sized bubbles of plasma rising and falling like water boiling on top of a hot stove. The magnetic field of sunspot 1263 harbors energy for powerful X-class solar flares. Because the sunspot is turning to face Earth, any such eruptions in the days ahead would likely be geo-effective.

The hot summer month of August should surrender some interesting events in the coming days and weeks. Tonight the moon is close to Saturn. Friday, Asteroid Vesta is at opposition. Observed as a white speck in my telescope, I am fascinated with all the current photos from “Dawn”! Saturday, brings the First-quarter Moon (exact at 7:08 a.m. EDT). The Moon is in the middle of Libra, to the right of upper Scorpius. Next week the night sky lights up with meteors. Bright moonlight will wash out the fainter meteors, and instead of 100 per hour, observers may see only about 20. Blocking the moon with a building or tree will reduce the glare.

News from the Net:
Activity Heating Up on the Sun!
Cassini Captures a Menagerie of Moons
Hat Creek Radio Observatory by Gary Crabbe
Juno set to launch Friday
Space Station up date: A Walk in space today, Wednesday
Do Planets Rob Their Stars of Metals?
NASA Unveils Thrilling First Full Frame Images of Vesta from Dawn MeteorWatch is Coming! Look for Perseids With the Rest of the World

Shooting Stars, No Moon

2011-07-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

August is here, the first week starts with a new moon. Tropical Storm Don is fading fast. Forecast now indicating less rain for our area this weekend…just clouds. We may have a chance for a clear sky to count some meteors this week, once that High settles over us again. Nights are warm, and two major showers – the Delta Aquarid meteor shower and the Perseid meteor shower – converge to put on a show. Watch in the first week of August to have moonless skies from midnight to dawn, the best time of night for watching meteors. Summertime meteors, occasionally flitting across your line of sight are especially noticeable between mid-July and the third week of August. And between Aug. 3 and 15, there are no fewer than six different minor displays that are active. [2011 Meteor Shower Guide]. The only equipment you'll need is your eyes and a modest amount of patience. The actual number of meteors a single observer can see in an hour depends strongly on sky conditions. The moon will be new, or between the Earth and sun on July 30. Afterwards, the moon will begin to wax again, but you’ll have an entirely moon-free sky after midnight during the first week of August.

The New Moon is this afternoon (exact at 2:40 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). Tonight, Now that summer is far advanced, the glowing band of the Milky Way forms a vast arch high across the sky after darkness is complete — if you're one of the few lucky people not living under light pollution. The Milky Way runs from Perseus and Cassiopeia low in the north-northeast, up and across the big Summer Triangle very high in the east, and down to Sagittarius and Scorpius low in the south.

Sunday,The brightest asteroid, 4 Vesta, is at opposition this week, shining at magnitude 5.6 in Capricornus. It's an easy find in binoculars in late evening and can be seen with the unaided eye from a dark site. Use the finder chart in the August Sky & Telescope, page 53, or our Vesta and Ceres finder charts online. The Dawn spacecraft is now orbiting Vesta, taking pictures and gradually working its way down to a much lower orbit, which it will reach in early 2012.

Monday, As August begins, bright Vega crosses nearest the zenith around 11:00 p.m., depending on where you're located east-west in your time zone. How accurately can you time when this event happens for you? Vega goes exactly through the zenith if you're at latitude 30° north.

Wednesday, The waxing crescent Moon is below Saturn at dusk.

Thursday, This evening the Moon is below Spica at nightfall.

Friday, The Moon lines up left of Spica and Saturn at dusk. Mars, low in the east-northeast just before the first light of dawn, is passing less than 1° south (lower right) of the star cluster M35 in Gemini on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Use binoculars or a telescope.

Saturday, First-quarter Moon is this morning (exact at 7:08 a.m. EDT). The Moon is in the middle of Libra, to the right of upper Scorpius.

News from the Net:
August is full of Discovery Missions in our Solar System.
Chandra Captures Enticing Evidence Of Black Hole’s Bondi Radius
New Webb Telescope Technologies Already Helping Human Eyes
Last Towback of a Flight Worthy Space Shuttle – Atlantis Post Touchdown Photo Album
Peace In The Light… An Orion Sunset
Applying the Titius-Bode Rule to Exoplanet Systems

Early Mornings with Jupiter and Mars

2011-07-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

So far, the mornings have been cloudy…we might catch a clear sky soon. During the next mornings Mars, Aldebaran, Jupiter and the Moon will be making a parade for early day observers. Tuesday, July 26th before dawn you can observe Mars, Aldebaran, Jupiter and the Moon in the same region of the sky looking East. This is a nice opportunity to see the red planet with a red star near a small waning crescent Moon. The Moon on this will be very close to Alpha Tauri and will make for a spectacular contrast. The ruddy glimmer of Mars may be seen just before dawn wending its way between the stars that form the "horns" of Taurus, the Bull. If you have trouble spotting the red planet, go out at around 5:00 am on the morning of the 27th. The waning crescent Moon will be just a few degrees west of Mars, offering you a convenient landmark to recognize him by as he drifts eastward toward the stars of Gemini. Jupiter (magnitude –2.4, in southern Aries) rises in the east around midnight daylight saving time. Once it's well up, look below it for the head of Cetus, rather dim. By dawn Jupiter shines high in the southeast. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest. Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined (the mass of Jupiter is 318 times that of Earth).

Mars (Greek: Ares) is the god of War. The planet probably got this name due to its red color; Mars is sometimes referred to as the Red Planet. (An interesting side note: the Roman god Mars was a god of agriculture before becoming associated with the Greek Ares; those in favor of colonizing and terraforming Mars may prefer this symbolism.) The name of the month March derives from Mars.

It was clear Friday night at 10:30 pm. The summer triangle was well up in the eastern sky. Scorpius had moved farther to the SW and was higher. I could see the lid of the teapot just above the tree line. In the Binocular FOV were M22, M8, and M20 near the teapot dome. I found the coathanger again, anchored between Altair and Vega.

News from the Net:
Juno is our next mission to Jupiter, scheduled to launch Aug. 5. The orbiting spacecraft will improve our understanding of our solar system's beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Juno will get closer to Jupiter than any other spacecraft and will provide images and the first detailed glimpse of its poles. After a five year cruise, Juno will obtain an orbit sometime in July 2016.
Awesome Astrophotos: A Negative Sun
Now Playing At The Sky Cinema… The Moon, Mars and Aldebaran
Ghostly Landing of Atlantis Closes Americas Space Shuttle Era Forever
Shedding New Starlight On The Andromeda Galaxy
Dawn Spirals Down Closer to Vesta’s South Pole Impact Basin
Mars Science Lab Rover Will Land in Gale Crater Cosmic Bullseye: Auriga’s Wheel

Last Week of this Hot, Cloudy July

2011-07-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

Several Historical Events were witnessed and placed in the books this past week. Hubble has discovered a fourth satellite for the icy, dwarf planet, Pluto. Remembering Apollo 11, NASA TV played videos of the landing. The final shuttle Atlantis landing early Thursday morning, Dawn in orbit around Vesta and Neptune’s completed orbit around the sun after 165 years. Our Group had our monthly meeting last night. Not an historical event, but six of us enjoyed drink, food and discussions in matters of Astronomy, Spaceflight and Telescopes. I did see several bright stars between the clouds on the way home after the meeting. Looking forward to the 'dark of the moon' next week, if the clouds break, to allow some observing.

There is a Last-quarter Moon tonight, (exact at 1:02 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time Saturday morning). The Moon rises around the middle of the night with Jupiter below it. By dawn they're very high in the southeast.

Saturday, Look low in the south-southeast (depending on your latitude) for the Teapot pattern of Sagittarius. It's starting to tilt to the right — as if to pour out the rest of the summer from its spout. This week, keep an eye out for occasional Southern Delta Aquarid meteors shooting away from the southeast late at night.

Monday, The Moon is near the Pleiades and Aldebaran before dawn this morning and Tuesday morning, as shown below.

Tuesday, Use binoculars in bright twilight to look for Mercury and twinklier Regulus just 3° apart very low above the western horizon. The waning crescent Moon hangs near Mars before dawn Wednesday morning. They're between the horns of Taurus. We won’t see this: The Moon occults, (covers) Mars as seen from parts of South America and the Pacific Ocean, mostly during daylight.

Thursday, The brightest asteroid, 4 Vesta, is now magnitude 5.8 as it nears its August 6th opposition. It's in Capricornus, easily visible in binoculars in late evening; use our finder chart. The Dawn spacecraft has taken up orbit around Vesta and should be starting its science observations around now!

By the end of the week, now that summer is far advanced, the glowing band of the Milky Way forms a vast arch high across the sky after darkness is complete — if you're one of the few lucky people not living under serious light pollution. The Milky Way runs from Perseus and Cassiopeia low in the north-northeast, up and across the big Summer Triangle very high in the east, and down to Sagittarius and Scorpius low in the south.

Next Saturday afternoon the moon is New (exact at 2:40 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

News from the Net:
Hoping Forward At The End Of The Shuttle Era
Caught In The Web… Space Spider!
Elliptical Galaxies Don’t Act Their Age…
Forever Blowing Bubbles…
Pan-STARRS Discovers two Super Supernovae
Amazing Image: ISS Crew Captures Shuttle Atlantis’ Last Brilliant Trip Through the Atmosphere
Space Shuttle Era Comes to a Close with Atlantis’ Successful Landing
Cosmic Crime Alert… LMC Is Swiping Stars!
Remembering Apollo 11: July 20, 1969
Hubble Telescope Spots Another Moon Around Pluto
First Ever Vesta Vistas from Orbit – in 2D and 3D

Globular Clusters... Summer Nights

2011-07-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

With only a third of the way into the summer of 2011, the best of Sagittarius and Scorpius is coming into view after dark. With 158 clusters listed, plenty to find and put in the FOV. These massive balls of stars appear fuzzy in binoculars, but the stars become clear in a Telescope. No matter how you find them, this is the time of year to discover and observe. Sagittarius, Scorpius and Ophiuchus are home to 91, all of which are in prime viewing spots this summer. M22, found in the Tea Pot, was the first G. Cluster discovered in 1665! M13, in Hercules, was discovered in 1714 by Edmond Halley.

This week keep and eye on the evening sky! We welcome the rain(1.2") that comes with the cloud cover but, I hope for a few clear nights with no moon! If it’s clear in the early morning hours this weekend, we can put Jupiter and a last quarter moon in the FOV. Lots of news this week with the final shuttle landing early Thursday morning, Dawn in orbit around Vesta and Neptune’s completed orbit around the sun after 165 years.

More News from the Net:
Herschel Telescope Sees a Twisted Ring at Our Galaxy’s Center
Hubble Telescope Spots Another Moon Around Pluto
Video: Atlantis Undocks from ISS; Farewell for Shuttle
First Ever Vesta Vistas from Orbit – in 2D and 3D
ULA Inks Deal With NASA To Study Man-Rating Atlas V

Full Moon at School Event

2011-07-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

StarLog @ 071411
Last night a few of us from the group set up scopes at Klein Road School. A small group of kids from the summer Astronomy Camp were seeing first light in their home made scopes. The breeze and Moon light did not help viewing in a partly cloudy sky. The wind did make a hot summer night... bearable. But five young astronomers did see Saturn for the first time from their own scopes. Bright Vega in the summer triangle did make it past the moonlight. I took my Celestron 4” refractor and focused on the moon then Saturn. The Full Moon was low in Sagittarius, behind broken clouds. The crater Tycho was easily found. The ringed Planet was bright, yellow and moving in the wind. The moon Dion was close in, Moons of Saturn:
T------R-d(S)--------et
No clusters, nebula or G clusters in the FOV, too much light! We did follow the HST as it moved across our window, dim and slow.

Next week we move into darker night skies. The Last-quarter Moon is Friday night (exact at 1:02 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon rises around the middle of the night with Jupiter below it. By dawn they're very high in the southeast. I’m still looking for a better view of Albireo, in Cygnus when the double star moves above my tree line before midnight.

Tonight, look east for a colorful Moon rise. It’ll actually be past full moon and a waning gibbous moon.

Saturday, With summer almost a third of the way through, the Big Dipper is descending in the northwest after dark and starting to scoop to the right, dipper-wise, as if picking up water to dump over the world in the evening next spring. Watch the Moon rise in twilight. Look for the Moon to rise in the ESE about an hour after sunset.

Sunday, Titan, the brightest satellite of Saturn, can be found in a telescope about four ring-lengths east of Saturn this evening and tomorrow evening. With a 6-inch scope you can make out the orange tint of Titan's hydrocarbon-smogged atmosphere.

Tuesday, Mercury is at greatest elongation this evening, 27° east of the Sun, low in the west-northwestern twilight.

Wednesday, Now's the time of year to work through the rich but low tail of Scorpius with a telescope right after dark. Explore a whole nest of little-known star clusters near M6, the Butterfly Cluster, with Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders article and chart in the July Sky & Telescope, page 66.

Thursday, The brightest asteroid, 4 Vesta, has brightened to magnitude 6.0 as it approaches opposition in Capricornus. It's easily visible in binoculars in late evening; use the finder chart in the August Sky & Telescope, page 53. The Dawn spacecraft has taken up orbit around Vesta and should be starting its science imaging around now!

News from the Net:
Stripped Down Discovery rolls towards Retirement at Kennedy Space Center
Measuring Mercury’s Craters
Catch A Pulsar By The Tail
Another Kepler Planet Confirmed
Are The Galaxies In Our Universe More Right-Handed… Or Left-Handed?
Looming Larger: Dawn Approaches Vesta, Enters Orbit July 15-16
Return of the Capsule
Historic Images of Final Spacewalk of Shuttle Era

Summer Triangle, Star Cluster in my FOV

2011-07-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

A late Binocular sweep last night and Thursday Night, I found the Brocchi’s cluster. It does not get dark until 10pm, so at 11, I stepped out and scanned the sky for the coathanger. The summer triangle was to the ENE and I followed a line left from Altair toward Vega. Found the hanger easily about a third the way in. Stationed upright, this hanger was dimmer, Friday night…more Haze! I moved to Sagittarius both nights and found M22, M8 and M20 in my Binocular FOV. Quarter moon this weekend, moonlight and objects along the Terminator!

The Night Sky next week…in my Binoculars and Telescope.
Tonight, Titan, the brightest satellite of Saturn, can be found in a telescope about four ring-lengths west of Saturn this evening and tomorrow evening. With an aperture of 6 inches or more, you may be able to make out Titan's orange tint due to its hydrocarbon-smogged atmosphere. When looking at the Moon tonight, the moon is farther from Spica tonight than it was last night?

Sunday, Arcturus is the brightest star very high in the west-southwest after dark. Vega is the brightest even higher in the east. A third of the way from Arcturus to Vega look for the mostly dim semicircle of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. Two-thirds of the way, look for the dim Keystone of Hercules.

Monday, Look 2° or 3° below the Moon for Antares early this evening

Tuesday, Happy birthday Neptune! Today it's exactly one Neptune year since the planet's discovery in 1846. Never again will a major planet of the solar system have failed to complete a full orbit since it was found. See the July Sky & Telescope, page 28. To locate Neptune with your binoculars or telescope (at magnitude 7.9), you can use our printable finder chart.

Wednesday, Look below the bright Moon for the Teapot pattern of Sagittarius,

Thursday, Full Moon tonight (exact at 2:40 a.m. Friday morning Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon is left of the Sagittarius Teapot after dark. The Group will be at Klein Road School and set up to scope out the sky tonight. A Summer Astronomy Class is getting first light in there hand made scopes. Nothing but Moon Light in our FOV….

News from the Net:
Famous “Last” Words for the Shuttle Program
Shuttle Atlantis Soars to Space One Last time: Photo Album
3552 Don Quixote… Leaving Our Solar System?
Atlantis Launches on Final Space Shuttle Mission
Atlantis Unveiled for Historic Final Flight amidst Stormy Weather
Where Did Early Cosmic Dust Come From? New Research Says Supernovae
Latest Image from Dawn: View of Vesta Getting Sharper
The Sights And Sounds of Saturn’s Super Storm
Proposed NASA Budget Bill Would Cancel James Webb Space Telescope

Hazy Sky, First week of July

2011-07-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

Lots of River traffic over the busy Hot, Holiday weekend! A few Clouds moving in and out during the evening skies. The sky has been cloudy in the AM. Last night I went out at 10 and watched the ISS glide across my portal. The Sky was hazy(African Dust?) with high broken clouds. The orbiting craft was very bright as it arced across the sky, then while still very high in the SW, it went dim and lost light like a dying ember...very cool! I spotted Saturn in the wsw just above my treeline. I found Antares and the head of Scorpius above the trees, to the S. The next couple of nights the Moon will become brighter, but I hope to set up a scope this week and put a few objects in the eyepiece, if the clouds break.

In the night sky this week, Arcturus still bright just a little W of South. Arc back to the handle of Big Dipper in the N. Hercules is high and Scorpius is seen above my treeline (No Tail). I need a better horizon to view the clusters (M6) around the tail of Scorpius. Lyra and Cygnus coming up in the East.

Tonight, this earth, we call home, now in the Hot Summer Season, is farthest from the sun.

Early Tuesday morning, Mars is 5.4 degrees North of Aldebaran

Thursday night brings on a bright First Quarter Moon. Look for a nice triangle with Spica and Saturn. And start looking for the Straight Wall!

News from the Net:
The Orion Capsule on Display
Martian Rust may lead to past water
Ancient Galaxies feed on gas, not collisions
Distant Quasar opens window to early Universe
Final countdown, fueling the anticipation
Neptune, Rocking the Dreidel
Summertime Backyard Astronomy-Video
Dawn closing in on Asteroid Vesta
Tycho Mountains, View from LRO

Rocks in Space...near and far

2011-06-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

Newly-discovered asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above Earth's surface on Monday June 27 at about 9:30 a.m. EDT. NASA analysts say there is no chance the space rock will strike Earth. Nevertheless, the encounter is so close that Earth's gravity will sharply alter the asteroid's trajectory.

Two more big Rocks farther out there.....
Dawn Nears Start of Year-Long Stay at Giant Asteroid!
An Asteroid Occultation: Dwarf Planet-Pluto

The clouds are back after we did manage to get 2 inches of rain last week. That High Dome is back over our Portal to the Universe this last week in June. A few of us from the Group spent some more time at the Dome Site last week and finished cleaning the Dome. Discussed trees again (to be cut). The past week, I have observed Saturn near the Star Porrima, high in the SW, floating in a hazy, partly cloudy sky. I am still waiting to put Albireo in my FOV. Over the tree line after 11pm. Two things to look for this week: a chance the clouds will break so we can observe and a chance for some more rain at the end of the week?

Monday, About an hour before sunrise Tuesday morning, look east. Above and below the waning crescent Moon are the Pleiades and Mars, respectively, as shown at right. Binoculars will help. A tiny new near-Earth asteroid named 2011 MD, discovered by the LINEAR project on June 22nd, passes less than one Earth diameter from Earth's surface. It's estimated to be 8 to 18 meters (25 to 55 feet) wide.

Thursday, Low in the west-northwest during twilight, Mercury finally forms a straight line with fainter Castor and Pollux. Look about 45 minutes after sunset.

Friday, New Moon phase begins (exact at 4:54 a.m. EDT). A small telescope shows Saturn's largest moon, Titan, about four ring-lengths east of the planet this evening and tomorrow evening. They're a little less that 3 arcminutes apart. Bright Porrima is 32 arcminutes to Saturn's northwest. And a little closer to Saturn's northeast is a yellow star of 6th magnitude.

News from the Net:
Close Approach: Images and Animations of Asteroid 2011 MD
Final Shuttle Voyagers Conduct Countdown Practice at Florida Launch Pad
Getting Closer: Images, Video of Asteroid 2011 MD
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Backgrounds
Dramatic New NASA Animation Depicts Next Mars Rover in Action
More to Meets the Eye in M33
Globular Clusters and the Age-Metallicity Relation
Gale Crater Reported Front-Runner for MSL Landing Site

Stars behind the Clouds this week

2011-06-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

This Third week of June brings a change in the surface High that has kept us in 100+ temperatures the past week. That Dome of High pressure is finally supposed to move away. This will bring us clouds and a slight chance of rain through Thursday. Not a drought breaker…..but maybe some relief! With these clouds, our sky dome will be covered with maybe a chance to put the stars in the FOV between the clouds, this week.

The Group met last Thursday and only four were there. We discussed the stars, moon and space flight for a couple of hours at the restaurant. Saturday members of the Group participated in a Clean-Up with RavenStar at the Dome Site below Canyon Dam. Cleaned off the top of the dome, and trimmed low branches in the South horizon line. Cut a large cedar tree. Lots more to do…..Working toward getting the Dome ready for use this fall?

Clouds remain in our early morning Sky.

If the clouds break Monday, Venus, Mars and Jupiter span 40 degrees. Look for Venus very low in the ENE in the morning twilight. Jupiter is to the upper right of Venus.

Tuesday, June 21 Mars passes 4 degrees south of the Pleiades star cluster. Look for Mars and the Pleiades in the predawn sky. The June solstice occurs at 1:16 p.m. EDT. This is the moment when the Sun is farthest north for the year and begins its six-month return southward. Summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere, where this is the year's longest day. In the Southern Hemisphere, winter begins. If you have a good view of the west-northwest horizon (from mid-northern latitudes), mark precisely where the Sun sets. In a few days you should be able to detect that it's again starting to set a little south of this point. Build your own Stonehenge?

Wednesday, Now that the Moon is gone from the evening sky, try hunting out galaxies hear the head of Serpens using Sue French's "Deep-Sky Wonders" chart, photos, and article in the June Sky & Telescope, page 62. Clouds are forecast over our sky tonight, maybe this weekend will clear for Galaxy hunting?

Thursday, The Last-quarter Moon (exact at 7:48 a.m. EDT). The Moon rises very late tonight, around 1 a.m. EDT on the 24th depending on your location. Look above it for the Great Square of Pegasus.

Friday, With summer here, look south-southeast after dark for the bright constellation Scorpius, "the Orion of summer," now reasonably high and standing upright. Like Orion, Scorpius is marked by several 2nd-magnitude blue-white stars and one of the two brightest red supergiants in the sky (Antares in Scorpius, Betelgeuse in Orion). However, Scorpius is some 30° farther south.

News from the Net:
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Star Seeds
Final Payload for Final Shuttle Flight Delivered to the Launch Pad
Exomoons Could Be Excellent Incubators
Yikes! Lightning Strike Near KSC Launchpad
Black Hole Devours Star and Hurls Energy Across 3.8 Billion Light Years

Three Planets / Triple Digit Temps

2011-06-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

Hot, triple digit days…. Blue skies turn to overcast in the evening hours, so far, this time of year as we get close to Summer Solstice next Tuesday. The heat wave continues..... Start looking for the moon in the daytime. Last Tuesday (Flag Day), some of the group went to a RavenStar Astronomy 101 day camp at Cypress Bend Park (pavilion) here in the city. The kids had been studying the moon phases on Monday. Couple of Scopes set up for review and one was a Solar Scope. Looked at the Sun and discussed the moon plus a few Constellations. Hard to set up scopes for kids (this age) at night in summer, it gets dark too late for them.

Three Planets can be seen before dawn!
I missed this event Thursday morning-to many clouds: Venus is 36 degrees to the lower left of Jupiter. Jupiter is easy to spot. Venus is more of a challenge. Look to the east, 45 minutes before sunrise. Venus is very low in the ENE. Mars is 12 degrees to the upper right of Venus.

If the sky clears Friday morning, Jupiter and Mars are 25 degrees apart. Look for Jupiter in the east, 45 minutes before sunrise. Jupiter shines bright at -2.2 magnitude. Mars is much fainter at +1.4 magnitude. Venus is 12.5 degrees to the lower left of Mars.

Keep hoping for Rain..... and a few clear - dark nights to put something in the FOV.

News from the Net:
Hubble’s Stunning New View of Centaurus A
Lunar Eclipse Images from Around the World; June 15, 2011
Surf’s Up! Solar Wave Clocked At 4.5 Million Miles Per Hour
Voyager Pushes Boundary of Interstellar Space
Ovation For A Stellar Senior
How Much Do Binary Stars Shape Planetary Nebulae?
Can We Put Weather On A Budget?

Summer Triangle in Hot Summer Sky

2011-06-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

Next week is forecast HOT with a chance or two for a clear night and a bright moon. The two brightest stars of summer are Vega, high in the east these evenings, and Arcturus, even higher in the southwest. They're both fairly near neighbors of ours as stars go: they're 25 and 37 light-years from the solar system, respectively. But that's only part of why they appear so bright. Vega is hotter, larger, and 50 times more luminous than the Sun. Arcturus puts out 150 times the light of the Sun. I talked to a couple of fellows that went to the 2011 TSP the first week June. Conditions were not too good, with only two good nights of clear sky. Dark, clear nights are harder to come by with our cloudy conditions. First Quarter Moon Thursday night and if we have a dark clear nights we can see Saturn plus Spica near by. There is a great video of Cassini’s view of Saturn on the web. The Rings, Titan and the smaller moons, the Planet Saturn: Taking the raw images from the Cassini mission and making a long flip-book style movie. Not to forget the Red Planet Mars at Dawn: Opportunity continues to work on the planet.

This weekend, if it is clear, time to put the "Straight Wall" in the FOV.
Monday, The thick gibbous Moon shines near the head of Scorpius this evening. Look for Antares farther to the Moon's lower left.

Tuesday, Look for Antares to the right of the Moon. The nearly Full Moon is to the left of the star Antares in Scorpius. Look for the Moon low in the southwest.

Wednesday, Full Moon, in Sagittarius (exactly full at 4:14 p.m. EDT). A total eclipse of the Moon is visible from Africa, Australia, much of Asia, and parts of Europe and South America.

News from the Net:
NOAA forecasters have downgraded the chances of a geomagnetic storm on June 9th to 20%. The disturbance, if it occurs, would be in response to a glancing blow from the CME of June 7th . A coronal mass ejection (CME) propelled into space by the magnificent flare of June 7th has either missed Earth or its impact was too weak to notice. According to NOAA forecasters, the chance of geomagnetic storms during the next 24 hours has dropped to 15%.
Rosetta… Stoned Again
Zoom into the Epic Images of Endeavour Docked to the ISS
New VLT Survey Telescope Opens Wide Eyes to the Universe
Comet Elenin: Just Passing By
SpacePod: Tour of Atlantis and the Launchpad
Young Supernova Has Bright Future
New Class of Stellar Explosion Sings the Blues
More Eye-Popping Video from the June 7 Solar Explosion
Nearby Galaxy Has Two Monster Black Holes
Are YOU the Next Astronomy Photographer of the Year?
Aquarius Satellite Launches to Observe Earth’s Oceans
Video: Soyuz Arrives at Space Station
Voyagers Find Giant Jacuzzi-like Bubbles at Edge of Solar System

Star Hop Thursday Night

2011-06-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

StarLog^110602
It was clear last night….seeing was not the best 6/10, there was a haze (smoke?) Are you light-polluted where you live? Most of us are. But don't be discouraged by the astronomy you can't do; instead, figure out what you can. For instance, see Hugh Bartlett's "Binocular Sights for City Nights," with finder photos, in the June Sky & Telescope, page 52. I set up the 10” DOB before dark in the drive. At 9:30 I found Vega and Arcturus. I centered bright Saturn (Magnitude = 0.7mag ) in the FOV at 10pm. Four moons were visible to the right of the golden planet, with the star Porrima within the same FOV, far to the left.

Moons of Saturn tm-(S)e-------d------R-----T

Saturn's rings were tilted 7 degrees to my line of sight (all this month), the dark shadow of the rings were across the center of the globe.

I waited for Vega in Lyra and Hercules to get a bit higher before scanning those areas. It was too hazy for a nebula. I found M13 and centered this cluster at 10:30. I have viewed this cluster in better conditions. It was not as sharp tonight! I went back to Saturn for another look. Antares and the head of Scorpius were rising above the tree line at 11pm. I wanted to come back out after Cygnus was above the trees and put Albireo in the eyepiece but I did not make it back out.

Current Forecast is for cloudy nights in the coming week, maybe it will clear again?
Tonight, Look west in twilight for the thin waxing crescent Moon far below Pollux and Castor, as shown here.

Saturday, In twilight, look for Pollux and Castor to the upper right of the Moon, and look for Procyon disappearing about equally far to the Moon's lower left, as shown here.

Sunday, Venus and Jupiter are 25 degrees apart. Look for both planets in the morning sky. Look for Jupiter in the east and Venus very low in the ENE 45 minutes before sunrise. Faint Mars is 6 degrees to the upper right of Venus. Well to the right of the Moon as twilight fades are Pollux and Castor. They're lined up to point almost back at the Moon. As soon as the sky grows dark, use binoculars to look for M44, the Beehive Star Cluster, roughly a binocular field above the Moon and perhaps a little to the right.

Monday, Sparkly, summery Scorpius is rearing up in the south-southeast these evenings. Its brightest star is fiery Antares. Look for the other, whiter stars of upper Scorpius on either side of Antares and farther to its upper right.

Tuesday, A small telescope will always show Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Tonight and tomorrow night Titan is about four ring-lengths to Saturn's west. A 6-inch telescope will begin to show the orange color of its smoggy atmosphere. To identify fainter satellites closer to Saturn, use our Saturn's Moons tracker. Saturn is very close to the star Gamma Virginis this week. The planet and star are just 1/4 of a degree apart. The gap will start to increase after June 12th when Saturn ends its retrograde motion.

Wednesday, Find the First-quarter Moon (exact at 10:11 p.m. EDT), The Moon shines south of Leo.

News from the Net:
Supernova Discovered in M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy
Cassini at Saturn, the Movie
Revealing A Hybrid Star Cluster
Old Star Clusters Shed New Light on Starbirth
Opportunity Surpasses 30 KM Driving and Snaps Skylab Crater in 3 D

New Moon, first week of June

2011-06-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

New Moon means... NO MOON Light to interfere with catching distant light in dark skies!
We’re now approaching the time of year when full astronomical twilight doesn’t end at dark-sky locations until nearly 10:30 pm. Morning twilight starts to send out its first tendrils before 4:00 am, which makes for a rather short time of astronomical darkness to enjoy the views of remote faint celestial objects. The forecast says we might have a clear sky Friday night, but the clouds are never ending. Summer is here…the trade winds are in place/east to west, with clouds coming from the SW coast. Good if it rains, bad for viewing the night sky. If the Clouds Break: The Big Dipper is high in the North during the month of June! Saturn is low in western skies by dark early this month and will SET nearly due west at about 2 a.m.local time by month's end. Look for the ringed planet to the right of the bright star SPICA, in the constellation of Virgo. NOTE that on the evenings of June 9-11, about one hour after sunset, Saturn and the bright star PORIMA will be less than ONE QUARTER degree (!!) apart in the sky....this will allow both of them to appear in the same moderately wide fieled of view of any telescope; Saturn is "below" Porrima and both are about the same magnitude. Saturn slowly drifts eastware and away from the star during the rest of June.- in VIRGO. Jupiter - The mightiest of planets, JUPITER rises about the same time - 3:30 a.m. local time, but just ahead of Venus and Mars (above) and is in the glow of morning dawn shortly after. Not a good month for this huge planet, since it is located so close to the eastern horizon and it is quite far from Earth at this time, showing a disk only aotu 35 arc seconds across - In PISCES.
Beginning in late may and extending through June, this is a month-long minor meteor shower. The Tau Herculid Meteors overhead for mid-northern latitudes at about 10 p.m.; this will be a great month for observing these meteors, since the moon is at NEW phase and the radiant will be in the sky all night; the meteor shower is overhead at midnight when most of the 15 meteors per hours might be seen. THIS YEAR, nearly new moon will not hamper observations of any of these meteors throughout the night!
Planet and Meteor info from arksky.org.

10 Binocular targets in June:
M4-scorpius
M24-sgr cloud
M23-sgr
M25-sgr
IC4665 in Ophiuchus
IC4756 in Serpens
NGC6633-Serpens, in same field as 4756
NGC6940 in Vulpecula
Nu Draconis- a double star, cats eyes
Taurus Poniatovii, Poniatowski’s bull –V shaped

The HST will glide over our portal with multiple passes the first two weeks of June in evening skies. If we are lucky, the clouds will break and skies will clear!

News from the Net:
Bringing the Solar System Down to Earth
MOST… Cutting To The Heart Of A Wolf-Rayet Star
Atlantis Goes Vertical for the Last Time
Voyager 1 Measures Magnetic Mayhem
And The Moon Is Eclipsed By The Earth
Twisted Ring Of Gas Orbits Galactic Center
Globular Clusters Are Real Oddballs
Dead Galaxy? Don’t Think So.
Spirit’s Last Panorama

Observing Saturn, MD Weekend

2011-05-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day Weekend! The rivers are packed with tourists, even though the water is very low during this drought. The clouds come in at night and leave mid-day with NO RAIN. I had a chance to put Saturn’s rings in the FOV Thursday night.

StarLog^110526
The Sky was not the best for viewing. Smoke? Set up the DOB before dark and waited until 9pm before looking for stars. Arcturus was high and bright. At 10 pm, put the ringed planet in the FOV. Ring’s shadow was dark across the center. The Star Porrima (Virgo) was close by and I easily spotted two moons in the scope, Titan and Rhea.
T-----(S)
R
I went N to the Dipper and observed Mizar. At midnight, I was hoping to view the keystone. I tried to view Scorpius, but I only caught Antares just above the tree line in the S. It was still hazey in that area. Missed Hercules....I did not make it back out again.

Sky events for the first week of June:
Saturn is still in view this coming week!
Saturday, Before sunrise tomorrow morning, The crescent Moon is to the upper right of Jupiter. Look to the east 40 minutes before sunrise. look for the waning crescent Moon hanging above Jupiter. Use binoculars to check out the changing planetary array to their lower left.

Sunday, We're still almost a month from summer, but summery Scorpius is already rearing up in the southeast these evenings. Its brightest star is fiery Antares. Look for the other, whiter stars of upper Scorpius on either side of Antares and farther to its upper right.
Libra, the next constellation west of Scorpius, reaches the meridian in the south not long after dark. Libra's lower portion contains the big dark asteroid Hygiea, magnitude 9.3, just waiting for you to hunt it out.

Monday, Saturn's biggest and brightest satellite, Titan, is about four ring-lengths east of the planet tonight.

Tuesday, The brightest star in the east these nights is Vega. You can't miss it. Look for the little triangle-and-parallelogram pattern of the constellation Lyra dangling to its lower right.
The galaxies of the great Virgo Cluster are numerous but not that bright as Messier objects go. Nevertheless, if you have a dark sky, even binoculars are enough for you to hunt for ten of them as very faint smudges west of Epsilon Virginis.

Wednesday, Saturn (with Porrima next to it) and Spica draw the eye in the south after dusk. But don't forget Corvus, the Crow, below them. Corvus's uppermost bright star, Delta Corvi, is a wide telescopic double: magnitudes 3.0 and 9.2, separation 25 arcseconds. New Moon this afternoon/evening (exact at 5:03 p.m. EDT)

Thursday, Saturn and Porrima have now closed to 17 arcminutes of each other, practically as close as they will get. Although they look like neighbors, Saturn is only 76 light-minutes from Earth, while Porrima is 39 light-years in the background. That's more than a quarter million times farther away!

News from the Net:
The quiet sun is waking up. New sunspot 1226 emerging over the sun's southeastern limb is crackling with strong C-class solar flares. So far none of the blasts has been geoeffective, but this could change in the days ahead as the active region turns toward Earth. Stay tuned.

Amazing Photos and Milestone Tributes Mark Last Space Shuttle Spacewalk
Infographic: How the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission Will Work
Crystal Rain Cradles Infant Star
Beginner’s Guide to Astronomy – Refractor Telescopes
NASA Selects OSIRIS-REx as first US Asteroid Sampling Mission
Infographic: How the New Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Stacks Up
Awesome Hi Def Launch Videos from Endeavour
Water, Water Everywhere… Lunar Samples Show More Water Than Previously Thought
Black Holes Spin Outta’ Control
Rapid Formation May Have Stunted Mars’ Growth
Best Images from STS-134, Endeavour’s Final Mission, Part 1
Gamma Ray Burst 090429B… Far Out!
In Memoriam: Spirit Rover, 2004-2010
Hubble Finds “Oddball” Stars in Milky Way Hub
New Arm Embraces Milky Way

Stars Hidden in the last week of May

2011-05-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

This past week has been CLOUDY! Hidden behind a vail of clouds were the Planets and the current visible constellations. I did manage to download some great shots of Saturn from the web and I have been keeping up with Endeavour's last flight to the ISS. The Forecast for this weekend is still CLOUDY and next week may still be difficult to observer the stars and planets. But here is what we can see if the clouds break:

This last week of May is becoming Moonless as the the Moon moves to last quarter Tuesday afternoon at 1:52 CDT. The Moon will rise long after midnight after Tuesday evening. The Keystone to Hercules is slowly coming into view each night. As May ends we see the constellation Hercules rise higher in the night sky. Always searching for M13! By the end of the next week, we can find the Venus, Mars and Jupiter still floating in a pre-dawn sky. 30 minutes before dawn a Crescent moons hangs high with Venus a bit below Jupiter. Look for a faint Mars to the upper right of Venus. Mercury is four degrees below to the left of Venus.

Sunday, Faint Mars is passing about 1° above bright Venus this morning through Tuesday morning.

Monday, Face northwest this evening and look high; there's the Big Dipper, now hanging down by its handle. Just a few weeks ago it was horizontal! Star patterns appear to change orientation fast when they pass near the zenith. The reason for this? When you're looking near the zenith, the directions toward "up" and "down" (toward and away from the zenith) differ a lot over short distances.

Tuesday, Last-quarter Moon (exact at 2:52 p.m. EDT). The Moon rises long after midnight tonight daylight-saving time, beneath the head of Aquarius (the Water Jar asterism).

Wednesday, The western twilight Arch of Spring is sinking lower, but you can still catch this big landmark when the stars come out. Pollux and Castor are lined up roughly horizontal in the west-northwest; they're about three finger-widths apart. Look far to their lower left for Procyon, and farther to their lower right for Capella.

Thursday, Friday dawn lineup: Set the alarm so you can be looking toward the eastern horizon about 30 minutes before sunrise Friday morning. The waning crescent Moon hangs high; far lower left of it is Jupiter. Lower left of Jupiter (by 15°) is Venus, not high at all. With binoculars or a low-power scope, look for tiny, faint Mars 2° upper right of Venus and Mercury 4° lower left of Venus.

Friday, With summer less than a month away, the big Summer Triangle is making its appearance in the east. Its topmost and brightest star is Vega, plain to see. Look lower left of Vega, by two or three fist-width at arm's length, for Deneb, the brightest star in that area. Farther to the lower right of Vega is Altair, the last of the three Summer Triangle stars to rise (around 10 or 11 p.m. daylight saving time, depending on your location).

News from the Net:
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Small Bangs
New Movie Revives Old Voyager Data of Jupiter’s Clouds
Best-Ever Radio Image of Black Hole Jets
Atlantis Rolls to Vehicle Assembly Building with Final Space Shuttle Crew for July 8 Blastoff
Studying Saturn’s Super Storm
GALEX Confirms Nature of Dark Energy
AMS Now Attached to the Space Station, Ready to Observe the Invisible Universe
Video: More Dancing Plasma on the Sun

A Final Space Endeavour in Orbit

2011-05-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Endeavour blasted off into the clouds, blocking view of its full path to spectators on the ground, but creating an eerie circular glow in the sky. The main engines fired for eight and a half minutes, putting the orbiter on a suborbital flight. Upon docking with the International Space Station on Wednesday, Endeavour's crew will install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, bolt on a pallet of spare equipment, and transfer Endeavour's robot arm to the station, thereby completing the U.S. sector of the space station. (The Russians still have to take up the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, a major component of the station.) Onboard the orbiter itself, they will conduct miscellany of experiments involving, among other creatures, spiders and water bears. The plan is to undock on May 30 and land at the Kennedy Space Center on June 1 at about 2:30 A.M.

Space shuttle Endeavour roared into orbit from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A as the vehicle embarks on its 25th and final spaceflight, the STS-134 mission. Commander Mark Kelly leads the six-person astronaut crew.

NASA has scheduled the daily Flight Highlights for 5pm today, our time, set your DVRs.

Tonight may be clear with lots of moonlight

Tuesday Morning, Jupiter is 6 degrees to the upper right of Venus. Mars is 3 degrees to the lower left of Venus. Mercury is 1.4 degrees to the lower right of Venus. Look for the four planets low in the east, 40 minutes before sunrise.

News from the Net:
Video: Watch Endeavour’s Final Launch
Endeavour Unveiled for Historic Final Blastoff
Looking to the Heavens with Endeavour; Launch Pad Photo Special
Weekend Observing Challenges – May 13-15, 2011

Planets and Full Moon in the FOV next week

2011-05-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

After a welcomed rain (1”) plus an uncommon cold front moving in, the Forecast calls for a few clear nights in the coming week! We are four days past first quarter moon this weekend. Phil had a great picture of the Moon taken last night! The Ringed Planet is high in the evening and the other four Planets are grouped together in pre-dawn darkness.

The Moon this weekend in a scope: From Astronomy.com
One of the Moon’s prettier sights shows up a couple of nights after First Quarter phase. Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows) then appears prominent in the northwestern quadrant of the lunar face. The dark lava plains stand in stark contrast to the bright Jura Mountains, a semicircular mountain range that forms the bay’s northern and western shores. The region comes into view May 12 when the Sun rises over this impressive landscape.That evening, Promontorium Laplace (which forms the northeastern tip of the Jura Mountains) casts a long shadow across the bay’s undulating lavas. The shadow shortens noticeably in just a few hours as the Sun climbs higher in the lunar sky and illuminates more peaks along the mountainous rim.The highest peaks on the dark side of the terminator flicker in and out of view, changing color in the same way Sirius twinkles due to turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere. Perhaps this is why early Moon-watchers called this the Bay of Rainbows.Several long wrinkle ridges stretch south from the bay. They show up well on the 12th because their shadows define them, but they gradually disappear day by day as the Sun climbs higher. The full arc of the Jura Mountains, out to Promontorium Heraclides at the southwestern end, comes into view on the 13th. Although the bay recedes in prominence by Full Moon (May 17), the surrounding mountains remain a landmark because they separate highland material to the north from the dark lavas of Mare Imbrium to the south.

Tonight, Look for Saturn glowing with a steady light well to the upper left of the Moon this evening with Porrima next to it, as shown here. As dawn brightens this week, look very low in the east for Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and faint Mars. Bring binoculars; you'll probably need them for Mercury, and Mars is impossible without them (and sometimes even with them).

Saturday, Now it's Spica's turn to shine upper left of the Moon in the evening. Mercury has brightened in the last week to form a fine triangle with Venus and Jupiter in the dawn, but Mars remains (probably) a binocular object at best.

Sunday, As night descends, look west-northwest for Pollux and Castor lined up almost horizontally. They're separated by about three finger-widths at arm's length. Far to their lower left is Procyon. Farther to their lower right is brighter Capella. The asteroid 10 Hygiea is at opposition this week, at magnitude 9.2 in southern Libra. Hygiea is the fourth-largest asteroid; it appears as dim as it does because its surface is quite black. See the finder chart and article in the May Sky & Telescope, page 56.

Monday, Jupiter is 5 degrees to the upper right of Venus. Mars is 3 degrees to the lower left of Venus. Mercury is 1.4 degrees to the lower right of Venus. Look for the four planets low in the east, 40 minutes before sunrise. Face northwest this evening and look high for the Big Dipper, now hanging down by its handle. Just a few weeks ago it was horizontal! That sort of thing happens to star patterns passing near the zenith. Tuesday, Full Moon (exact at 7:09 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time). Look for Antares below the Moon this evening.

Thursday Night, the moon is near the “Teapot”. At present, the Teapot clears the horizon by around midnight. One month from now – in late June – the Teapot should be visible around 10 p.m.

News from the Net:
Endeavour is set to launch, 8:56 a.m. EDT on Monday, May 16.
Magma Ocean Flows Beneath Io’s Surface
Video: Plasma Dancing Off the Sun
Hubble Hunts Down Star Formation in Canes Venatici
Crab Nebula Erupts in a Superflare
Photopic Sky Survey
Dawn Begins Approach to Asteroid Vesta and Snaps First Images
Dawn Planetary Delights
Examining the Great Wall

Planets & Stars in the Second week of May

2011-05-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Astronomy Day! Saturday, May 07, 2011

Saturn, which is well up in the east at sunset (still to the northwest of Spica), crosses the meridian to the south around 10:30 PM, and then sets just before the planetary quartet rises. Among the more obvious stars is Porrima, Gamma Virginis (and second brightest in the constellation), which lies about 15 degrees to the northwest of Spica and currently just about a degree to the northwest of Saturn.

For the next week or so, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury (the gang rising about 5 AM Daylight Time) will make a constantly- shifting tightly-packed quartet with Venus the brightest, followed by Jupiter, Mercury, then Mars. Our area may be in a shroud of clouds this week? Forecast is not good!

Monday, On spring evenings the Big Dipper turns over as if to dump spring rains on the world, or so it appears to Northern Hemisphere skywatchers. Look for the Dipper very high in the northeast as the stars come out.

Tuesday, First-quarter Moon (exact at 4:33 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). Look above the Moon this evening for Regulus and the Sickle of Leo. Time to start looking for “Rupes Recta” this week, if the clouds break! This Straight Wall is not hard to see when it is a dark line near the crater”Birt”. Looks awesome in the eyepiece!

Wednesday, Early before dawn, Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets in the Solar System, will converge to form a pair less than 1/2 degree apart. Set your alarm for Wednesday morning and begin the day with an eye-opener. Our sky is forecast to be mostly cloudy!

Thursday, The three brightest stars in the spring evening sky are Arcturus, now high in the southeast, Vega lower in the northeast, and Capella in the northwest. All are zero magnitude. Vega and Capella are at exactly the same height sometime around 10 p.m. daylight saving time tonight.

Friday, The Moon is far to the lower right of Saturn this evening.

News from the Net:
More Evidence of Liquid Erosion on Mars?
NASA moves Endeavour launch date to May 16

Locating Stars Last Night

2011-05-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

StarLog ۩ 110505

I traveled to a different site last night, below Canyon Dam, at the TPL on a hill above the CRRC. Went out there to scope out bad lights and to find what direction the Light Dome from the city was. It has been a while since traveling to a different site. West was easy find since the sun was going down and still shining at 8 pm. I found the 3 day moon just after sunset. That Crescent Wonder was stationed just above the tree line facing the Dam, observed with the binoculars. I had to wait for darker skies to find my way among the stars. This location allows more horizon than I’m used to, Arcturus turned into Spica which was Sirius, not to be confused with Procyon below Gemini. What I thought was Aldebaran was really Betelgeuse. The belt of Orion finally became visible. When the Big Dipper finally came into clear focus, we arced to arcturus and then slid to Spica. Finally, confrimed N-S-E-W positions from this portal. Set up the Dob in the parking lot after the lights went out, just after 9pm. Saturn was in the FOV. It was sharp and clear in the eyepiece, with moon Titan was bright and to its left in the scope, I did not see the other moons. The rings visible at a slight angle and a dark line shadow across the planet.
*S* R-m-e-d--t---------------------T

Pointed the scope at the moon and got a closer look at Mare Crisium and Earth Shine before it went below the treeline. Started to locate Hercules and M13 but the group was leaving for the night, just after 10pm. Next time I go to a new site: begin finding stars after its’ darker and start with the big dipper! The TPL site is a open , with controlled lighting and has possibilities for future outreach events.

If the sky clears Saturday morning, look for Mercury near Venus ,Low in the Eastern Sky.

News from the Net:
Update on Gliese 581d’s Habitability
A Newly Discovered Planetary Nebula Teaches Us About Galactic Composition
Stunning, Colorful New Look at the Lagoon Nebula

Stars and Planets Celebrate May Day

2011-05-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

Saturn, Mercury, Venus with lots of bright stars with added constellations are in view this week and the forecast calls for two clear nights, this first week in May, with no moonlight. At the end of the week we should see some falling stars, early Friday morning, if the clouds break. There will be many chances to see four planets gathered together this month. The grouping of planets is visible very low in the east before sunrise. Binoculars may be necessary to find the fainter planets in the morning twilight glow.

Sunday, Arcturus is the brightest star in the east after dark. Saturn shines above Spica in the southeast. Look lower right of Saturn and Spica for the four-star springtime pattern of Corvus, the Crow. Early Monday morning, Mercury is to the lower right of Venus. Mars and Jupiter are to the lower right of Mercury.

Monday, Now that May is here, at nightfall Vega has already risen low in the northeast (depending on your latitude). Above Vega is the four-star head of Draco, with its bright nose eternally pointed Vega-ward. Look for Draco's head about 1½ fists at arm's length above Vega and perhaps a bit left.

Tuesday, Sirius in May?? You should still be able to spot the twinkling Dog Star low in the southwest as twilight fades. How much later into the warm season can you follow it down? Catch a New Moon early this morning (exact at 2:51 a.m. EDT on this date).

Wednesday, Look low in the west-northwest at dusk for the thin crescent Moon with the Pleiades to its lower right (at the times of twilight for North America). Orange Aldebaran is to the Moon's left.

Thursday, The Moon at dusk poses (for North America) midway between Aldebaran below it and Beta Tauri above it. The annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower should peak before dawn Friday morning. This is often the best shower of the year for Southern Hemisphere skywatchers, but in northern latitudes it's much weaker.

Friday, The crescent Moon shines in the west after dark. The brightest star far to the Moon's upper right is Capella. Less far to the Moon's lower left, look for Betelgeuse sinking away. From Saturday morning until May 15th, binoculars show Mercury less than 1½° lower right of Venus with Jupiter fitting into the same 5° field of view. Track their changes each clear morning!

News from the Net:
Endeavours Final Launch further delayed another Week or more
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Cosmic Magnetic Fields
The Early Morning Show – Eta Aquarid Meteor Showers While The Planets Align

Shadow on Saturn

2011-04-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

I moved the 12" Dob to the porch at 10 pm. The Big Dipper was to my upper left, no moon and Saturn was way above the tree line in front of me. The sky last night was not the best seeing. We may still have smoke and dust in our night sky. It was still a bit breezy.

StarLog^^ 110427
Saturn was anchored below Porrima, the gamma star in the constellation Virgo. The constellation Virgo lies in the direction of the north galactic pole, far from the starry band of the Milky Way, so there are only a few bright stars here. Spica, a blue-white beauty of a star, is the brightest in the constellation. From the northern hemisphere, you can easily find Spica by following the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper first to Arcturus, then on to Spica. And remember… this year, the planet Saturn lies in Virgo, just south of Spica. This ringed planet stood out in the night sky, far from Spica. In the eye piece, he was bright yellow with 3 moons visible around the planet. A dark line cut across the center of the globe, the ring’s shadow. This planet viewed in a scope on a clear dark night is "the Lord of the Rings."
e------Ø--m----R---------T
Two moons on the right were visible and one to the left of the rings. Titan and Rhea were easy to pickup. I had to look a while to see Enceladus, just a small dot on the left side of the planet. Mimas was too close to the globe, I didn't see it! The Rings and shadow were awesome!

M44, that beehive of stars was straight up and to the west. Hard for me to catch in the eyepiece. Phil had a shot of this cluster on his blog page. I tried to catch the double star in Corvus, but the star was still low and not in a dark area of the sky. I will try again next time I set up the scope, maybe tonight....if the clouds stay out of the sky!

Tonight, if the clouds break and you have a good view of the Horizon. Spica is your guide star to Omega Centauri cluster. People living south of 35 degrees north latitude have a realistic chance of spotting Omega Centauri, with a good view of the Horizon! The picture is from AAPOD-Australia using an LX200- 12" scope. The folks downunder (Glenorie, New South Wales, Australia) have a great view!

News from the Net:
Endeavour still GO for launch tomorrow
A Reminder, next week, the morning May 6th head out into the country, far from the city lights. Meteors from Halley’s comet, the eta Aquarid meteor shower.

Satun, as the Crow flies

2011-04-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

If the clouds break, I would like to catch Saturn in the FOV again. Maybe Wednesday night?
Finding the Coma Star Cluster in the FOV. Saturn is anchored above Spica in the evening sky. Close to the star "Porrima", (Gamma Virginis). Watch the movement of the ringed planet as he moves closer to Porrima, by the second week of June Saturn is only 1/4 degree apart! The Constellation Corvis, the Crow, is nesting just a 'fist' length to the right of the bright star Spica. Look for a misshapen square of stars. Find Algorab, the Raven’s Wing, a nice blue, orange double star.

Finally, I was able to get back to the News Link: It was a Service Interruption

News from the Net:
Yet as it turns out, Pluto really may not be a planet after all. It may be a comet.
More Surprises From Pluto
Lingering Lyrids…
Year One of the Solar Dynamics Observatory – Vote for Your Favorite Solar Events
And now exo-magnetospheres
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Alien Mining
Interacting Sunspots Spawn Gigantic Solar Flare

Easter Sunday...Stars this Week

2011-04-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Another cloudy midnight to dawn, warm nights then hot days. Stars between the clouds. Our group met last Thursday night. Not too many there due to the Religious events, but we did discuss how the Easter date was set. Early European astronomers determined Easter dates

How do they know it’s Easter? Ever wondered how the exact dates of the Easter break are chosen? Easter Sunday can fall anytime between 22 March and 25 April and, thanks to European observations of the Sun that go back many centuries, the exact date can be predicted as far ahead as 4099 AD. Back in 325 AD, it was declared that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full Moon following the vernal equinox (the Spring day in the northern hemisphere when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal). Over the next few centuries, theologians and scientists struggled with the problem of calculating these vital dates years in advance.

This week there are several items in the sky to observe, if the clouds break, to date the forecast for Wednesday night is clear!

Just south of Regulus is the dim but galaxy-riddled constellation Sextans, the Sextant. Dig up some of its far sights using Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders column, chart, and images in the April Sky & Telescope, page 58. Capella is the brightest star shining in the northwest right after dusk. Arcturus is the brightest in the east. Both are magnitude zero — and this week, both stand at exactly the same height above your horizon around nightfall (depending on your latitude). Look for Pi Bootis in Bootes, the Herdsman, not quite eight degrees east-southeast of Arcturus) is "A neat double star...both white"

Mercury moves this week from 9 to 4 degrees to the lower left of Venus. The pair of planets can be spotted very low in the east, 40 minutes before sunrise. Use binoculars. The Last-quarter Moon is at 10:47 p.m. EDT Sunday evening. The Moon, in Capricornus, rises long after midnight tonight (daylight-saving time) and stands nearly in the south at Monday sunrise.
A dawn challenge: Set the alarm to get up Friday morning well before your local sunrise time, grab binoculars or telescope, and get to a spot with a view of the eastern horizon by a half hour before sunrise. The waning crescent Moon will be hanging in the east. If the air is clear Venus should be easy to pick up far to its lower left. Try next for Mercury, Jupiter, and, for a real challenge, tiny Mars next to Jupiter. Was it cloudy at dawn? Try again Saturday morning for the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Mars. This time the Moon is thinner and closer above Venus.

Can't link to the News page I use on the net. I will keep trying!
I did find this on Messenger Images

Meteor Shower behind a cloudy sky

2011-04-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

Our forecast has been “Cloudy” and will be tomorrow morning and the next! We may not get a chance to see this month’s meteor shower! Earth is entering a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher, source of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Saturdy morning, April 23nd, with as many as 20 meteors per hour. Unfortunately, bright moonlight will interfere with the display. [full story]. I'm still looking for Saturn and The constellation Hercules the Kneeling Giant can be seen ascending in the east-northeast on these spring evenings. Start looking for the Constellation Hercules and one of the best Globular Clusters, M13.

Interesting News from the Net:
Remember that Rock, used to be the “Nineth” planet? Found this on the Discovery Blog: Pluto has an atmosphere? Shocking, right? O’neill writes Pluto's Atmosphere: Big, Poisonous and Comet-like. It may not have official planetary status, but the dwarf planet does have an atmosphere. In fact, it's the only dwarf planet with a known atmosphere. What's more, it has just been announced that its atmosphere reaches nearly one quarter of the way to Pluto's largest moon Charon and swept back -- like a cometary tail -- by the weak pressure of the solar wind.

Saturn in Moonlight

2011-04-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

A clear sky last night around Ten in the evening allowed me to spot the ringed planet above the trees, even in bright moonlight. Saturn rises higher in the southeast during evening and shines highest in the south around midnight. In a telescope, Saturn's rings are 9° from edge on. Saturn's months-old northern-hemisphere white spot has spread into a light band far around the planet. I hope the clouds continue to take a brake from evening skies! Tonight, look for Regulus in Leo about 6° above or upper left of the Moon this evening (for North America). A small telescope will always show Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Tonight Titan is four ring-lengths to Saturn's east. Saturn's other major satellites are all close to the planet tonight.

Thursday, Saturn is far to the lower left of the gibbous Moon in the evening sky. Look for the star Spica 12 degrees below Saturn.

Friday, the nearly full Moon is approaching Saturn and company in the southeastern sky.

Saturday, Saturn and Gamma Virginis (Porrima) are upper left of the nearly full Moon this evening. They're currently 2½° apart; they'll close up in the coming weeks.

News from the Net:

Captain Kirk and the Space Shuttle

A Varying Venusian Vortex

A Twisted Sister Galaxy

Asteroid Observing Alert

Set a Course to Spring Constellations

2011-04-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

We are still in a season of change. Warmer “summer” temperatures are keeping us in the shade during the day. The evening brings high clouds, broken clouds or some haze that makes it tuff to view a night sky. If the clouds break this next week, I’m looking for Saturn. The top three of the sky’s 88 total constellations are visible in the early evening right now. In order of size, they are Hydra the Water Snake, Virgo the Maiden, and Ursa Major the Great Bear. The latter, In the NE sky, contains the sky’s best-known asterism — the Big Dipper. An asterism is a recognizable group of stars that’s not one of the 88 “official” constellations.

Saturday, The Moon, in the feet of Gemini, is a very thick crescent less than two days from first quarter. If your sky is really clear after dark, binoculars will show the star cluster M35 roughly 2° to the Moon's upper right (for North America). In binoculars it's a largish, dim glow. In a telescope it's a city of stars.

Sunday, Lunar occultation: Skywatchers in eastern North America this evening can watch the dark limb of the first-quarter Moon snap up Zeta Geminorum, magnitude 3.8. Some times: Toronto, 9:10 p.m. EDT; Washington DC, 9:17 p.m. EDT; Atlanta, 9:09 p.m. EDT; Miami, 9:29 p.m. EDT. Map and timetables for many more locations. In some places the occultation happens in twilight and you'll need a telescope.

Monday, First-quarter Moon (exact at 8:05 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time). Saturn is about 12 degrees above the star Spica and 30 degrees to the right of Arcturus at dusk. Saturn, Arcturus and Spica are the three brightest objects in the east, an hour after sunset.

Tuesday, Early spring is when Orion tilts downward in the southwest after dusk, with his three-star belt turning horizontal as seen from north temperate latitudes. The belt points left toward bright Sirius and to the right more or less toward orange Aldebaran. Right of Aldebaran are the Pleiades.

Wednesday, Look for Regulus in Leo about 6° above or upper left of the Moon this evening (for North America). A small telescope will always show Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Tonight Titan is four ring-lengths to Saturn's east. Saturn's other major satellites are all close to the planet tonight.

Asteroids and Fireballs in the News from the Net:

"On April 6th at 8:21:57 CDT, NASA all-sky meteor cameras detected a very bright fireball moving north across the state of Tennessee. First detected 52 miles above the Arnold Air Force base near Tullahoma, the meteor was brighter than crescent Moon and was approximately 2 feet in diameter, with a weight of 200 lbs. It was last recorded 30 miles above the town of Woodbury, Tennessee, moving at a speed of approximately 9 miles per second (32,400 mph)."

After 3 ½ years of thrusting silently through the void, NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on the threshold of a new world. It's deep in the asteroid belt, less than 4 months from giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn will enter orbit around Vesta in July 2011, becoming the first spacecraft ever to orbit a body in the asteroid belt. After conducting a detailed study of the uncharted alien world for a year, the spacecraft will pull off an even more impressive first. It will leave Vesta, fly to dwarf planet Ceres, and enter orbit there.

WISE spacecraft has discovered a Horseshoe shaped Asteroid. The new object, designated 2010 SO16, is different. Its orbit is almost circular such that it cannot come close to any other planet in the solar system except Earth. However, even though the asteroid rides around with Earth, it never gets that close.

NASA has decided not to participate further in the Laser Interferometric Space Antenna, a.k.a. LISA. Too bad, I liked the direction this mission was going. The project teams working on LISA have been disbanded, and the shutters have been pulled down on a project which would have revolutionised astrophysics by opening up new possibilities of observing astronomical objects using gravitational waves, rather than electromagnetic radiation.

Did you ‘Juno’ we are going back to Jupiter? NASA's Juno spacecraft has arrived in Florida to begin final preparations for a launch this summer.

Asteroids and the Big Dipper

2011-04-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

It's notable when an asteroid flies past Earth closer than the Moon. Today, April 6th, two asteroids will do this. Newly-discovered space rocks 2011 GW9 and 2011 GP28 will zip through the Earth-Moon system at Earth-distances of 77,000 km and 192,000 km, respectively. Both are ten-meter class asteroids two to three times smaller than the Tunguska impactor of 1908. There is no danger of a collision. A late cold front last week brought north winds and the rains missed us! These winds moved the clouds out of the way for a little viewing time. The Big Dipper is in prime position over my tree line, giving Galaxies M81 and M82 and the planet Saturn. Still trying to center these again in my FOV.

News of Note from the Net:

Following discussions among the International Space Station partners on Sunday, NASA has targeted the launch of space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission for 3:47 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 29. The delay removes a scheduling conflict with a Russian Progress supply vehicle scheduled to launch April 27 and arrive at the station April 29. NASA managers will hold a Flight Readiness Review on Tuesday, April 19, to assess the team's readiness to support launch. An official launch date will be selected at the conclusion of the meeting. The Progress 42 spacecraft will be delivering supplies to the station. Three more members of the Expedition 27 crew are scheduled to launch at 6:18 pm EDT on Monday, April 4, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their arrival will return the station crew's size to six members. Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev and NASA astronaut Ron Garan are scheduled to arrive at the station at 7:18 p.m., Wednesday, April 6, to join cosmonaut Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev, European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, who have been aboard the station since mid-December.

Astronomy Without A Telescope – Our Inferred Universe

‘In Flight’ Shuttle Orbiter retirement display planned by Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

SDO’s Crazy-Looking Sun Due to Syzygy

Webb Telescope FAQs

Mars’ Misty Mountains

The Moon is turning Dark

2011-04-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

The past three nights, I have tried to set up and look at the Big Dipper area. Clouds and haze have slowed me down. The current weather system is not helping. The next couple of days, during the dark of the moon phase, maybe the sky will stay clear long enough to get a scope out and observe? There are several events in this first full week of April.

Sunday, Saturn is at opposition tonight, opposite the Sun in Earth's sky. Look for the brightening of Saturn's rings this week due to the Seeliger effect. New Moon (exact at 10:32 a.m. EDT). This is the most distant New Moon of the year. The Moon moves into the evening sky tomorrow. Saturn is at opposition. Watch Saturn all night move from the east to the west.

Monday, Look very high in the northeast after dark this week for the Big Dipper starting to tip over to the left, after standing straight upright on its handle when winter was nearing its end. I will be searching for that pair of Galaxies that are anchored near the dipper, if the sky clears. A young Moon is low in the WNW. Look for the hairline thin Moon 45 minutes after sunset.

Tuesday, A small telescope will always show Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Tonight Titan is at greatest elongation, four ring-lengths to Saturn's west. A 6-inch telescope will begin to show the orange color of its smoggy atmosphere. Saturn's other major moons appear much closer to the planet tonight. Watch the waxing crescent Moon ascend from night to night in the twilight toward the Pleiades and Hyades.

Wednesday, As twilight fades, look for the Pleiades above the Moon (for North America).

Thursday, Look for orange Aldebaran to the left of the Moon, and the Pleiades to the Moon's lower right, as shown here. This evening the Moon's earthlit dark limb will beautifully occult (cover) Kappa and/or Upsilon Tauri for observers in much of western North America. Both stars are magnitude 4.3. Kappa also has a 5.3-magnitude companion 0.1° to its south.

Friday, Arcturus, the "Spring Star," is the brightest point high in the east these evenings. Wait up till after about 10 or 10:30 and you can get an early sighting of Vega, the equally bright "Summer Star," rising low in the northeast.

News from the Net: There is some good new about our space program... they have not dropped the "Orion" program all together! NASAs First Orion Capsule and New Space Operations Center Unveiled

Observing Alert – New Images from Mercury: Just the Beginning for MESSENGER in Orbit

New Technique Separates the Modest Red Giants From the … Giant Red Giants

New Image: Rosy Glow of Starbirth, Just in Time for Spring

Star events, last week March

2011-03-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

March winds and Clouds have made it tough to view a night sky this month! This last week of the March brings early morning events and evening highlights. Saturn is more visible this weekend and the Big Dipper will be in the FOV. Catch these events if the clouds break! Tonight, The fast-changing double star Gamma Virginis or Porrima, fairly conspicuous to the naked eye close to Saturn, has become resolvable again in medium-size amateur telescopes this year on nights of good seeing. Its two equal components appear 1.7 arcseconds apart this season. The crescent Moon is about 20 degrees to the upper right of Venus. Look for the Moon and Venus in the ESE 45 minutes before sunrise. Wednesday, In early dawn Thursday morning, look low in the east-southeast for Venus lower right of the waning crescent Moon, as shown above. Can you follow them all the way through sunrise? The crescent Moon is about 10 degrees to the upper right of Venus. Look for the Moon and Venus in the ESE 45 minutes before sunrise. Thursday, At dawn Friday morning, North Americans now see the thin crescent Moon 13° or 14° left of Venus. Friday, Early spring is when Orion tilts downward in the southwest after dark, with his three-star belt horizontal as shown at right (for north temperate latitudes). Orion's Belt points left toward bright Sirius (out of the photo) and to the right more or less toward orange Aldebaran (ditto). Farther to the right from Aldebaran are the Pleiades. News from the Net: Amazing Image: Kepler’s Transiting Exoplanets Fancy doing a Messier Marathon this Weekend? Astrophoto: A Mexican Orion Opportunity Rover Completes Exploration of fascinating Santa Maria Crater Astronomy Without A Telescope – Dark Statistics

Spacecraft Rendezvous

2011-03-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

The spring season will move quickly into summer here on earth. In the cold dark reaches of space, these spacecraft will reach targets and launch toward a target soon! Messenger has rendezvoused and is in Mercury Orbit with instruments working. On March 29, 2011, the Mercury Dual Imaging System will be powered on and will take its first images. The year-long science observation campaign will begin on April 4, 2011. Follow Messenger’s journey at the "Where Is MESSENGER?" website. Spacecraft Dawn sails toward Vesta for a July rendezvous. After a hibernation of about six months, the framing cameras on board NASA's Dawn spacecraft have again ventured a look into the stars. In the news this week: Revolutionary Dawn Closing in on Asteroid Vesta with Opened Eyes. This summer, the spacecraft Juno will be launched in August. A five year cruise on it's way to Jupiter arriving in July 2016. An orbital plan of one year with 32 times around the big planet. This week, NASA's Juno spacecraft has completed its thermal vacuum chamber testing.

If the clouds break this weekend:

Friday, Saturn shines in the east-southeast these evenings, with Spica below it. Far left of them sparkles brighter Arcturus. Less far to their right or lower right, look for the four-star pattern of Corvus, the Crow.

Saturday, Last-quarter Moon (exact at 8:07 a.m. EDT). The half-lit Moon rises in the middle of the night and is high in the south before sunrise.

Dim Stars and a Super Moon at Equinox

2011-03-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

Spring break! The local parks are crowded. We have been busy with yard work and the evenings have been filled with moon light, dimming the constellations. However, Orion was still visible several times between the clouds and I continue to track Betelgeuse. This past week the clouds have moved in after dark and covered the stars. On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It's a super "perigee moon"--the biggest in almost 20 years. Indeed, contrary to some reports circulating the Internet, perigee Moons do not trigger natural disasters. Last night the moon was big, bright and super, before the clouds covered the sky. Attended the "Group" meeting Thursday night. The group was somewhere else "spring breaking". Just two of us, Larry and I caught up on happenings.

The March winds keep blowing in the clouds! Catch as catch can on the stargazing this week. Forecast is continued cloudy skies in the evening and early morning skies.

Looking for Uranus? Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun. Uranus will reappear in the morning sky in mid April.

Tonight is the V. Equinox, spot Saturn, Spica and a bright moon.
Spica is near the Moon tonight. The March equinox comes at 7:21 p.m. EDT, marking the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This is when the Sun crosses the equator heading north for the year.

Monday, Mercury is at its highest in the evening sky from now until Wednesday

Tuesday, These next two weeks, when there's no moonlight in the sky at the end of twilight, are a fine time to look for the zodiacal light (from mid-northern latitudes) if you have a very clear, unpolluted sky. As the last of twilight is fading away, look for a vague but huge, tall, narrow pyramid of pearly light extending up from the western horizon. It slopes to the left, following the ecliptic. What you're seeing is interplanetary dust near the plane of the solar system, lit by the Sun.

Wednesday, By mid-evening Orion is tilting into the southwest, with his three-star belt now level — a sign of spring's arrival.

A binocular challenge: See it you can hunt out the trio of Messier galaxies under the belly of Leo: M95, M96, and M105. Use Gary Seronik's "Binocular Highlight" article and chart in the April Sky & Telescope, page 45. You'll need a really dark sky! A telescope shows them much more easily.

Thursday, early morning stargazing….Scorpius and the moon

News from the Net:
Shuttle Endeavour Photo Special: On Top of Pad 39A for Final Flight
Coming to a Sky Near You: The Realm of Galaxies
Your Pictures of the “Super” Full Moon
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Doubly Special Relativity
Hopes Dim for Contacting Spirit Rover
How to Recover a Solid Rocket Booster
New Horizons Flies by Uranus
Success! MESSENGER First Spacecraft to Orbit Mercury

Mercury, the Messenger of Spring

2011-03-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

Changes in current weather patterns focus on Spring, the Earth is tilting back. The rule makers also force us to make adjustments in Time ( I lost an hour, somewhere). The winds of change have brought more Pacific fronts and lots more clouds! We have had a few clear nights to catch the stars in the night sky before the clouds cover the portal. Orion is still center in the FOV and the stars Betelgeuse and Rigel stand out each clear night. Leo is rising in the east, setting a new chart of constellations moving into March and April. During this coming week, before the vernal equinox next Saturday, there are a couple of events worth mentioning.

As Mercury rises in the west each evening, the NASA probe Messenger gets closer to orbit on St. Pats Day, Thursday. The Full Moon Friday will be historic! This Full Wolf Moon will be the closest apogee until 2016. That makes this full moon bigger than usual! Worth a look see Friday night. Perhaps the "Supermoon" will empower our spring to last longer, before the heat of summer devours us!

News from the Net:
Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

Star Hop Saturday Night…

2011-03-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

I have been busy this past week and too tired to set up and scan the night sky the few clear nights we had. A front will push the clouds away and we should have a clear sky Saturday night. Stargaze and Star Hop Saturday and Sunday night with scope and binoculars. Focus on a last look at Jupiter, then put Saturn, Orion and Gemini in the FOV.

Tonight, Early March is when Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, shines at its highest due south right after dark. It's the bottom point of the equilateral Winter Triangle. The triangle's other points are orange-red Betelgeuse to the upper right, and Procyon to Sirius's upper left. A dark sky with the New Moon (exact at 3:46 p.m. EST). Algol is at minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 8:53 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Look for Arcturus, harbinger of Spring! Try looking for the zodiacal light in the evening. The zodiacal light is a faint glow coming from interplanetary dust. Look to the west more than two hours after sunset. You'll need to look from a very dark observing sight and have very clear weather. It will look like a cone of faint light poking up from the western horizon.

Saturday, If the sky is clear very low in the west soon after sunset, binoculars may show Mercury lower left of the very thin waxing crescent Moon, as shown here. Brighter Jupiter higher up guides the way to them. Bring binoculars. Could this be the youngest Moon you've ever seen?

Sunday, Jupiter shines to the left of the waxing crescent Moon in twilight, as shown here. If you're near latitude 40° north, the crescent is almost exactly level like a cup.

News from the Net:
Ground-Based Observations Capture Spacewalking Astronaut in Action
X-37B launch delayed due to weather
Spitzer Captures a Pink Sunflower in Space
NASA Mission to Europa May Fall to Budget Cuts
‘Climate Change Satellite’ Fails to Reach Orbit, Crashes in Ocean
Always a Good Show: SRB Camera Views from Discovery’s Last Ride Incoming! New Camera Network Tracks Fireballs

Discovery's Last Mission, Stars first week of March

2011-02-25T17:20:00.000-08:00

The final voyage of space shuttle Discovery is underway. The orbiter lifted off at 4:53 p.m. EST Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a 12-day mission to deliver Robonaut 2 and supplies to the International Space Station. Adventure photographer Mike Theiss sends this video from the launch site.
Space shuttle Discovery rode a brilliant trail of fire and smoke Thursday afternoon as it soared into orbit. Just as Discovery's tank finished being fueled, a cargo-carrying Automated Transfer Vehicle from the Eurpoean Space Agency docked to the station. The spacecraft, which carried no people, launched from South America last week on an Ariane V.

Keep up with the daily photo postings during the mission on the STS 133 multimedia web site. Saturday’s docking with the International Space Station, scheduled for 2:15 p.m. EST.

The sky was clear Thursday night! Put Orion, the Pleiades and M41 in the FOV again. Clouds may come back this weekend but the moon is no longer a problem next week. We may get a few clear nights in the first week of March.

Sunday, Make a note to look southeast at dawn Monday morning for Venus shining lower left of the waning crescent Moon. Saturn is 9 degrees northwest of the star Spica. Saturn and Spica are in the southwest at dawn. Venus and a thin crescent are in the southeast at dawn.

Have you ever done a thorough telescopic explore around the horns of Taurus? Starting with the Crab Nebula, use Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders column and chart in the February Sky & Telescope, page 60. Early March is when bright Sirius shines highest due south right after dark. It's the bottom point of the equilateral Winter Triangle. The triangle's other points are Betelgeuse to the upper right and Procyon to Sirius's upper left. Mercury is at superior conjunction. Mercury will join the evening sky in the second week of March.

Tuesday, the waning crescent Moon is to the lower left of Venus. Look for Venus and the Moon in the ESE sky at dawn.

Friday, March 4, New Moon (exact at 3:46 p.m. EST).

News from the Net:
New Record: Telescope Finds 19 Near-Earth Asteroids in One Night
STS-133 Launch Day Gallery
SDO Captures a Monster Solar Prominence
STS-133 Launches on Historic Final Mission for Shuttle Discovery
Meteorites Illuminate Mystery of Chromium in Earth’s Core
Can’t Get to Today’s Launch? See the Space Shuttles in Intricate Detail
Discovery and Robonaut Unveiled for February 24 Blast Off Students Will Attempt to Photograph Shuttle Discovery Flight At The Edge of Space

Stars and Planets behind the Clouds

2011-02-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

The current weather system keeps producing more clouds. This week’s sky is nuttin but grey!

Tonight, if the clouds break, the waning gibbous Moon is in the SSW at dawn. Venus is in the southeast. Venus is also in the gibbous phase, but Venus is waxing.

Thursday, the almost last quarter Moon is to the right of the star Antares. Look for the Moon and Antares, the brightest star in the Scorpion, in the south at dawn. Tomorrow morning, the Moon will be to the left of Antares.

There is a NASA launch Thursday afternoon as shuttle Discovery heads for the ISS one more time! We can watch NASA TV and catch up on the current News from the Net!

Movies of Comet Tempel 1 Encounter by Stardust-NExT
As Seen from Space: Ghostly, Ethereal Island
Orrery of Kepler’s Exoplanets
Climate Change Satellite’ Gets its Day in the Sun — Finally
The Moon Just Got Bigger
Discovery: A Look Back Before Her Last Flight
20 Million Observations by Amateur Astronomers!
Video: 45 Years of Rendezvous and Docking in Space
Moon And Venus Steal The Morning Scene…
Halt, Black Hole! Gemini Captures Explosions That Deprive Black Holes of Mass

Starry Nights, the last week of February

2011-02-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

The Clouds keep rolling in and the current weather system is still bringing us warmer days and nights that is forecast to continue into the first week of March, with too many cloud nights!? The Group met Thursday night and Five of us discussed: Gegenschien, Zodiacal light, ET, NASA missions [Kepler discoveries and Stardust rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1], and possible CME impact. We did not see a lot of stars last month, with all the clouds, but discussed observations taken on those, few, clear nights. Our next meeting is on St. Pat’s day and April’s meeting conflicts with religious events. Some may not make it the next two meetings. We did see the almost full moon among the clouds after the meeting. Canopus should be a star visible this coming week, if the clouds break.

One and possibly two CMEs hit Earth during the early hours of Feb. 18th, creating a gusty solar wind environment around our planet and fueling a relatively minor G1-class geomagnetic storm. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras. NASA researchers have made a time-lapse movie of the X2-category explosion on Feb. 15th.

These next two weeks, when there's no moonlight in the sky at the end of twilight, it's a fine time to look for the zodiacal light from mid-northern latitudes if you have a very clear, unpolluted sky. As the last of twilight is fading away, look for a vague but huge, tall, narrow pyramid of pearly light extending up from the western horizon. It slopes to the left, following the ecliptic, with Jupiter near its base. What you're seeing is interplanetary dust near the plane of the solar system, lit by the Sun. By about 10:30 or 11 p.m. the waning gibbous Moon is well up in the east-southeast. Look left of it for Saturn, and lower left of it for slightly fainter Spica. They're higher by midnight. The three of them cross the sky together for the rest of the night to pose in the southwest at dawn Monday morning.

I was able to observe the fine winter star cluster M41, visible in binoculars about one binocular field south of Sirius. Will try finding the cluster M50. Follow a line from Sirius to the tip of Canis Major's nose (Theta Canis Majoris), continue nearly as far exactly straight onward, and there you are. M50 is magnitude 5.9, quite a bit fainter than M41's magnitude 4.5. In the same field with M50 is another, fainter cluster: NGC 2343. It's a tougher catch at magnitude 6.7.

Saturday, The Moon is at perigee at 2 a.m. EST. Perigee is the point in the Moon's orbit when it's closest to the Earth. This morning the Moon is 222,604 miles from Earth. The average distance is 238,854 miles; 16,250 miles farther than today. That's about two Earth diameters.

Sunday, Uranus is 7 degrees to the lower right of Jupiter. Jupiter sets about three hours after sunset. Look for Uranus with binoculars. Jupiter and Uranus are in the WSW at dusk.

Monday night, if the clouds break, Sirius transits the meridian of the sky (i.e. is due south) around 8 or 9 p.m. this week, depending on where you live east or west in your time zone. Sirius is the brightest star in all the sky (after the Sun). The second brightest is far-southern Canopus. By coincidence, Canopus and Sirius transit at nearly the same time. If you live at least as far south as Atlanta, Phoenix, or Los Angeles, see if you can spot Canopus just above the south point on your horizon when Sirius is approaching the meridian. (Canopus transits 20 minutes before Sirius.)

Thursday, after the last-quarter Moon rises around 2 or 3 a.m. Friday morning, look to its right for Antares and the head of Scorpius.

News from the Net:
NASA Weighs Risks of Unique Photo-Op at Space Station
Sun Erupts with Enormous X2 Solar Flare
First-Time Views of Solar System Births
Hubble Zeroes in on Hot, Young Stars
Cosmology 101: The Beginning
About that Giant Planet Possibly Hiding in the Outer Solar System…

No Stars, just Stardust

2011-02-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

There are too many clouds to see the stars this week. The artic air is gone! We have several more weeks before the V-Eq. (March 20), but warm days and cool nights this week….with clouds. If the sky clears, the moon is bright this week and stars will be dimmer!

There is Stardust all over Cyberspace. The Starship reached Comet Temple 1. Stardust-NExT the first-ever follow-up mission to a comet will rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1 Monday. Monday was a Hallmark Day. A lot of posts had pictures of heart shaped objects from the cosmos…..

Tonight, The Moon is two day away from full, but it will look full tonight (and bright). Look for a big Moon in the east just after sunset.

If the clouds break this week, the Full Moon is Thursday night (exact at 3:36 a.m. Friday morning EST). Look left or lower left of the Moon after dark for Regulus. Farther left of them is Gamma Leonis, not much fainter than Regulus. Look farther to the Moon's lower right for orange Alphard.

This is the time of year when Orion stands at his highest due south in early evening. Upper right of him is Taurus with orange Aldebaran and, farther on, the Pleiades cluster. Lower left of Orion is Canis Major with bright Sirius.

News from the Net:
Stunning New Look at Reflection Nebula Messier 78
Fiscal Squeeze Could Freeze NASA Budget for Five Years
ATV ‘Johannes Kepler’ Launch to Space Station Delayed to Wednesday
Stardust-NExT Unveils Astoundingly Detailed and Crater-rich Photos of Comet Tempel 1
Thick Stellar Disk Isolated in Andromeda
Stardust-NExT zooms by Comet Tempel 1 for Cosmic Encounter
Sun Unleashes Biggest Flare of the Current Cycle

Stargazing Frosty Nights in moonlight

2011-02-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

Last night I observed Orion again and M41 past Sirius. The moon was high in the west and getting bright. The open cluster was dimmer tonight. Jupiter was already behind the trees and moving west. We have two more clear frosty nights ahead before the clouds return Sunday night. Might just scan the moon along the terminator tonight! The Moon shines near the Pleiades after dusk. Binoculars give a fine view. Watch the Moon move along its orbit with respect to the cluster as the hours pass. This (before 7AM) morning we watched the ISS pass overhead from NW to SE, went dim as it glided past Venus.

Asteroid 99942 Apophis was mentioned again in a blog today. More information that this rock is not The Killer Asteroid the press is labeling it.

Saturday, the waxing gibbous Moon is near the horns of Taurus the Bull. Look for the orange/red star Aldebaran to the lower right of the Moon. Time to find the ‘straight wall’ on the moon!

Sunday, if the clouds break, the Moon this evening shines high above Orion, near the horns of Taurus: Beta (β) and Zeta (ζ) Tauri.

News from the Net:
Chandra Captures Giant Ring of Black Holes
Video Visualization of Kepler Exoplanet Data
Spitzer’s Stunning New View of the North American Nebula

Orion and M41, Monday Night

2011-02-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

We are in another round of Artic Air. Frosty wind and a slight chance of winter mix today? Last night went cloudy and the sky was covered all night. Monday night (clear) I was able to view Orion from the porch after dark. A bit later I scanned the area just below Sirius with the binoculars and put M41 in the FOV. The cluster was clear and sharp in a dark cold sky. Open cluster M41 in Canis Major is a large bright cluster (magnitude 4.5) which is visible with the naked eye under dark skies. It is comprised of approximately 100 member stars including four prominent bright yellow-orange stars (mags 6.91 to 7.80) as well as many others between magnitude 7 and 10. This rich cluster is widely distributed across a field spanning 38 arc-minutes including a notable core involving many bright member stars. It has been estimated to be approximately 190 to 240 million old and characteristically includes a few yellow giants as indicated by the image above. This cluster lies at a distance of 2300 light-years away and spans another 25 light-years in diameter. The cluster may have first been observed by Aristotle in 325 BC and certainly observed and catalogued by Giovanni Batista Hodierna around 1654 and later by Messier in 1765. M41 lies four degrees due south of Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major and is best observed during winter crossing the meridian in the evening.

I moved up to Orion’s belt then put the bright M42 nebula in the FOV. 1,500 light years away and still a fantastic sight in scope or binoculars! In the center of the “cloud”, four young stars make up the stellar ‘Trapezium’! Not to forget the red star Betelgeuse, glowing on left shoulder of Orion! Looks great in binoculars and spectacular in any scope!

Another Space Rock! Newly-discovered asteroid 2011 CA7 is going to fly past Earth on Feb. 9th only 63,000 miles away, or 1/4th the distance to the Moon. At closest approach around 1700 UT, the VW-Bug-sized space rock will zip through the constellation Orion glowing like a 17th magnitude star. [ephemeris] [3D orbit]. Might be a bit too windy and frosty to view Orion tonight!

Tonight, if the clouds break, the crescent Moon is near the stars of the constellation Aries. Many craters and mountains can be seen on the Moon near the terminator with binoculars or a telescope. The terminator is the line that separates the light and dark sides of the Moon.

Thursday, the First Quarter Moon is west of the Pleiades star cluster. Tomorrow the Moon will be very close to the cluster. Compare the position of the Moon and star cluster tonight with the view tomorrow. You may need binoculars to see the star cluster next to the bright Moon

Friday, The Moon shines near the Pleiades after dusk (for the time zones of the Americas). Binoculars give a fine view. Watch the Moon move along its orbit with respect to the cluster as the hours pass.

News from the Net:
Forever Endeavour: USA has Plan to Continue Flying Space Shuttles
Air Force and ULA to launch second X-37B
Ares-1 Rocket Could Be Re-born as “Liberty”
Interior of Subsurface Cave Imaged on the Moon
Universe Could be 250 Times Bigger Than What is Observable
A Galaxy With a Big “S” on Its Chest

Week Two February, a few clear nights ahead

2011-02-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

OK, the Snow Event shut down our highways, businesses and schools for a most of Friday morning. It did give us some white stuff(half an inch) on the ground for a while. We finally saw a clear sky and the sun, not seen since last Tuesday. The Sun was filled with ice and gave no warmth at all. (Willie Nelson song!)

Tonight and the next two nights the Moon is close to Jupiter.

Tuesday night, if the clouds break, Uranus is 5 degrees to the lower right of Jupiter. Look for 6th magnitude Uranus with binoculars. Uranus and Jupiter are in the WSW an hour after sunset. (may miss this event...clouds due to return)

In my FOV, if the clouds break, will be the fine winter star cluster M41, visible in binoculars about one binocular field south of Sirius. But what about the cluster M50? Follow a line from Sirius to the tip of Canis Major's nose (Theta Canis Majoris), continue nearly as far exactly straight onward, and there you are. M50 is magnitude 5.9, quite a bit fainter than M41's magnitude 4.5. In the same field with M50 is another, the fainter cluster: NGC 2343, a tougher catch at magnitude 6.7. For a finder chart and more about these objects, see Gary Seronik's Binocular Highlight column in the February Sky & Telescope, page 45.

Before the start of dawn Wednesday morning, the asteroid Vesta is 0.4° north of Venus. They're magnitudes +7.8 and –4.3, respectively, a 70,000-times difference in brightness!

Thursday, First-quarter Moon tonight (exact at 2:18 a.m. Friday morning EST). Look upper left of the Moon for the Pleiades. Farther left of the Pleiades shines Aldebaran.

Another dawn challenge! Just before the first light of dawn Friday morning for your location, aim your scope or binoculars at Venus low in the southeast. Look nearly 3° south (lower right) of it for the hazy little glow of the globular cluster M22 (5th magnitude). Upper right of M22, by 7½°, is the larger dim glow of the Lagoon Nebula, M8. Also nearby is the asteroid Vesta, magnitude 7.8.

Friday night, The Moon shines near the Pleiades after dusk (for the time zones of the Americas). Binoculars give a fine view. Watch the Moon move along its orbit with respect to the cluster as the hours pass.

News from the Net:
Observing Alert: Z Canis Major In Outburst
A Brief History of Observing the Sun
Small Asteroid Just Buzzed Earth
Kelly remains commander of STS-134 mission (Updated)
Brand New Look at Apollo 14 Landing Site
Earth-like Cirrus Clouds Found on Titan
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Situation Cloudy

Space Rock…Close Call

2011-02-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

A small (4-5 meter) asteroid discovered earlier today by R. A. Kowalski of the Catalina Sky Survey will pass by Earth on Feb. 4th around 19:40UT at a distance of 11855 km. 2011 CQ1 will not hit Earth, but it will pass well inside the Clarke Belt of geosynchronous satellites. [more]

Putting a small white dot in the FOV is difficult, even with the coordinates. But, at least there are scopes and folks following these "Space Rocks". Tiny asteroid 2011 CQ1 buzzed Earth on Feb. 4th even closer than we thought. According to JPL's Near Earth Object Program office, the meter-wide space rock was only 5480 km (0.85 Earth radii) over the Pacific Ocean at closest approach. That makes it the nearest non-impacting object in their catalog. The encounter was so close, Earth's gravity altered the course of the asteroid by a whopping 60 degrees. [full story] [amateur images]