Archive
10/29/10 – Ephemeris – Algol the Ghoul Star
Friday, October 29th. The sun will rise at 8:16. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 19 minutes, setting at 6:35. The moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 12:12 tomorrow morning. | Not all the ghosts and goblins out Sunday will be children. One will be out every night, because it’s a star. Its name is Algol, from the Arabic for Ghoul Star or Demon Star. The Chinese had a name for it that meant ‘piled up corpses’. It’s the second brightest star in the constellation Perseus the hero, rising in the northeast this evening. The star is located where artists have drawn the severed head of Medusa, whom he had slain. Medusa was so ugly that she turned all who gazed upon her to stone. Algol is her still glittering eye. Astronomers finally found out what was wrong with Algol. It does a slow 6 hour wink every two days 21 hours, because it is two stars that eclipse each other. [Medusa will not be winking Halloween evening.]
Text in brackets were omitted in the program due to time constraints.
10/28/10 – Ephemeris – Venus at inferior conjunction
Thursday, October 28th. The sun will rise at 8:14. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 22 minutes, setting at 6:37. The moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 11:00 this evening. | Later today Venus is in inferior conjunction with the Sun. That is, it will pass between the earth and the sun. This time it won’t do it directly between, which is normal. However a year and a half from now Venus will pass in front of the sun so we can see it. This is the twice in 200 year transit of Venus. Currently the transits occur in pairs 8 years apart after an interval of over 100 years. This time we cannot see Venus as it will pass far south of the sun. In the next week or two it will begin to be visible in the east just before sunrise. It’s sudden appearance will cause it to be reported as a UFO. [I suppose to those reporting it it will be a UFO in the generic definition. It would be unidentified] It’s just Venus spending 9 months in the morning sky.
Text in brackets was omitted from the program due to time constraints.
10/27/10 – Ephemeris – Planets and Comet Hartley 2 this week
Wednesday, October 27th. The sun will rise at 8:13. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 6:38. The moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 9:52 this evening. | Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week. Mars is very low and lost in the evening twilight. Venus will officially enter the morning sky after tomorrow’s passage between the earth and the sun. It will then appear quite suddenly a couple of weeks later to the amazement of many folks who will report it as being a UFO. The planet Jupiter is up at sunset appearing in the southeastern sky in the early evening. It will move due south at 10:54 p.m.. It is the brightest starlight object in the sky. It’s located in Pisces this year and will set at 4:46 a.m. Comet Hartley 2 has moved out ahead of the earth being in the morning sky. may be just visible in binoculars as a fuzzy spot at the bottom of the constellation Gemini.
10/26/10 – Ephemeris – New LCROSS results
Tuesday, October 26th. The sun will rise at 8:12. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 6:40. The moon, half way from full to last quarter, will rise at 8:51 this evening. | There are now more results from the LCROSS spacecraft collision in an eternally shadowed crater on the moon a bit more than a year ago. These came from the Wall Street Journal. I’ll assume that these results are preliminary too. Despite the disappointing show for TV viewers of this event including yours truly, there was a measurable plume that resulted in the discovery of the hoped for water plus hydrogen, ammonia, methane, plus the metals mercury, sodium and silver. The percentage of the soil kicked up was nearly 6 percent water or rather ice. If the astronauts can get to the rugged south pole of the moon to process the soil into water they will save the approximately $50,000 a pound to haul it up from the earth.
10/25/10 – Ephemeris – Most distant galaxy
Monday, October 25th. The sun will rise at 8:10. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 6:41. The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 8:00 this evening. | The European Southern Observatory has announced the discovery of a new most distance galaxy. I prefer to think of as the earliest galaxy found after the Big Bang itself. Astronomers are very sure the Big Bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago plus or minus 200 million years. We can only see back to about 13.4 billion years ago when the universe became transparent. The distance of a particular faint galaxy, discovered on a Hubble Ultra Deep Field image was investigated using ESO’s Very large Telescope and it was learned that using its velocity of recession that it was found to come from an infant galaxy that existed 600 million years after the Big Bang. Very early indeed. The Universe’s dark ages lasted only perhaps 200 million years.
10/22/10 – Ephemeris – The Full Hunter’s Moon
Friday, October 22nd. The sun will rise at 8:06. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 39 minutes, setting at 6:46. The moon, is the full Hunter’s Moon, and will rise at 6:12 this evening.
The full moon is blinding in telescopes and binoculars. Well it is daylight there, and the moon is essentially the same distance from the sun as the earth. The face of the man in the moon is at its best visibility now. In binoculars or low power in telescopes the best feature to view is the ray system radiating out of the bright southern crater Tycho which is relatively fresh. Fresh on the moon is less than a billion years old, how much less is not known. Maybe the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter can help pinpoint the age or a visit by astronauts in the future. My general feeling is that the only good full moon is an eclipsed one. On the second full moon from now, on the morning of December 21st we will be able to witness total lunar eclipse, if it’s clear.
10/21/10 – Ephemeris – The Orionid meteors
Thursday, October 21st. The sun will rise at 8:05. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 6:48. The moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:47 tomorrow morning.
We are now at the best time to see the Orionid meteor shower, but unfortunately the moon is near full and out all night.. However the brightest of the meteors will be visible. Like most meteor showers, this is best seen just before dawn. As the name suggests the so-called shooting stars will seem to come from the constellation Orion the hunter. Actually they will appear to come from above the rectangular torso of the giant. These meteors actually have nothing to do with Orion, but they are the light flashes from bits of rock that were once part of Halley’s comet, as they burn up in the earth’s atmosphere. In Halley’s many passes close to the sun, much of its solid material has been liberated by the evaporating gases, leaving a trail of litter in its orbit.
10/20/10 – Ephemeris – The planets and Comet hartley 2 for this week
Wednesday, October 20th. The sun will rise at 8:04. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 45 minutes, setting at 6:49. The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:44 tomorrow morning.
Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week. Venus and Mars are very low and lost in the evening twilight. Venus has a bit more than a week to be officially in the evening sky before it passes between the earth and the sun. It will then enter the morning sky where it appear quite suddenly a couple of weeks later. The planet Jupiter is up at sunset appearing in the southeastern sky in the early evening. It will move due south at 11:28 p.m.. It is the brightest starlight object in the sky. It’s located in Pisces this year and will set at 5:16 a.m. Comet Hartley 2 may be just visible in binoculars as a fuzzy spot in the pentagonal constellation of Auriga, below and right of the bright star Capella in the northeastern sky.
10/19/10 – Ephemeris – China’s Chang’E-2 lunar orbiter
Tuesday, October 19th. The sun will rise at 8:02. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 6:51. The moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:42 tomorrow morning.
China launched their second Lunar orbited on October 1st. It arrived in lunar orbit 4 days later. China’s Chang’E spacecraft are named after an ancient legend if a young fairy who flew to the moon. This one is Chang’E-2 which follows after three years Chang’E-1. It has improved cameras over the first spacecraft. It is in a elliptical orbit of 62 miles at its farthest and only 9.3 miles at its closest. The Chang’E series are in preparation for the eventual Chinese landing of humans on the moon. Next for China is Chang’E-3 a lander and rover, and Chang’E-4 a sample return mission. [The manned landing on the moon is expected in the 2025 to 2030 range.]* The Chinese are also setting their sights on Mars and will piggyback a satellite on Russia’s next Mars mission.
*Text in brackets was dropped due to time constraints. I only have 59 seconds.
10/18/10 – Ephemeris – The moon’s orientation in a telescope
Monday, October 18th. The sun will rise at 8:01. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 6:52. The moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 4:41 tomorrow morning.
This evening the moon will be inviting to the telescope. Depending on your optical arrangement, you will see the moon in different orientations. When I describe the moon is describe it as seen in binoculars, right side up. The Feature that looks like an arc of mountains called the Jura mountains that contain the Bay of Rainbows or Sinus Iridium will appear to the upper left of the moon. In a Newtonian reflecting telescope the moon appears upside down so Sinus Iridium appears to the lower right. A printed moon map may only have to be turned upside down to match what you see. In a telescope with a diagonal mirror by the eyepiece gives a mirror image. Whether it is upside down or not depends on the orientation of the eyepiece.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 