Archive
10/08/2013 – Ephemeris – Comet ISON spotted from Mars
Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 8th. The sun will rise at 7:49. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 7:09. The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 9:36 this evening.
Tonight look in the southwest at 8 p.m. or so to see the crescent moon to the upper left of Venus. In other news last week Sunday the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took photographs of Comet ISON. These have been posted on the Internet. Google ISON Mars. The Satellite’s HiRISE camera wasn’t built for the task, and only revealed a faint blob of light. Earth bound amateur astronomers can do a lot better. The images are posted on the University of Arizona’s web site and are not affected by government shutdown. Any images of the comet from the Curiosity rover will have to wait until the shutdown is over to be posted. Operators of the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers are still at work since ongoing space operations are deemed essential.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
HiRISE images of Comet ISON on Sept. 29, 2013. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
The Draconid meteor shower peaks tonight
The Draconid meteor shower is lackluster most years with a handful of meteors an hour, and this is one of those. However every once and a while all heaven breaks loose. It’s related to Comet Giacobini-Zinner, a short period comet. The radiant is overhead in the early evening, so this is a rare meteor shower best seen in the evening rather than the morning sky.
Here’s a link to my post a couple of years ago (2011) about it including a finder chart: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/100611-ephemer…-meteor-shower/
For this year check out the site EarthSky.org and their take on the Draconids.
Draconid Meteor Shower Radiant
The red triangle delineates the Summer Triangle.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 