Archive
11/15/2019 – Ephemeris – The Leonids in the moonlight
Ephemeris for Friday, November 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 35 minutes, setting at 5:14, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:40. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 7:45 this evening.
We are coming into a period where the Leonid meteor shower will be at its peak, as the Earth passes through the debris left by Comet Tempel-Tuttle on past trips through the inner solar system. We are having a bright Moon now which will diminish their numbers. The Leonids are only visible after midnight, and that’s when the Moon is highest in the sky. The meteors will appear to come from the top of a backward question mark that is the head of the constellation Leo the lion. They will be seen all over the sky, but can be traced back to that point. The Leonids are most numerous about every 33 years, which is about 13 years from now. Otherwise we get about 15 meteors an hour at peak when the Moon isn’t out.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Leo rising at around 2 a.m. on the morning of November 18. Note the radiant in the sickle asterism of Leo. Created using Looking Up, my own program.
New Meteor News!
I’ll have more next week, but we may be able to witness a meteor storm on the evening of the 21st and morning of the 22nd. It is the Alpha Monocerotids. They will seem to come from the constellation of Monoceros the unicorn. That constellation lies in the blank spot in the triangle between Orion, Canis Major and Canis Minor. The radiant will rise at 10:30 p.m.
Check this out: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/will-the-unicorn-give-us-a-meteor-storm-on-november-22
11/14/2019 – Ephemeris – Saturn is not only Lord of the Rings, but also King of the Moons
Ephemeris for Thursday, November 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 37 minutes, setting at 5:15, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:39. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 6:57 this evening.
This news item is a month old, but it’d kind of cool. Jupiter may be the king of the planets, but it is not the king of the Moons. In a recent announcement from the International Astronomical Union. Saturn has edged out Jupiter in the number of moons that orbit it. Twenty new moons or satellites have been recently been discovered around the ringed planet bringing its total number up to 82. Jupiter’s total number of moons stands at 79. The discovery of the 20 latest moons was done with the Subaru 8.2 meter telescope on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawai’i by a group headed by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science. 17 of these new satellites orbit Saturn in similar orbits backward from most of the rest of the moons.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Bottom panel: The outer irregular moons of Saturn, with a scale of 1 pixel = 40,000 km. Moon groups, as well as ungrouped moons, are individually listed. They are graphed by their inclination, as well as the closest/furthest points in their orbit from Saturn (perichron and apochron) Middle panel: The middle moons of Saturn, with a scale of 1 pixel = 4,000 km. Although Saturn’s middle moons can be resolved, the inner moons and its rings are still difficult to resolve
Top panel: The inner moons of Saturn, with a scale of 1 pixel = 400 km. On the left, the rings of Saturn are labeled, and on the right, the inner moons are labeled. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: Exoplanetaryscience.
Check it out in Bad Astronomy: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/another-score-for-saturn-20-newly-discovered-moons-for-the-ringed-planet. The satellite diagram it contains shows Saturn not to scale with the satellite orbits. At that scale Saturn would be a small dot. These satellites are far out, really!
For more on all of Saturn’s moons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Saturn.
11/13/2019 – Ephemeris – Venus is starting to make an appearance in the evening sky
Ephemeris for Wednesday, November 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 40 minutes, setting at 5:16, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:38. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 6:18 this evening.
Let’s look at the bright planets for this week. Venus is starting to make an evening appearance. It will be briefly visible low in the west-southwest before it sets at 6:28 p.m. Jupiter will be very low in the southwestern sky as it gets dark. It will set at 7:17 p.m. Jupiter is moving at nearly its fastest to the east now and next year will be where Saturn is currently. Saturn, the ringed planet, will be in the south-southwestern sky in the evening, and will set at 9:15 p.m. Next year it will be a bit farther east. Jupiter is approaching Saturn in our sky. Mars is in the morning sky and will rise in the east-southeast at 5:25 a.m. It’s not very bright because it’s 230 million (370 million km) miles away, but it’s getting slowly closer to the Earth.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn tonight, November 13 at 6 p.m. Created using Stellarium.
The waning gibbous Moon at 8 p.m. tonight November 13, 2019. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn with the same magnification at 6 p.m. tonight November 13, 2019. Venus is too close to the horizon to easily see its tiny gibbous shape. In the mrning, Mars is to tiny. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
Mars in the morning at 6:30 a.m. November 14, 2019. Created using Stellarium.
Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on November 13, 2019. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 14th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.
11/12/2019 – Ephemeris – November meteor showers
Ephemeris for Tuesday, November 12th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 5:17, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:36. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 5:45 this evening.
November is a month with three meteor showers and all this year are affected by the bright moon, at least on the dates of their peak activity. They are the South Taurids which peaked last month but are seen through the 20th of this month; the North Taurids, which are at peak now, and whose members can be seen through December 10th; and the Leonids, which peak next Monday whose members can be seen until the end of the month. At peak on a dark night neither of these showers will produce more than 20 per hour. Both the Taurid meteor showers, which seem to emanate from the constellation of Taurus the Bull are related to Encke’s Comet the shortest periodic comet which orbits the Sun in only 3.3 years.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
11/11/2019 – Ephemeris – Mercury is passing across the face of the Sun today
Ephemeris for Veteran’s Day, Monday, November 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 45 minutes, setting at 5:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:35. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:24 tomorrow morning.
Today we are bring treated by a rare event. The planet Mercury is crossing the face of the Sun. It’s called the transit of Mercury. The last one visible from around here was 3 ½ years ago, and the next one will be visible here in 2049. The transit starts at sunrise when Mercury starts to cross the Sun from the lower left from sunrise and will cross the Sun until 1:04 p.m. where it will leave the Sun at the upper right. The best way to see it will be to project the Sun’s image on a white card using binoculars or a telescope. Do not look through them at the Sun. Solar eclipse glasses will not work because Mercury is too small. Do not use eclipse glasses with binoculars. The Sun’s heat will melt the filters and cause blindness.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
One or more members of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society mayl be out in the parking lot of Mari Vineyards 8175 Center Road on Old Mission Peninsula, but only if it’s clear. Be advised that there is a winter storm warning for the Grand Traverse Area from 1 a.m. to 6 p.m. today. That means that chances are slim that we’ll have a big enough clear spot to observe through. But I’ll be on the look out., and am a half an hour away.
I found a source for streaming video fo the transit from Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYZKNhTJmOI.
Being on the west coast they will miss part of the transit. They’ll go live at 9:15 a.m. our time. Sunrise over there is at 9:22 our time. There’s more information on: http://www.griffithobservatory.org/events/Transit_of_Mercury_2019.html.
More information about viewing the transit is on: https://spaceweather.com/
Path of Mercury across the Sun. The planet will move from lower left to upper right. The passage will be from lower left to upper right. Credit: Occult 4.
I’m demonstrating using binoculars to project the Sun. Photo by Bea Farrell (granddaughter).
Mercury Inferior Conj. (Transit)
Transit of Mercury on 2019 Nov 11 (TT)
Geocentric Event UTC EST P.A.
h m s o
[1] Exterior Ingress 12 35 27 7:35.27 a.m. 110.0
[2] Minimum Separation 15 19 48 10:19:48 a.m.
[3] Exterior Egress 18 4 14 1:04:14 a.m. 298.6
Minimum sepn 75.9"; Radii - Sun 969.3", Mercury 5.0"
delta T = 70.2 secs, Ephemeris = DE0
The Sun facing side of the Earth at the start and end of the transit. If you can see your location on either of these maps the transit or part of it will be visible from your location. Credit Occult 4.
11/08/2019 – Ephemeris – On Monday tiny Mercury will cross the face of the Sun
Ephemeris for Friday, November 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:22, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:31. The Moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 4:14 tomorrow morning.
Monday we will be treated by a rare event. The planet Mercury will cross the face of the Sun. It’s called the transit of Mercury. The last one visible from around here was 3 ½ years ago, and the next one will be in 2049. Mercury will start across the Sun from the lower left from sunrise at 7:35 and will cross the Sun until 1:04 p.m. where it will leave the Sun at the upper right. The best way to see it will be to project the Sun’s image on a white card using binoculars or a telescope. Do not look through them at the Sun. Solar eclipse glasses will not work because Mercury is too small. Do not use eclipse glasses with binoculars. The heat will melt the glasses and cause blindness. I’ll have more information Monday.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Path of Mercury across the Sun. The planet will move from lower left to upper right. The passage will be from lower left to upper right. Credit: Occult 4.
I’m demonstrating using binoculars to project the Sun. Photo by Bea Farrell (granddaughter).
Mercury Inferior Conj. (Transit)
Transit of Mercury on 2019 Nov 11 (TT)
Geocentric Event UTC EST P.A.
h m s o
[1] Exterior Ingress 12 35 27 7:35.27 a.m. 110.0
[2] Minimum Separation 15 19 48 10:19:48 a.m.
[3] Exterior Egress 18 4 14 1:04:14 a.m. 298.6
Minimum sepn 75.9"; Radii - Sun 969.3", Mercury 5.0"
delta T = 70.2 secs, Ephemeris = DE0
11/07/2019 – Ephemeris – The gibbous Moon tonight
Ephemeris for Thursday, November 7th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 5:23, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:30. The Moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 3:13 tomorrow morning.
Every night when we look at the Moon the sunrise terminator has moved farther west on the Moon which is to our east uncovering more landscape. The Moon rotates once in about 29 ½ days in relation with the Sun. This is the same time it orbits the Earth from new Moon to the next. We call that a lunation or lunar month. Near the upper left corner of the Moon is what looks like a half crater. It’s called Sinus Iridium, the Bay of Rainbows. It’s at the edge of Mare Imbrium or Sea of Showers. To the south cut by the terminator is Oceanus Procellarum, the flat Ocean of Storms. South of that is the small Mare Humorum, the Sea of Vapors. South of all that is the odd shaped crater Schiller.
10-11-2016 has images
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The gibbous Moon tonight at 8 p.m., November 7, 2019. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
Sinus Iridium photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as texture mapped on the globe of the Virtual Moon Atlas.
Clavius as photographed by one of the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in the 1960s From Digital Lunar Orbital Photographic Atlas. This is photographed from overhead. On tonight’s moon it’s near the bottom or south end and is foreshortened.Credit Jeff Gillis, Lunar and Planetary Institute.
11/06/2019 – Ephemeris – Looking for the bright planets
Ephemeris for Wednesday, November 6th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 5:25, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:28. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:13 tomorrow morning.
Let’s look at the bright planets for this week. Venus and Mercury are too close to the Sun to be seen. They are on the evening or east side of the Sun. Jupiter will be very low in the southwestern sky as it gets dark. It will set at 7:38 p.m. Jupiter is moving at nearly its fastest to the east now and next year will be where Saturn is currently. Saturn, the ringed planet, will be in the south-southwestern sky in the evening, and will set at 9:15 p.m. Next year it will be a bit farther east. Jupiter is approaching Saturn in our sky. Mars is in the morning sky and will rise in the east at 5:29 a.m. It’s not very bright because it’s 232 million (375 million km) miles away.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Jupiter, Saturn and the gibbous Moon tonight, November 6 at 7:15 p.m. Created using Stellarium.
The gibbous Moon as it might appear in binoculars at 7:15 p.m. November 6, 2019. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn with the same magnification at 7:15 p.m. tonight November 6, 2019. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
Mars in the morning at 6:30 a.m. November 07, 2019. Created using Stellarium.
Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on November 6, 2019. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 7th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.
11/05/2019 – Ephemeris – Is the asteroid Hygiea the smallest dwarf planet?
Ephemeris for Election Day in some places, Tuesday, November 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours even, setting at 5:26, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:27. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:12 tomorrow morning.
The asteroid Hygiea is the 4th largest asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. After much study with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) it appears that Hygiea is very nearly spherical. Only the largest asteroid and dwarf planet Ceres is more spherical, and it’s over twice as large. Ceres is 587 miles (945 km) in diameter. Hygiea is 267 miles (430 km) in diameter. By current definition that a body not fitting the definition of planet because it hadn’t cleared it’d orbit of other objects could have the classification of dwarf planet of it was round, or in astronomer-speak has achieved hydrostatic equilibrium. If the International Astronomical Union agrees it would be the smallest dwarf planet.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
A new SPHERE/VLT image of Hygiea, which could be the Solar System’s smallest dwarf planet yet. As an object in the main asteroid belt, Hygiea satisfies right away three of the four requirements to be classified as a dwarf planet: it orbits around the Sun, it is not a moon and, unlike a planet, it has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. The final requirement is that it have enough mass that its own gravity pulls it into a roughly spherical shape. This is what VLT observations have now revealed about Hygiea.
For more from Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/143897/asteroid-hygiea-is-round-enough-that-it-could-qualify-as-a-dwarf-planet-the-smallest-in-the-solar-system/.
11/04/2019 – Ephemeris – It’s a quarter Moon today. On the oceans the smallest difference between high and low tides.
Ephemeris for Monday, November 4th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 3 minutes, setting at 5:27, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:25. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 12:10 tomorrow morning.
Today’s first quarter moon means that this tides caused by the Moon and Sun are pulling on the Earth at right angles which keeps the tides low. These are called neap tides. The Moon also raises higher tides than the Sun, even though the Sun is much more massive. But it’s much farther away. And that’s the reason. Tides are caused by the difference in gravitational pull from one side to the other of the Earth. The Moon, being much closer has a greater difference in gravitational force. Only when the Moon Sun and Earth are lined up do we have the highest tides which are called spring tides. Galaxies, held together by gravity, are easily distorted by the tidal force of other galaxies and pull off what are called tidal tails.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Spring and Neap Tides explained. Credit http://www.millerslocal.co.za/the-inside-skinny-on-tides.html (South Africa).
This ground-based image was taken by Robert Gendler and shows the two merging Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038 and NGC 4039) and their impressive long tidal tails. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit ESA.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 