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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.
06/25/2018 – Ephemeris – Andromeda’s Parachute
Ephemeris for Monday, June 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:58. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:02 tomorrow morning.
A recent post of Dr. Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy Blog caught my eye. The object discovered is being called Andromeda’s Parachute. It has three relatively bright star-like points arranged in an arc like a parachute canopy, with another star-like point beneath it as the parachutist. It is the light from a single quasar, an active galaxy nucleus being split up by the gravitational lens of a closer, but dimmer galaxy in between us and the quasar. It’s very beautiful, and within reach of only the biggest telescopes. It was discovered using the Pan-STARRS telescope on Haleakala in Maui by George Nelson.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Quadruple quasar dubbed Andromeda’s parachute. The four images (A-D) of the quadruply lensed quasar J014709+463037 can be seen in this deep image taken by the Pan-STARRS telescope. The lensing galaxy (G) is marked by an X. Credit: Berghea et al.
The Bad Astronomer’s original post
Stupid Internet posts: No, gravity won’t be canceled January 4th.
Looks like the hoaxsters are at it again. Seems someone dusted off Sir. Patrick Moore’s April Fool’s joke from long ago and dressed it up as a phony NASA tweet and sent it out 9 days ago. Supposedly on January 4th, 2015 an alignment of Jupiter and Pluto will cancel gravity on the Earth for a few minutes that day. Both Newton and Einstein would be ticked off at that. Neither of their theories of gravity would predict anything so stupid. Besides Jupiter and Pluto are at nearly opposite parts of the sky. They don’t align with anything.
Don’t take my word for it as a lowly amateur astronomer. Check out the (A real astrophysics PhD) Bad Astronomer Phil Plait’s post: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/12/24/zero_g_day_nope.html.
Here’s a post from EarthSky with the same sentiments.
However January 4th, 2014 is special. It’s Perihelion Day, the day of the year the Earth is closest to the Sun. So break out the sunscreen, especially if you live in the southern hemisphere, where it’s summer now. The biggest effect we’ll see is that winter is the shortest season for us by a couple of days compared to summer, the longest season. The Earth moves its fastest in it’s orbit of the Sun at perihelion.
11/27/2013 – Ephemeris – Where are the bright planets and what’s up with Comet ISON?
Ephemeris for Wednesday, November 27th. The sun will rise at 7:54. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 5:05. The moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 2:46 tomorrow morning.
Let’s see where the bright planets are this eventful week. Venus is brilliant in the southwest after sunset. It will set at 7:53 p.m. The giant planet Jupiter will rise at 8:01 p.m. in the east northeast. It’s cruising against the stars of Gemini now. It will pass due south at 3:38 a.m. Mars will rise at 1:47 a.m. also in the east northeast. Reddish Mars is midway between Regulus in Leo and Spica in Virgo and tomorrow morning will be about 12 moon diameters above left of the moon. Mercury and Saturn will be together in the east southeast by 7 a.m. Mercury is the lower and brighter of the two. Comet ISON is now too close to the sun to be seen. Check bobmoler.wordpress.com (see below) for how to view Comet ISON near the sun.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus as it should appear at 6 p.m. on 11/27/2013. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic view of Venus as it should appear at 6 p.m. on 11/27/2013. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and some winter constellations as they should appear at 10 p.m. on 11/27/2013. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic view of Jupiter and its satellites as they should appear at 10 p.m. on 11/27/2013. The satellite Io is behind the planet and won’t appear until after midnight. Created using Stellarium.
The morning planets Mars, Saturn and Mercury plus the Moon at 6:45 a.m. November 28, 2013. Created using Stellarium
The Moon at 6:45 a.m. November 28, 2013. Created using Stellarium.
Comet ISON
Phil Plait the Bad Astronomer reported Monday that Comet ISON had suddenly decreased the amount of ices that it was emitting and pretty much simultaneously greatly increased the amount of dust it was producing. One of the possible explanations was that its nucleus had been disrupted. The comet’s nucleus is the small, maybe 2 km diameter, solid part of the comet. All the other parts of the comet are the thin ejected gas and dust from that nucleus. The head and tail of the comet is still a pretty good vacuum by earthly standards. There is still questions about it today. Here’s a YouTube video posted by the Planetary Society’s Emily Lakdawalla created by Emily from images taken by the STEREO Ahead spacecraft. It seems to be holding its own:
Here is the Planetary Society Blog entry that discusses Comet ISON’s then current status.
At the time of this posting (10 p.m. 11/26) the STEREO Behind COR 2 image shows Comet ISON entering on the lower left. Also SOHO’s LASCO C3 imager shows Comet ISON entering the view from the lower right. There’s also a coronal mass ejection (CME) erupting toward the comet. It could pass behind it, in front of it or actually toward it. It should be interesting.
Live programming of NASA-TV Thanksgiving Day
November 28, Thursday
1 – 3:30 p.m. – NASA Google+ Hangout: Comet ISON – GSFC (All Channels)
Here’s a link to NASA-TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
12/21/2012 – Ephemeris – Well, we’re still here
Ephemeris for Friday, December 21st. The sun will rise at 8:16. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:05. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:53 tomorrow morning.
Well, we’re still here. The winter solstice arrived at 6:12 this morning, and nothing happened. There’s no planetary alignment. The supposed alignment with the center of the galaxy, which is 6 degrees off anyway was at its closest 15 years ago. And the supposed planet Nibiru that was to collide with the earth or interfere with the earth somehow, hasn’t shown up. Even we amateur astronomers would have seen it for at least the last 5 years. To those who say its sneaking up on us from behind the sun. I say we have spacecraft flying all over the solar system, so we don’t have any blind spots for it to hide in. So I wonder when the next prediction of the end of the world will pop up, to which I will sigh: “Not again.”
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The sun at the winter solstice 2012. The horizontal line is the sun’s path, the ecliptic, while the diagonal line is the galactic equator. Sagittarius A is the location of the center of the galaxy some 26,000 light years away behind a black cloud of dust and gas. Created using Cartes du Ciel.
What’s wrong with this picture?
I received this in an email. The picture’s pretty but is it real? If not, what’s wrong? Answer in the comments.
Sunset at the North Pole. This is one of the rarest picture that you mayever see in your life when the moon was closest to the earth. The date: Jan 13, 2011.This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point last week. a scene you will probably never get to see in person, so take a moment and enjoy God at work at the North Pole. And, you also see the sun below the moon, an amazing photo and not one easily duplicated. You may want to pass it on to others so they can enjoy it. The Chinese have a saying that goes something like this: 'When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others!'
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 