Archive
02/11/2015 – Ephemeris – Wednesday is bright planet day around here
Ephemeris for Wednesday, February 11th. The sun will rise at 7:49. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 6:05. The moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 1:52 tomorrow morning.
Lets take a look at the bright planets and a binocular comet for this week. Brilliant Venus is in the west-southwest by 7 p.m. It will set at 8:19 p.m. Mars appears above and left of Venus in the southwest. Venus is approaching Mars and they will be at their closest on the 22nd. The Red Planet will set tonight at 8:44 p.m. Jupiter will appear In the southeastern sky in the evening. It will be up all night, and will set just before sunrise. It’s near the sickle-shaped head of Leo the lion, and it’s the brightest star-like object in the sky. Early risers will be able to spot Saturn which will rise in the east-southeast at 2:41a.m. Comet Lovejoy, visible in binoculars, is about the width of a binocular field to the right of the star at the end of Andromeda, called Almaak.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus and Mars low in the west at 7 p.m. on February 11, 2015. The crescent moon will be seen with the two planets on the evening of the 20th, and they will be in conjunction on the 22nd. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and the bright winter stars at 9 p.m. on February 11, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and its moons as they might appear in a telescope tonight. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
The Moon will appear near Saturn at 6 a.m. February 12, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it might appear in binoculars at 6 a.m. on February 12, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
What Saturn and its moons might appear like in a telescope at 6 a.m., February 12, 2015. Small telescopes will show only the moon Titan. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
The track of Comet 2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) from 2/11/15 to 02/17/15 which will appear high in the west at 9 p.m. Toward the end of the period the comet will pass near M76, a 10th magnitude planetary nebula. It will be much dimmer than the comet. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
01/30/2015 – Ephemeris – Looking ahead at the Sun’s advance in February and what’s happening after it sets
Ephemeris for Friday, January 30th. The sun will rise at 8:04. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 5:48. The moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 5:25 tomorrow morning.
February is the shortest month, even so the daylight hours through out the month will be getting longer. Daylight hours will increase from 9 hours and 49 minutes on Sunday the first to 11 hours and 6 minutes on the 28th. The sunrise time will decrease from 8:02 Sunday to 7:22 at month’s end. The sunset times will increase from 5:51 on Sunday to 6:28 on the 28th. Along with that the altitude of the sun at noon will increase from 28 degrees on Sunday to nearly 38 degrees at month’s end. Local noon, by the way for Interlochen and Traverse City is about 12:55 p.m. The planet Jupiter will reach its closest to the Earth in 6 days. Comet Lovejoy will continue to fade as it retreats from the Earth and the Sun.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
Monthly Star Chart
Star Chart for February 2015. Created using my LookingUp program.
The Moon is not plotted. The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. That is chart time.
Evening astronomical twilight ends at 7:31 p.m. on February 1st, increasing to 8:06 p.m. on the 28th.
Morning astronomical twilight starts at 6:21 a.m. on February 1st, and decreasing to 5:45 a.m. on the 28th.
Add a half hour to the chart time every week before the 15th and subtract and hour for every week after the 15th.
For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.
The green pointer from the Big Dipper is:
- Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.
- Drill a hole in the bowl of the Big Dipper and the water will drip on the back of Leo the Lion.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Track of Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) for February 2015.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) will be fading fast throughout February as it moves from Andromeda to Cassiopeia.
Calendar of Planetary Events
Credit: Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC)
To generate your own calendar go to http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html
Times are Eastern Standard Time on a 24 hour clock. Some additions made to aid clarity.
Conjunctions like the Moon-Saturn: 2.3° S means Saturn will appear 2.3° south of the Moon.
| Feb | 01 | Su | Venus: 23.8° E of Sun | |
| 03 | Tu | 18:09 | Full Moon | |
| 06 | Fr | 01:25 | Moon Apogee: 406,200 km | |
| 06 | Fr | 11:55 | Jupiter Opposition from the Sun | |
| 08 | Su | 12:10 | Moon Ascending Node | |
| 11 | We | 22:50 | Last Quarter | |
| 12 | Th | 19:10 | Moon-Saturn: 2.3° S | |
| 14 | Sa | 12:18 | Moon South Dec.: 18.4° S | |
| 17 | Tu | 01:20 | Moon-Mercury: 3.5° S | |
| 18 | We | 18:47 | New Moon | |
| 19 | Th | 02:29 | Moon Perigee: 357000 km | |
| 20 | Fr | 19:56 | Moon-Venus: 2° S | |
| 20 | Fr | 20:28 | Moon-Mars: 1.5° S | |
| 21 | Sa | 11:05 | Moon Descending Node | |
| 22 | Su | 00:18 | Venus-Mars: 0.4° N | |
| 24 | Tu | 10:59 | Mercury Greatest Elongation: 26.7° W | |
| 25 | We | 12:14 | First Quarter | |
| 25 | We | 18:02 | Moon-Aldebaran: 1° S | |
| 25 | We | 23:18 | Neptune Conjunction with the Sun | |
| 27 | Fr | 02:19 | Moon North Dec.: 18.3° N | |
| Mar | 01 | Su | Venus: 30.1° E of Sun | |
01/23/2015 – Ephemeris – Checking on Comet Lovejoy and the Moon.
Ephemeris for Friday, January 23rd. The sun will rise at 8:11. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 5:38. The moon, half way from new to first quarter, will set at 9:59 this evening.
The crescent moon is growing brighter but shouldn’t bother binocular views of Comet Lovejoy, now between the Pleiades and the small constellation of Triangulum, a narrow pointy triangle. Tonight only it’s above the crescent Moon. The Moon in binoculars or a small telescope is revealing more of its surface nightly. The Sea of Crises or Mare Crisium is now fully in sunlight and The Sea of Fertility Or Mare Fecunditatis is now half in sunlight, with the odd pair of craters Messier and Messier A right at the terminator near the center of the sea. Check these craters after a few days and an odd ray pattern will appear. Apparently the body or bodies that created them came in at a very low angle and threw material forward in a couple of streaks.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Comet Lovejoy appearing tonight only above the Moon. This is for 8 p.m. January 23, 2015. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts)
The Moon through a telescope at low power. 8 p.m., January 23, 2015. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas and Gimp.
The Craters Messier A and B from Apollo 11. NASA
01/20/2015 – Ephemeris – Keeping track of Comet 2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) and also 15P/Finley unexpectedly brightens
Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 20th. The sun will rise at 8:13. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 5:34. The moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
Comet 2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) the to use its official name, is now moving through the constellation of Aries the ram, just west or to the right of the Pleiades. Comet Lovejoy is actually visible to the naked eye from a dark location, far from city lights. It appears to be about 4 ½ magnitude, about a bright as the dimmest star in the bowl of the Little Dipper. It’s tail is still only visible in photographs. It appears that Comet Lovejoy is not a very dusty comet. Dust in comets appears to have the size of smoke particles to be affected they way they are by the pressure of sunlight. Larger particles grains are usually invisible and would only become visible then they burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. No chance with Comet Lovejoy, it will never get closer to the Earth than Mars.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
This is the comet track ending tonight from last Wednesday’s post.
The track of Comet Lovejoy for the week (from 1/14/2015 to 1/20/2015 at 9 p.m.) Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
This is tomorrow’s track for the next week
The track of Comet Lovejoy for the next week (from 1/21/2015 to 1/27/2015 at 9 p.m.) Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
Brightness curve for C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). Vertical axis is magnitude, Horizontal axis is date. The orange line is projected magnitude and black dots are actual reported observational estimates of magnitudes. The vertical line in the center is for the date the comet is closest to the sun, perihelion. As of January 18, 2015 Credit: Seiichi Yoshida.
This is a great website for keeping track of observable comets: http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html.
Comet 15P/Finley is a very dim comet, usually relegated to large amateur telescopes. However twice on this trip to the inner solar system it has brightened remarkably from being barely visible at magnitude 10 in 3-4 inch telescopes, to 7th magnitude, visible in binoculars. A 3 magnitude jump in brightness means it brightened by some 16 times. Something’s going on!
Finder chart for Comet Finley with stars down to 9th magnitude. The 5 sided circle of stars above and right of the track is the “Circlet” of the constellation Pisces. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
General view of the planets and constellations looking to the southwest at 7 p.m. The comet is not visible in this view. Note that Mars is unmarked under the Aq in Aquarius. Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
Brightness curve for 15P/Finley. Vertical axis is magnitude, Horizontal axis is date. The orange line is the projected magnitude and black dots are actual reported observational estimates of magnitudes. As of January 18, 2015 Credit: Seiichi Yoshida.
Tip o’ the old observers cap to Universe Today for the heads up.
01/15/2015 – Ephemeris – Family STEM Night at Greenspire School
Ephemeris for Thursday, January 15th. The sun will rise at 8:16. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 5:28. The moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:07 tomorrow morning.
Tonight the Greenspire School is sponsoring its annual Family STEM Night from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the school on Red Drive at the Grand Traverse Commons. Red Drive is a block west of Silver Drive that connects to Silver Lake Road at Franke Road. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. One of the demonstrations will be a 3D printer. The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be there also making dry ice comets, showing the sky and Comet Lovejoy through telescopes if it’s clear, and giving away two Galileoscope telescope kits and a some Race to the Planets trivia games courtesy of Professor Jerry Dobek and Project Astro. There are lots of hands on activities for the whole family.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
01/14/2015 – Ephemeris – Five bright planets and Comet Lovejoy are visible now
Ephemeris for Wednesday, January 14th. The sun will rise at 8:17. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 9 minutes, setting at 5:26. The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 3:05 tomorrow morning.
Lets take a look at the bright planets and a pretty bright comet for this week. Venus and Mercury are side by side low in the southwest by 6 p.m. Mercury is about 2 and a half moon widths to the right of the much brighter Venus. Mercury will set at 7:02, while Venus will set at 7:03 p.m. Mars is low in the southwest at 7 p.m. and is in the constellation of Aquarius. The Red Planet will set tonight at 8:39 p.m. Jupiter will rise in the east at 7:31 p.m. It’s near the sickle shaped head of Leo the lion. Early risers will be able to spot Saturn which will rise in the east-southeast at 4:21 a.m. Comet Lovejoy, visible in binoculars, makes an equilateral triangle with the V shaped head of Taurus and the Pleiades, to the right of both.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus, Mercury and Mars at 6:15 p.m. on January 14, 2015. Note that Mercury is getting dimmer, and Venus is overtaking Mars which is a bit more than a month away. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and the winter constellations at 9 p.m. on January 14, 2015. Comet Lovejoy is not shown. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and it’s Galilean satellites as seen in a telescope at 9 p.m. on January 14, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn and the Moon at 7 a.m., January 15, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as it would be seen in binoculars at 7 a.m., January 15, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn as seen with a telescope at 7 a.m., January 15, 2015. Titan is visible in most small telescopes. Created using Stellarium.
Comet Lovejoy
We finally had a clear night. Comet Lovejoy was not visible to me to the naked eye last night. But I thing an observer far from city lights and perfectly dark adapted might be able to spot it. It was a great sight in 10X50 binoculars. it was a bright featureless round blob of light. I couldn’t spot a tail, which I expected. My friend Scott Anttila, an excellent astrophotographer unfortunately has moved down to the Detroit area and is hindered by the lights down there. However he was able to get this image of the comet sans tail. But the green color of the come shows wonderfully. Unfortunately our eyes don’t register color at low light levels.
Scott Anttila’s photo of Comet Lovejoy from the light polluted skies of the Detroit area.
The track of Comet Lovejoy for the next week (from 1/14/2015 to 1/20/2015 at 9 p.m.) Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
01/13/2015 – Ephemeris – How to find Comet Lovejoy
Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 13th. The sun will rise at 8:17. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 7 minutes, setting at 5:25. The moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 2:03 tomorrow morning.
A new comet has entered the evening sky for northern hemisphere observers. It is best seen in binoculars as a fuzzy blob. Photographs reveals a green comet with a faint wispy tail. It was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy. It’s his 5th comet. Tonight the comet is located in line with the bottom side of the letter V of stars, the head of Taurus the bull, The V is lying on its side and to the right by the width of a fist held at arm’s length will be the fuzzy ball of the head of the comet. Charts for finding the comet can be found on my blog at bobmoler.wordpress.com today and also every Wednesday for the next month or so. Photographs of this beautiful comet can be found on space.com and spaceweather.com among other websites.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Finding Comet Lovejoy at 9 p.m., January 13, 2015. created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts). Click on image to enlarge.
Comet Lovejoy taken by Jan Curtis on January 11, 2015 @ Near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Found on http://www.spaceweather.com. Great photo Jan. Click on image to enlarge.
01/07/2015 – Ephemeris – Lets take our first looks at the bright planets and a pretty bright comet
Ephemeris for Wednesday, January 7th. The sun will rise at 8:19. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 5:18. The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 8:10 this evening.
Lets take our first look at the bright planets for 2015. Mercury is visible below right of Venus by about 2 moon widths low in the southwest shortly after sunset. On Saturday Mercury will be its closest to Venus. Mercury will set at 6:38, while Venus will set at 6:44 p.m. They will be visible low in the southwestern twilight by 6 p.m. Mars is low in the southwest at 7 p.m. and is in the constellation of Capricornus and will cross the boundary into Aquarius tomorrow. The Red Planet will set tonight at 8:37 p.m. Jupiter will rise in the east at 8:02 p.m. It’s near the sickle-shaped head of Leo the lion. Early risers will be able to spot Saturn which will rise in the east-southeast at 4:46 a.m. On the 18th it will cross the border from Libra to Scorpius.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Animation of the Quasi-conjunction of Venus and Mercury. Time span 1/05/2015 to 1/15/2015 at 7 p.m. Created by Bob Moler using Stellarium and GIMP.
Note that Mercury gets dimmer as the days go by. This is because its phase moves from gibbous to half illuminated on the 14th at its greatest elongation from the Sun.
Mars and the setting constellations, with constellation boundaries in red. at 7 p.m. on January 7, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter, the Moon and the winter constellations at 10 p.m. on January 7, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon as seen through binoculars at 10 p.m. on January 7, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and its satellites as seen through a telescope at 10 p.m. on January 7, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn and the spring constellations at 7 p.m. on January 8, 2015. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn and satellites through a telescope at 7 a.m. January 8, 2015. Note that the moons other than Titan will be difficult to spot. Created using Stellarium.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Comet Lovejoy track for January 7 to January 13, 2015. Despite the magnitudes being less than 6, binoculars will, most likely, be needed to spot it. Every other day is marked with month-day and magnitude of the comet.
01/06/2015 – Ephemeris – Star to stir up solar system’s comets, but you’re gotta wait a bit.
Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 6th. The sun will rise at 8:19. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 5:17. The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 7:12 this evening.
In about a quarter to half a million years from now a star with the name HIP 85605 will pass through the Oort cloud of comets that is the extreme outer part of the solar system. The star’s name comes from the Hipparcos catalog created from data from the European satellite which created improved distances of nearby stars. HIP 85605 star is nearby and very faint. The star should pass through the Oort cloud twice, coming and going. What happens is the star will tend to scatter small bodies in its wake, throwing some comets in toward the sun and others it will eject from the solar system. There were all kinds of scare headlines out of this. Something like this “Will a comet shower end life on the Earth?” No it won’t. This kind of thing happens every few million years.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
NASA diagram of the solar system on a logarithmic scale. Each interval is ten times longer than the one on the left. On this scale the star HIP 85605 will penetrate to the inner part of the Oort cloud. Click to enlarge.
Tip o’the old astronomer’s cap to Universe Today where I found this story.
01/01/2015 – Ephemeris – Happy New Year – a look at January
Ephemeris for New Years Day, Thursday, January 1st. The sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:12. The moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:43 tomorrow morning.
Happy New Year. Let’s preview the month of January. We’re a day from the latest sunrise at about the same time as today, 8:20 a.m. and will back down to 8:02 by the 31st. Sunset times are currently increasing by a minute a day from 5:12 p.m. today to 5:49 at month’s end. Listeners near the shore of Lake Michigan will have about the same sunrise time in Ludington, Interlochen/Traverse City, Petoskey and Mackinaw City, but the sunset times will vary markedly. The Quadrantid meteor shower whose radiant is near the end of the Big Dipper’s handle will reach peak on the 3rd, but it will have interference from the full moon,. On the 4th the Earth will be its closest to the sun of the entire year.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
Monthly Star Chart
Star Chart for January 2015. Created using my LookingUp program.
The Moon is not plotted. The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. That is chart time.
Evening astronomical twilight ends at 6:58 p.m. on January 1st, and increasing to 7:30 p.m. on the 31st.
Morning astronomical twilight starts at 6:34 a.m. on January 1st, and decreasing to 6:22 a.m. on the 31st.
Add a half hour to the chart time every week before the 15th and subtract and hour for every week after the 15th.
For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.
The green pointer from the Big Dipper is the pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper that point to Polaris the North Star.
The Quadrantid meteor shower
The moon will interfere with the meteor shower, so only the brightest will be visible. The radiant will rise from the northeast. The radiant will be nearly overhead at the start of twilight. On a dark night up to 120 meteors per hour may be seen according to the International Meteor Organization.
Quadrantid meteor shower radiant at 1:30 a.m.
The Earth at Perihelion
This is the closest the Earth gets to the Sun in its orbit this year. The Sun will be 91,402,000 miles or 147,096,000 kilometers away at around 1 a.m. January 4th, 2015 EST or 6 hr UT January 5th 2015. It makes winter the shortest season because the Earth is moving its fastest during perihelion. It’s only by a few days. And in northern Michigan where it seems that winter overlaps half of fall and spring besides, that few days difference is buried under snow.
Quasi-conjunction between Venus and Mercury on the evening of January 10th.
A quasi-conjunction. Conjunctions occur when two solar system bodies have the same right ascension. Mercury will get to within 0.6 degrees of Venus before retreating back sun-ward.
Animation of the Quasi-conjunction of Venus and Mercury. Time span 1/05/2015 to 1/15/2015 at 7 p.m. Created by Bob Moler using Stellarium and GIMP.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Here is a finder chart for 9 p.m. for January. Every other position is marked with the month-day and predicted magnitude. Recently the comet has shown to be brighter than predicted by up to one magnitude. Note that magnitudes in astronomy are like golf scores – the lower the number, the brighter the object. So the comet should reach 4th magnitude.
Nightly plot of Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) for the month of January, 2015 at 9 p.m.
Created using Cartes du Ceil (Sky Charts).
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 