Archive
02/14/11 – Ephemeris – Stardust-NExT reaches Comet Tempel 1 tonight
St Valentine’s Day, Monday, February 14th. The sun will rise at 7:44. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 6:09. The moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 5:41 tomorrow morning.
About 11:40 this evening the Stardust spacecraft will pass about 120 miles from comet Tempel 1’s nucleus. It’s happening over 200 million miles away, near Mars’ distance from the sun. The spacecraft will take 72 pictures as it speeds past the comet at over 24,000 miles an hour. By tomorrow morning many of the photographs should be available on the Internet and TV. On Tempel 1’s last approach to Mars’ orbit it was struck bu a big chunk of copper when the Deep Impact spacecraft’s impactor struck the comet’s nucleus. That was July 4th, 2005. This time the Stardust-NExT mission is interested in changes in the comet that have occurred over the orbit, and it’s looking for the crater left by Deep Impact.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
02/11/11 – Ephemeris – The moon will appear near the Pleiades tonight
Friday, February 11th. The sun will rise at 7:48. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 6:05. The moon, at first quarter today, will set at 3:05 tomorrow morning.
Today the moon will pass below the Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster. It does this once a month, but maybe tonight the moon won’t be too bright to completely drown them out. The Pleiades is a relatively nearby star cluster about 440 light years away. It is easily visible to the unaided eye, but not with the bright moon nearby. Binoculars will help bring out the cluster, which may show many more stars. On the moon two of the great features for small telescopes are visible, the wide flat floored crater Plato and the Straight Wall. Plato is visible at the upper part of the moon, while the Straight Wall is below center on the moon as a thin black line. It’s hard to spot for the first time. It is nearly a sheer fault 67 miles long and 900 feet high with a slope of 30 to 40 degrees.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Extra
The Moon near the Pleiades, February 11, 2011 9 p.m. EST. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts)
Lunar crater Plato and the fault Straight Wall
This is not a photograph! Image created using Virtual Moon Atlas by Christian Legrand and Patrick Chevalley. A free program. http://www.ap-i.net/avl/en/start.
Closeup of the Straight Wall
Image also created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
02/10/11 – Ephemeris – The moon near first quarter
Thursday, February 10th. The sun will rise at 7:50. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 6:03. The moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 2:04 tomorrow morning.
The moon is just about first quarter. When it’s out tonight it will be less than 6 hours from the actual moment of first quarter, that is when the moon is at a 90 degree angle from the sun. In a small telescope a neat straight feature will be visible. It is near the northern part of the moon, which is up to the unaided eye or binoculars and usually on the lower part of the moon when viewed in an astronomical telescope. The straight feature is the Alpine Valley which cuts through the lunar Alps. Mountain ranges on the moon are named for earthly mountains, though lunar mountains are usually the rims of lunar seas, which are really large craters. The Alpine valley is 79 miles long and 7 miles wide. It appears to be a fault line.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Extra
Alpine Valley on the moon
This is not a photograph! Image created using Virtual Moon Atlas by Christian Legrand and Patrick Chevalley. A free program. http://www.ap-i.net/avl/en/start.
02/09/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets for this week
Wednesday, February 9th. The sun will rise at 7:51. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 6:02. The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 1:01 tomorrow morning.
Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week. The planet Jupiter is up in the west southwestern sky in the early evening. It is a spectacular sight in a telescope with its four satellites, shifting their positions from night to night, and the cloud bands running in the directions of the satellites. Jupiter is the brightest star-like object in the evening. It’s located left the Circlet in Pisces now and will set at 9:43 p.m. The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 10:44 p.m. in the east southeast and will move due south at 4:29 a.m. Venus is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 5:18 a.m. in the east southeast. Mercury is now too close to the direction of the sun to be seen, as is Mars which is now in the morning sky. It’ll be a few months before it’s visible in the morning.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
02/08/11 – Ephemeris – The lunar crater Theophilus
Tuesday, February 8th. The sun will rise at 7:52. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 6:00. The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 11:58 this evening.
The 5 day old crescent moon reveals to a small telescope, a trio of large craters on the edge of the moon’s terminator or sunrise line. The best of these is on top Theophilus, a perfectly circular 61 mile diameter crater with a prominent central peak. It’s a little late for it tonight but sometimes when the terminator is crossing the crater, the floor is dark and the central peak catches the morning sunlight. Theophilus is a couple of hundred miles south of the Apollo 11 landing site in the Sea of Tranquility, That sea will be completely in sunlight tomorrow night. The moon is a great celestial object to view with that new telescope. It’d big and bright, and relatively easy to find in the telescope. When trying to find an object in the sky always use the lowest power.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
02/07/11 – Ephemeris – The moon appears near Jupiter
Monday, February 7th. The sun will rise at 7:54. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 5:59. The moon, 4 days before first quarter, will set at 10:56 this evening.
The waxing crescent moon will appear near Jupiter in the evening with Jupiter below the moon. Jupiter is slowly leaving the evening sky, setting earlier by about a half an hour a week, while the sun is setting later by 10 minutes a week. These are the last few weeks to get a good view of Jupiter in a telescope before it sinks too close to the horizon for good views. The more of the earth’s atmosphere we have to look through near the horizon the fuzzier Jupiter looks. The moon is coming on and will brighten over the next week and a half. In binoculars the dark spot on the right edge of the moon is the Sea of Crises. In telescopes usually, about this time, a lone mountain peak at one of the moon’s poles catches the sunlight off the cusp of the crescent.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
02/04/11 – Ephemeris – Local astronomy events
Friday, February 4th. The sun will rise at 7:58. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 5:55. The moon, 2 days past new, will set at 7:53 this evening.
A star Bowl quiz will be held this evening between the NMC astronomy club and the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at this evening’s meeting of the society at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. The NMC folks are really smart being in or freshly out of professor Dobek’s astronomy class. We’re going to lose so bad. Come in and watch the carnage annd learn sone cool astronomy facts.. Tomorrow night the groups bury the hatchet and will both host a public viewing night starting at 8 p.m. On tap will be the planet Jupiter early, and the Great Orion Nebula, a place where stars are even now forming.. The observatory is located south of Traverse City on Birmley road between Garfield and Keystone roads.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
02/03/11 – Ephemeris – Spring constellations rising
Thursday, February 3rd. The sun will rise at 7:59. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 5:53. The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 6:51 this evening.
With winter half over, I’m looking forward to spring. The night sky gives us a tantalizing look at some of the spring constellations. Looking to the northeast is the Big Dipper standing on the tip of the handle. However it’s not an official constellation, but the hind ed of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, which is. While the Big Dipper never sets, being close to the north pole of the sky, and the bear mostly is, it is highest in the sky on spring evenings. A line through the bowl of the dipper to the right will arrive at another spring constellation, Leo the lion, rising in the east. Leo has a backward question mark for his head and mane, with the bright star Regulus at the base. Below left is a triangle of stars, his hind end. Check each clear night as Leo rises higher and higher.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
02/02/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets this week
Ground Hog Day, Wednesday, February 2nd. The sun will rise at 8:00. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:52. The moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week. Mars is very near the direction of the sun and will come in conjunction with the sun on Friday. The planet Jupiter is up in the southwestern sky in the early evening. It is a spectacular sight in a telescope with its four satellites, shifting their positions from night to night, and the cloud bands running in the directions of the satellites. Jupiter is the brightest star-like object in the evening. It’s located left the Circlet in Pisces now and will set at 10:03 p.m. The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 11:13 p.m. in the east southeast and will move due south at 4:57 a.m. Venus is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 5:11 a.m. in the east southeast. Mercury is now too close to the direction of the sun to be seen.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
02/01/11 – Ephemeris – The River Eridanus
Tuesday, February 1st. The sun will rise at 8:01. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:51. The moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 7:31 tomorrow morning.
There is a long and sinuous constellation that’s part of the winter sky. It is Eridanus, which depicts a river. The river starts near the lower right corner of Orion, near the bright star Rigel and flows to the right then down near the southern horizon, then it meanders below the horizon. One has to travel to the far southern United States or even farther south to see the southern terminus of the river, the bright star Archernar. Writers over the ages have seen here the Nile and the earth circling river Ocean of the flat earth days. One of its stars is close to us and famous. It’s Epsilon Eridani host to at least two large planets and the fictional home to Mr. Spock and other Vulcans of the Star Trek franchise.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
