Archive
12/06/10 – Ephemeris – The Pleiades in mythology
Monday, December 6th. The sun will rise at 8:04. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 5:02. The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 5:55 this evening.
Visible in the east in the evening sky can be spotted a small group of stars. It’s called the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. The Pleiades are really spectacular when seen in binoculars. It is remarkable that both the Greeks and the American Plains Indians saw this group as female stars fleeing from danger. In the former case they were fleeing the constellation Orion the giant hunter of the winter sky who is nearer the eastern horizon, and in the latter case a giant bear. Legend has it that the maidens fled to the top of Devils Tower in Wyoming. It’s said that the claw marks of this bear are seen in the walls of the tower. The maidens were then spirited from the top of the tower to the heavens, where we see them today. Whichever story you like the Pleiades is worth searching for.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/03/10 – Ephemeris – GTAS program: In Search for the Star of Bethlehem
Friday, December 3rd. The sun will rise at 8:01. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 1 minute, setting at 5:03. The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 7:00 tomorrow morning.
The Search for the Star of Bethlehem, will be presented at this evening’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory starting at 8 p.m. This is my generally biennial presentation. We’ll check out the Biblical passages that mention the star, Johannes Kepler’s discovery that started the search some 1600 years later, ancient Chinese records, ancient writers all contribute to the evidence. Thanks to Kepler, Newton, Einstein and others plus the power of today’s computers and software we can go back and see the skies, and computer generated recreations of planet positions to see what the star might have been. The observatory’s located south of Traverse City on Birmley Road.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/02/10 – Ephemeris – The constellation of Auriga the Charioteer2
Thursday, December 2nd. The sun will rise at 8:00. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 3 minutes, setting at 5:03. The moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 5:47 tomorrow morning.
The constellation Auriga the charioteer is half way up the sky in the east at 9 p.m. It is a pentagon of stars, with the brilliant star Capella at one of its corners. Capella represents a she goat he’s carrying. A narrow triangle of stars nearby Capella is her kids. The Kids is an informal constellation or asterism. Within and near that pentagon, binoculars and telescopes will find several star clusters, groups of hundreds of stars born in the clump we still see them in. These star clusters will appear as fuzzy spots in binoculars. One called M38 is near the center of the pentagon. Another, M36 is to the east of it. Still another star cluster, M37, is farther east, just outside the pentagon. The M designations come from Charles Messier who 2 centuries ago ran into them while looking for comets.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/01/10 – Ephemeris – This Week’s Bright Planets
Wednesday, December 1st. The sun will rise at 7:59. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 4 minutes, setting at 5:03. The moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 4:32 tomorrow morning.
Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week. Mars is very low and lost in the evening twilight as is Mercury. The planet Jupiter is up in the southern sky in the early evening. It is a spectacular sight in a telescope with its four satellites, shifting their positions, and the cloud bands running in the directions of the satellites. Jupiter will move due south at 7:39 p.m.. It is the brightest starlight object in the evening. It’s located below the Circlet in Pisces now and will set at 1:26 a.m. The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 3:08 a.m. in the east southeast. It’s located in the constellation Virgo this year. It’s rings are opening nicely for telescopic observers. Venus is in the morning sky and will rise at 4:36 a.m. in the east southeast.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
11/30/10 – Ephemeris – December Preview
Tuesday, November 30th. The sun will rise at 7:58. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 6 minutes, setting at 5:04. The moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:16 tomorrow morning.
Let’s preview December’s skies. Winter will officially arrive on the 21st at 6:38 p.m., the winter solstice. The noontime sun will dip from 23 ½ degrees to a bit less than 22 degrees above the southern horizon on that day. There will be little movement in the sunset times: In the Traverse City/Interlochen area this will be from 5:03 tomorrow, down to 5:02 and then advancing to 5:11 at the end of the month. There is more movement in the sunrise times which will advance from 7:59 tomorrow morning to 8:19 on the 31st. The big events in December will be the Geminid meteor shower whose maximum is on the morning of the 14th, and a total lunar eclipse that will be visible on the morning of the 21st.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
11/29/10 – Ephemeris – The constellation Orion
Monday, November 29th. The sun will rise at 7:56. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 7 minutes, setting at 5:04. The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 2:01 tomorrow morning.
The central constellation of winter, Orion the hunter, is low in the east southeastern sky at 9 p.m. Look for the line of three stars that is his belt aligned nearly vertically. Orion’s rectangular frame is tilted to the left with his shoulder stars Betelgeuse, in the upper left and Bellatrix, and his knee stars Saif and Rigel to the lower right. Red Betelgeuse and blue-white Rigel vie for the brightest of Orion’s stars. It is a never ending contest, because Betelgeuse is a variable star, and is usually somewhat dimmer than Rigel. They make a nice color contrast. From Betelgeuse extend stars that portray an arm holding a club. From Bellatrix extend stars to the right that delineate an arm holding up a shield to ward off the charge of Taurus the Bull.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
11/26/10 – The constellation Taurus
Friday, November 26th. The sun will rise at 7:53. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 12 minutes, setting at 5:06. The moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 10:18 this evening.
Low in the east southeast at 9 p.m. is the constellation of the giant hunter Orion. Above him is Taurus the bull. His face is a letter V shape of stars lying on its side, the star cluster Hyades, with the bright orange-red star Aldebaran at one tip of the V as its angry blood-shot eye, but actually about half way between us and the cluster. Orion is depicted in the sky facing, with club in one hand and a shield in the other, the approaching and in some depictions charging Taurus. The Pleiades star cluster is in his shoulder. Taurus in Greek mythology was the guise the god Zeus when he carried off the maiden Europa. Europa’s still with him as the intriguing satellite orbiting Zeus’ Roman equivalent the planet Jupiter.
* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.
11/25/10 – Ephemeris – The constellation Andromeda
Thanksgiving Day (US), Thursday, November 25th. The sun will rise at 7:52. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 5:06. The moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 9:04 this evening.
In the south at 9 this evening can be found a large square of stars, the Great Square of Pegasus the flying horse, flying upside down to the right. What look like its hind legs stretching to the left from the upper left corner star is another constellation, Andromeda the chained maiden. She is seen in the sky as two diverging curved strings of stars that curve upward. She was rescued by the hero Perseus, a nearby constellation, riding his steed Pegasus. Andromeda’s claim to astronomical fame is the large galaxy seen with the unaided eye just above the upper line of stars. The Great Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light years away. To the unaided eye the galaxy appears as a small smudge of light. In binoculars the galaxy is a delicate spindle of light.
* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.
11/24/10 – Ephemeris – This week’s bright planets
Wednesday, November 24th. The sun will rise at 7:50. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 5:07. The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 7:52 this evening.
Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week. Mars is very low and lost in the evening twilight as is Mercury. The planet Jupiter is up in the southern sky in the early evening. It is a spectacular sight in a telescope with its four satellites, shifting their positions, and the cloud bands running in the directions of the satellites. Jupiter will move due south at 8:05 p.m.. It is the brightest starlight object in the sky. It’s located in Pisces this year and will set at 1:52 a.m. The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 3:32 a.m. in the east southeast. It’s located in the constellation Virgo this year. It’s rings are opening nicely for telescopic observers. Venus is in the morning sky and will rise at 4:51 a.m. in the east southeast.
* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.
11/23/10 – Ephemeris – Hyabusa returns bits of Itokawa
Tuesday, November 23rd. The sun will rise at 7:49. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 18 minutes, setting at 5:07. The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 6:45 this evening.
The Japanese announced last week that the Hyabusa sample container that landed in June after visiting the asteroid Itokawa contained 1,500 minute asteroid particles in the empty looking container. The inside of the container was carefully scraped with a special spatula and came up with bits of the asteroid. The Itokawa asteroid had been studied from earth and had been determined to be a stony asteroid, what they call a type S. The two minerals found were olivine and pyroxene Olivine is common on the earth, moon, meteorites and two of the comets we’ve visited. Pyroxene is common to on the earth and meteorites. Samples of the area where the capsule landed were taken to rule out contamination.
* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.
