Archive
09/05/11 – Ephemeris – Mercury is visible in the morning
Labor Day, Monday, September 5th. The sun will rise at 7:09. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 8:12. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:13 tomorrow morning.
The planet Mercury is now very low in the eastern sky before sunrise. This tiny planet was at its greatest apparent distance from the sun yesterday. Astronomers call it greatest elongation and its separation from the sun was an 18 degree angle. Mercury will be very close to the east northeast horizon in the 6:30 a.m. twilight. Once found, you can probably follow it for the next 20 minutes or so. Mercury will be visible for the next week of so. The cool thing is that it will become brighter. It’s illuminated by the sun, and as it moves away from us around the sun its phase or illuminated portion from our vantage point becomes larger. Currently Mercury is being studied up close by the MESSENGER spacecraft now orbiting it.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Mercury in the morning in early September 2011. Chrat created using Stellarium.
08/16/11 – Ephemeris – Solar conjunctions today of Mercury and Venus
Tuesday, August 16th. The sun rises at 6:45. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 0 minutes, setting at 8:46. The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 9:38 this evening.
Today we have an interesting coincidence. Both Venus and Mercury will be in conjunction with the sun. Astrologers may make a big deal out of it but this time astronomers won’t. A conjunction means that two solar system bodies are just north and south of each other. At 8:07 this morning Venus will be just north of the sun in superior conjunction. That is it is beyond the sun. And at 9:03 this evening Mercury will be somewhat south of the sun in inferior conjunction. Thai is it is between the earth and the sun. Mercury will be going into our morning sky, while Venus will begin to appear in the evening sky later this fall. But the coolest thing of all will be Venus’ next inferior conjunction June 6th, 2012. It will cross the face of the sun in a rare transit.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
MESSENGER’s in orbit of Mercury!
Just like clockwork! I’m looking for a year of new discoveries about this nearest planet to the sun.
They’re tweeting at http://www.twitter.com/messenger2011.
MESSENGER’s web site is at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/.
NASA’s MESSENGER page is at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/.
03/17/11 – Ephemeris – MESSENGER spacecraft arrives at Mercury tonight
Ephemeris for St. Patrick’s Day, Thursday, March 17th. The sun will rise at 7:51. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 7:50. The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:48 tomorrow morning.
This evening the MESSENGER Spacecraft will fire its main engine for 15 minutes to put itself in orbit of the planet Mercury. The rocket firing will be at 8:45 this evening. Due to light time delays caused by Mercury being 97 million miles away, we won’t know if the rocket fired until 8:54. While its high gain antenna won’t be pointed at earth, we should get a signal from its omni- directional antenna. We did get a signal from Cassini with its orbital insertion of Saturn in 2004, and that was nearly a billion miles away. I don’t know if NASA TV’s covering the insertion live, but Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is having a live webcast. Google “messenger mercury live orbital insertion” It was the first hit. I’ll have the address on the blog. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_orbit.html
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 