Archive
10/24/11 – Ephemeris – The Constellation Aquarius
Monday, October 24th. The sun will rise at 8:09. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 6:43. The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 6:41 tomorrow morning. | One of the constellations of the zodiac is in the south southeastern sky at 9 in the evening. It’s the constellation of Aquarius the water bearer. The image that is supposed to be depicted in the stars is that of a hapless fellow spilling a stone jar of water across the sky. Aquarius is fairly hard to spot because it is made of faint stars. One part of him is easy to spot, the Water Jar, an asterism or informal constellation. It’s a distinctive small nearly equilateral triangle of stars with another star in the center. Stars to the right depict the stream of water being spilled. The body of Aquarius is below, a misshapen balloon of stars that is seen above the bright star Fomalhaut, low in the south.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
Aquarius as visualized by Cartes du Ciel.
Aquarius as visualized by Stellarium
10/20/11 – Ephemeris – The Orionid meteor shower
Thursday, October 20th. The sun will rise at 8:03. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 6:50. The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:40 tomorrow morning. | The Orionid meteor shower will reach its peak tomorrow morning. Like most meteor showers, this is best seen just before dawn. As the name suggests the so-called shooting stars will seem to come from the constellation Orion the hunter. They will appear to come from above the rectangular torso of the giant. These meteors actually have nothing to do with Orion, but they are the light flashes from bits of rock that were once part of Halley’s comet, as they burn up in the earth’s atmosphere. In Halley’s many passes close to the sun, much of its solid material has been liberated by the evaporating gasses, leaving a trail of litter in its orbit. The earth passes through this debris every May and now, in October.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Orionid Radiant
10/18/11 – Ephemeris – The Pleiades or Seven Sisters
Tuesday, October 18th. The sun will rise at 8:01. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 6:53. The moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 11:25 this evening. | A marvelous member of the autumn skies can be found rising in the east at 9 in the evening. It is the famous star cluster called the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. I might also add the ‘Tiny Dipper’. Many people can spot a tiny dipper shape in its six or seven stars, and mistake it for the Little Dipper. As nearsighted as I am, though corrected, I’ve never been able to see more than a few stars and a bit of fuzz. However with binoculars, even I can see over a hundred stars appear along with the dipper shape of the brightest. The fuzz I saw was unresolved stars, but in photographs the Pleiades actually contains remnant wisps of the gaseous cocoon they were born from a hundred million years ago. In Greek mythology the sisters were daughters of the god Atlas.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Pleiades, about what you'd see in binoculars.
10/17/11 – Ephemeris – The constellation of Cassiopeia
Monday, October 17th. The sun will rise at 7:59. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 6:55. The moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 10:25 this evening. | The stars of the autumn skies are replacing the summer stars from the east. Look in the northeastern sky by 9 p.m. and you can find the W shaped constellation of Cassiopeia the queen. Cassiopeia is so far north that it never sets for us in Michigan. It is opposite the pole star Polaris from the Big Dipper. There’s a dim star that appears above the middle star of the W which turns the W into a very crooked backed chair. Above and left of Cassiopeia is a dim upside down church steeple shaped constellation of Cepheus the king. The Milky Way flows through a corner of Cepheus and Cassiopeia toward the northeastern horizon and through the constellation of Perseus the hero, which kind of looks, to me, like a chicken, but that’s another story.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The constellation Cassiopeia and its neighbors. Created using Stellarium.
10/13/11 – Ephemeris – Jupiter viewing tips
Thursday, October 13th. The sun will rise at 7:54. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 7 minutes, setting at 7:01. The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 7:29 this evening.
Jupiter is now rising before 8 p.m. in the east northeast. You’ll have to wait a couple of hours after it rises for good telescopic views of it. That was my problem in my youth with my first telescope. I was viewing Jupiter low on the horizon when it was just coming into the evening sky. I just couldn’t wait until it rose higher. The thick atmosphere of the earth I was looking through to see Jupiter washed out the planetary details of its cloud bands and Great Red Spot. So wait for later in the evening or wait a month or so until Jupiter is higher in the sky to get the best views of Jupiter in a telescope. Jupiter will be closest to the earth on the 29th of this month when it will be in opposition from the sun, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise.
10/10/11 – Ephemeris – What happened with the Draconids last Saturday?
Columbus Day (observed), Monday, October 10th. The sun will rise at 7:51. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 7:07. The moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:31 tomorrow morning.
Last Saturday nights International Observe the Moon Night coincided with the Draconid meteor shower. The Draconids are a periodic shower, not good most years, and when they do appear the shower, or rather meteor storm doesn’t last very long. The bright moon didn’t help, and the peak was predicted to occur in the afternoon our time. The meteors did appears, and right on time, too early for us to have seen it. The best way to detect them with a bright moon is with radio. And using that technique the estimated the peak of Draconid meteors was over 200 per hour. The responsible comet, Giacobini-Zinner, will pass our orbit next February, and may give us a chance to spot the Draconids in darker skies next year.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
10/06/11 – Ephemeris – The Draconid meteor shower
Thursday, October 6th. The sun will rise at 7:46. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 7:14. The moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 3:26 tomorrow morning.
This weekend astronomers expect the meteor shower called the Draconids. This is a periodic shower which is active about once every six years. That is because it is related to a short period comet called Giacobini-Zinner. It was discovered in 1900 by the two named astronomers. Its orbit stretches from the earth’s orbit to somewhat past Jupiter’s. When the comet passes near the earth’s orbit we pass through a cloud of its debris when we get to that same spot. Giacobini-Zinner will do so next February. The comet’s nucleus is estimated to be a bit more than a mile in diameter. The Draconid meteors will appear to come from north of the bright star Vega, which is a bit west of overhead at 9 in the evening.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Draconid Meteor Shower Radiant
10/05/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets visible this week
Wednesday, October 5th. The sun will rise at 7:44. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 7:16. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:21 tomorrow morning.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets. The planet Venus is rather close to the sun in the evening setting 34 minutes after the sun and not really visible. The ringed planet Saturn also hidden in the bright twilight is setting 29 minutes after the sun. Jupiter is now the prominent planet of the evening sky after it rises at 8:15 p.m. in the east northeast and is seen against the stars of the constellation Aries. In a telescope it will be accompanied by its 4 brightest moons, and as the planet rises higher Jupiter’s image becomes sharper, and its cloud bands will become visible. Mars will rise at 2:14 a.m also in the east northeast and is entering the constellation of Cancer.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
10/03/11 – Ephemeris – More celestial events for this month
Monday, October 3rd. The sun will rise at 7:42. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 37 minutes, setting at 7:19. The moon, at first quarter today, will set at 12:10 tomorrow morning.
We have more celestial happenings this month than I could enumerate last Friday. Later on Saturday evening, if it’s clear the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will join with astronomy groups, planetariums and observatories with International Observe the Moon Night with telescopes positioned on the 200 block east Front Street in Traverse City, near the Martinek clock. Going on that same evening will be the return of the Draconid meteor shower. Its a favorable return of a periodic shower but interferes with by the bright moon. However some bright meteors will be seen. I’ll have more information and background Thursday. Another meteor shower later this month will be the Orionids a morning shower related to Halley’s Comet.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
09/27/11 – Ephemeris – The constellation of Capricornus
Tuesday, September 27th. The sun will rise at 7:35. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 7:30. The moon is new today, and won’t be visible.
As the Teapot of the constellation Sagittarius tilts and pours celestial tea on the southwestern horizon, it is followed in the south by the faint constellation of Capricornus the sea goat. I’m not sure you’ll see a half goat with a fish’s tail here unless you’ve started Oktoberfest a bit early. To me, it looks like a big sagging triangle with the point down. Capricornus is a constellation of the zodiac, and its claim to fame is a latitude line on the globe at 23 and a half degrees south, called the Tropic of Capricorn. Back a couple of thousand years ago the sun entered Capricornus on the first day of winter, the winter solstice. Thus the latitude where the sun is overhead at that instant was called the Tropic of Capricorn. Due to the wobble of the earth’s axis, the line should be called the Tropic of Sagittarius.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Capricornus as represented in Cartes du Ciel
Capricornus as represented in Stellarium
