Archive
9/17/10 – Ephemeris – observing events including International Observe The Moon Night
September 17: This is Ephemeris for Friday, September 17th.* The sun will rise at 7:23. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 7:49. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:41 tomorrow morning.
Tonight the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will host a public viewing night at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory starting at 9 p.m. On tap will be the moon, and the planets Jupiter and Uranus which will appear near Jupiter. The observatory is located south of Traverse City, on Birmley Road between Garfield and Keystone roads. Tomorrow, being International Observe the Moon Night, the society will bring its and its members telescopes to the Clinch Park Marina to view the moon. That is, only if it’s clear. The start time for that event will be 8 p.m. The waxing moon is leading up to the Harvest Moon which will occur only a bit more than 6 hours after the official beginning of autumn.
*Times are for the Grand Traverse Area of Northern Michigan, USA.
9/16/10 – Ephemeris – the moon
September 16: This is Ephemeris for Thursday, September 16th.* The sun will rise at 7:22. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 28 minutes, setting at 7:51. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:38 tomorrow morning.
We’re looking at the moon this week leading up to International Observe the Moon Night Saturday night. We’ll have some telescopes at the Clinch Park Marina Saturday if it’s clear. The moon tonight is special for those with telescopes. With lots of features that will be revealed by the moon’s sunrise terminator, the sunrise line of the east edge of the visible part of the moon. Starting at the north or top of the moon is the strange square crater Barrow. Below that is the ringed plane, the crater Plato. It’s cool watching the shadows of the crater walls recede as the sun rises. There’s a gash in the mountains nearby called the Alpine Valley. On the southern half of the moon there’s a thin line of a shadow, the straight wall a 900 foot high and 67 mile long cliff.
*Times are for the Grand Traverse Area of Northern Michigan, USA.
Moon 1 day past first quarter. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
Is crater Barrow really square? You be the judge.
Overhead view of the crater Barrow. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
9/14/10 – Ephemeris – the moon
September 14: This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 14th.* The sun will rise at 7:20. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 7:55. The moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 11:38 this evening. | We’re looking at the moon this week leading up to International Observe the Moon Night Saturday night. We’ll have some telescopes at the Clinch Park Marina Saturday if it’s clear. The moon, even to the unaided eye shows bright and dark areas. The largest bright area to the bottom or south part of the moon is the highlands, a rugged area saturated with craters. The dark areas are generally nearly circular and flat with few craters. These are the maria which is Latin for seas. Which early telescopic viewers thought were really water filled. The seas are gigantic impact basins created by asteroids impacting the moon and their floors are filled with lava from the moon’s interior. They have relatively few craters that occurred later on.
*Times are for the Grand Traverse Area of Northern Michigan, USA.
Moon 1 day before first quarter. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
9/13/10 – Ephemeris – the moon
September 13: This is Ephemeris for Monday, September 13th*. The sun will rise at 7:18. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 37 minutes, setting at 7:56. The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:46 this evening. | We’re going to look at the moon this week leading up to International Observe the Moon Night Saturday night. We’ll have some telescopes at the Clinch Park Marina Saturday if it’s clear. Looking at the moon tonight in binoculars or a small telescope you can see gray areas of the Sea of Crises nearest the bright edge, the Sea of Fertility and toward the center the Sea of Tranquility, where the Apollo 11 astronauts landed. Looking south near the terminator, the line between light and dark on the moon are three prominent craters in a seeming chain. The most prominent is Theophilus with a nice central peak, If you’re interested in a computer based moon map google “Virtual Moon Atlas” for a free download. It allows you to move around the moon, has a wealth of facts and images too.
*Times are for the Grand Traverse Area of Northern Michigan, USA.
Update:
The moon 2 days before first quarter. Image produced using Virtual Moon Atlas
International Observe the Moon Night 9/18/10
The Sidewalk Astronomers of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be observing the moon Saturday night September 18th starting at 8 p.m. near the Clinch Park Marina in Traverse City, MI. This is part of the International Observe The Moon Night.
The moon on the evening of September 18, 2010
A Few Points of Interest
A – Sunrise at Sinus Iridium (Bay of Rainbows)
B – The ringed plain Plato
C – Watch for wrinkle ridges in Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers)
D – The crater Copernicus
E – The crater Tycho and its moon girdling rays.
F – The crater Clavius. Notice the ring of craterlets inside
G – The crater Barrow, a nearly square crater.
Also occurring that night is a conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus. And on Jupiter the Great Red Spot will be centrally located.
We’ll be there if it’s clear or partly cloudy.
We’ll be hanging out at the Grass River Natural Area for the Perseids
On the evening of August 12th, 2010 and morning of the 13th the GTAS Sidewalk astronomers will be at Antrim County’s Grass River Nature Area to view the Perseid Meteor Shower and other wonders of the dark skies. Should it be cloudy we’ll do it on the evening of the 13th. Here’s the blurb I put on the GTAS web site:
Grass River Natural Area: at dusk. Perseid meteor shower. Cloud or rain date the 13th. Location North of Alden on Alden Road. Click here for a Mapquest map. Foe GPS devices use the address 6500 Alden Hwy, Bellaire, MI 49615. Park in the parking lot a ways in. Walk the authorized vehicles road or Cabin Trail to a small meadow. There’s also horizon to horizon viewing at the Dock Access Trail or the Sedge Meadow Trail. Keep on the board walk because the ground is spongy.. We’ll also have telescopes at the meadow. Bring your favorite mosquito repellent. The Grass River Natural Area web site is http://www.grassriver.org
Worlds in Collusion
There’s is a planet grouping that will happen starting this weekend. Look west, young astronomer. Mars will pass Saturn on Sunday August 1st. Venus will in turn pass Saturn on the 9th. And finally Venus will catch up to speedy Mars on the 23rd. Through this, keep an eye on Venus. The first event will take place just left of Venus.
Of course these planets aren’t gathering at all. Venus is closer than the sun, Mars farther than the sun, and Saturn nearly a billion miles from us. They’re just kinda lining up with the earth at one end.
