09/12/2014 – Ephemeris – There’s a star party tomorrow night at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Ephemeris for Friday, September 12th. The sun will rise at 7:17. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 40 minutes, setting at 7:58. The moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 10:08 this evening.
Tomorrow night will be the last of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore held on Saturday by the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society for the year. Never fear the GTAS has three more events planned in October: a lunar eclipse on the 8th, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore’s 44th anniversary star party on the 21st, and a partial solar eclipse at sunset on the 23rd. Saturday’s event will be held at the Dune Climb starting around 9 p.m., and the featured attractions will be the wonders of the summer Milky Way. These are star clusters and nebulae or clouds of gas, some expelled by dying stars and others where new stars are being born. The Dune observing events will be canceled if completely overcast or rain.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS) is available to host sun and star parties around the Grand Traverse Area. Below are photos from two recent visits to the Betsie Valley District Library in Thompsonville, MI. First an evening visit inauguration of their new library building, and a daytime visit for the youngster’s reading program. The photos courtesy of Librarian Michelle Guerra and her staff. Contact the society via email at info@gtastro.org.
He just saw Jupiter through the GTAS 25″ telescope.
What’s in this telescope? (A really small Jupiter.)
A crowd gathers to view Saturn and Jupiter.
During both the evening and the daytime visits I take the folks through the sky using Stellarium pointing the constellations and telling their stories.
GTAS member Gary Carlisle shows the Sun through his telescope.
GTAS member Richard Kuschell shows his meteorite collection. Always a hit.
Here I am showing the kids how a telescope works.
Using a telescope solar filter to show how small the sun looks.
09/11/2014 – Ephemeris – The waning gibbous moon and a strange double crater
Ephemeris for Thursday, September 11th. The sun will rise at 7:16. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 8:00. The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 9:30 this evening.
It might be about 10 p.m. before the moon gets high enough to appreciate with a small telescope. The terminator running across the moon is the sunset line. It has gobbled most of the little round Sea of Crises at the upper right of the moon. The Sea of Fertility just below it has two distinctive small craters in it with two parallel streaks of ejecta emanating from the one farthest from the terminator. No one knows exactly what happened here, but it appears that a binary asteroid struck the moon at a low angle coming from the direction of the terminator and gouged out the two small craters, which are elongated in the direction of the streaks. The crater names are Messier and Messier A, named after the French astronomer who cataloged some of the brightest interstellar objects.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The gibbous Moon at 9 p.m. September 11, 2014. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
Closeup of Messier (right) and Messier A with the twin ejecta streaks. Credit: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter via Virtual Moon Atlas.
These craters were named for the 18th century astronomer Charles Messier whose famous catalog of deep sky objects is a who’s who of the brightest star clusters, nebulae and galaxies for the amateur astronomer. For instance M22 is not only a scenic state road in Michigan, but a beautiful bright globular star cluster in the constellation of Sagittarius. To Messier the objects on his list were a quick check of objects to ignore. He was looking for comets at the Paris Observatory. He found 12 of them.
09/10/2014 – Ephemeris – Where are the bright planets this week?
Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 10th. The sun will rise at 7:15. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 8:02. The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 8:54 this evening.
Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. Mars and Saturn are now nearly side by side with Saturn to the right by 10 degrees, about the width of your fist held at arm’s length. Saturn will set at 10:30 p.m. Saturn in a telescope will suffer because it’s getting close to the horizon but it’s still possible to see those rings and its large moon Titan. Reddish Mars is leaving Saturn in the dusk, leaving Libra, where Saturn is and will be entering Scorpius on Saturday. Mars will set at 10:38 p.m., 8 minutes after Saturn. In the morning sky brilliant Jupiter will rise in the east-northeast at 4:04 a.m., while the brighter Venus, will rise at 6:14 a.m. Jupiter is increasing its distance from the sun, while Venus is retreating toward the Sun from our point of view.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Saturn and Mars with the evening summer constellations at 9:30 p.m. September 10, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn through the telescope at 9:30 p.m. September 10, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and Venus with the Winter constellations at 6:30 a.m. September 11, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic view of Jupiter and its 4 Galilean moons at 6:30 a.m. on September 11, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
The waning gibbous Moon at 6:30 a.m. September 11, 2014. Created using Stellarium. Tomorrow the program will be about the moon and its features that will be visible late in the evening. The terminator will advance by a small bit between tomorrow morning and tomorrow evening.
09/09/2014 – Ephemeris – Our address in the universe just changed
Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 9th. The sun will rise at 7:14. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 8:04. The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 8:19 this evening.
Two and a half years ago my wife and I took a week-long cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. I always said I’d go back in a minute. Well, now maybe I and you are already there… in spirit, anyway. Astronomers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the University of Hawai’i announced the pinning down the dimensions of the local supercluster of galaxies containing over 100 quadrillion stars spread over a diameter of more than 500 million light years that they have dubbed Laniakea which in Hawaiian means “immense heaven”. The lead researcher was R. Brent Tully of the University of Hawai’i. Also participating were two astronomers from France and one from Hebrew University. So your ultimate address is: your address, City, State, Country, Earth, Solar System, Orion spiral arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Laniakea supercluster, Universe, and maybe Multiverse.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Bad Astronomer’s take on Laniakea.
Some videos illustrating Laniakea supercluster:
A 3D view
09/08/2014 – Ephemeris – There’s a super Harvest Moon tonight!
Ephemeris for Monday, September 8th. The sun will rise at 7:13. It’ll be up for 12 hours and 53 minutes, setting at 8:06. The moon, at full today, will rise at 7:44 this evening.
Tonight’s full moon is the Harvest Moon, being the closest full moon to the autumnal equinox. It’s about the earliest Harvest Moon on can get in the year, occurring 14 days before the equinox because the moon’s cycle is 29 ½ days, and the autumnal equinox falls on the 22nd not the 23rd as usual. On top of that it’s another supermoon. Perigee or the Moon’s closest approach to the Earth of the month occurred yesterday. We were all oblivious to the fact until some astrologer wrote about it a few years ago. It’s nice to know. Actually there’s a supermoon every month but it only nearly coincides with the full moon one to three times a year at consecutive full moons. Trouble is the Moon always appears bigger near the horizon. It’s an illusion.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
See here for last month’s discussion about the supermoon.
09/05/2014 – Ephemeris – Supernovae and the Moon this weekend
Ephemeris for Friday, September 5th. The sun will rise at 7:09. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 8:11. The moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 4:07 tomorrow morning.
Tonight the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will hold their monthly meeting at he Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory at 8 p.m. featuring Dr. David Penney, who will talk about Supernovae, the brightest, at optical wavelengths anyway explosions in the universe. These will either completely destroy a star or leave a neutron star or black hole remnant. At 9 p.m. there will be a star party featuring the Moon, Saturn and Mars. The observatory is located on Birmley road. On Saturday the society will celebrate International Observe the Moon Night with telescopes set up on the 200 block of Front street in Traverse City. That event starts around 9 p.m., but only if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Remnant of SN1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 160,000 light years away taken by the Hubble telescope’s WFPC2 camera on three occasions in 1994 and 1995. The outer rings are light echos of the explosions ionizing clouds ejected thousands of years before. Credit NASA.
Supernova 2014J in nearby galaxy M82, 12 million light years away. Credit NASA/Swift/P. Brown, TAMU.
09/04/2014 – Ephemeris – Saturday is International Observe the Moon Night
Ephemeris for Thursday, September 4th. The sun will rise at 7:08. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 8:13. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:56 tomorrow morning.
This Saturday the 6th is International Observe the Moon Night and while some of us amateur astronomers consider it as a big street light we can’t get away from. It does have a hold on most of the rest of the population. It is our closest celestial body and the only one we’ve set foot on. It contains the answers to the creation of the Earth as we know it today. Humankind’s impact on the moon isn’t visible from the Earth, so puny his attempts, so the Moon appears as pristine as it did to Galileo, who first studied it with his telescope. Members of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will set up their telescopes on the sidewalk on the north side of he 200 block of Front Street near the Martinek clock. And will start showing the Moon to all comers after 9 p.m. but only if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Here’s a link to the InOMN’s annotated Moon map (pdf) for Saturday.
Here’s a link to the InOMN’s home page. Expand the global map on the page for the location of the event nearest to you.
09/03/2014 – Ephemeris – This week’s bright planets
Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 3rd. The sun will rise at 7:07. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 8:15. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 1:50 tomorrow morning.
Let’s take our weekly look at the bright planets. Mars and Saturn are now nearly side by side with Saturn to the right by six and a half degrees of about 13 moon widths of the red planet. Saturn will set at 10:57 p.m. Viewing Saturn with a telescope will suffer because it’s getting close to the horizon but it’s still possible to see those fabulous rings and its large moon Titan. Reddish Mars is also in the constellation of Libra the scales and will set at 10:52 p.m. because it is slightly lower than Saturn. In the morning sky brilliant Jupiter will rise in the east-northeast at 4:24 a.m., while the brighter Venus, will rise at 5:53 a.m. Jupiter is increasing its distance from the sun, while Venus is retreating toward the Sun from our point of view.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Saturn, Mars and the Moon at 9:30 p.m. September 3, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Saturn through the telescope at 9:30 p.m. September 3, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
The Moon through binoculars at 9:30 p.m. September 3, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter, Venus and the rising stars of winter at 6:30 a.m. September 4, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Jupiter and moons through the telescope at 6:30 a.m. September 4, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
09/02/2014 – Ephemeris – Viewing the first quarter Moon
Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 2nd. The sun will rise at 7:06. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 8:17. The moon, at first quarter today, will set at 12:52 tomorrow morning.
Tonight on the moon there are some very prominent craters on the terminator or sunrise line that’s cutting the moon in half. From the top or north of the moon there’s Plato, which is also called a ringed plain because it has a flat floor. South of there is Eratosthenes, at the end of the arc of the Apennines mountain chain. At the south or bottom end of the moon are two other of my favorite craters. First is the crater Tycho, that doesn’t look spectacular now, but will when the Moon is full with its rays of ejecta crossing a long way across the face of the moon. A little bit farther south, partially entering sunlight is the large crater Clavius. On my blog, bobmoler.wordpress.com, I’ll illustrate what the Moon’s image looks like in different types of telescopes.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
The Moon tonight at 9 p.m. (September, 2, 2014). Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
Image orientation in telescopes
The orientation of what one sees in an astronomical telescope depends on the type of telescope and the placement of the eyepiece. The orientations shown are for observers in the northern hemisphere. For the images below the moon shown is due south.
The orientation of the Moon as seen with the naked eye, binoculars, spotting scopes and telescopes with an erecting eyepiece.
The orientation of the Moon as seen in a refractor or a Schmidt-Cassigrain or similar type reflector with a diagonal at the eyepiece end, and the eyepiece pointing up. This is a mirror image due to an odd number of mirror reflections in the telescope.
The orientation of the Moon as seen with a refractor or Schmidt-Cassigrain and diagonal with the eyepiece oriented horizontally. It is a n inverted mirror image.
The orientation of the moon through a Newtonian reflector or a refractor without an eyepiece diagonal. It is an inverted image, an image rotated 180 degrees.
For southern hemisphere observers for these images to work the moon would be due north and all the images would have to be upside down.
Correction 09/02/2014 11:07 p.m.
All images created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
09/01/2014 – Ephemeris – Previewing the month of September
Ephemeris for Labor Day, Monday, September 1st. The sun will rise at 7:04. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 8:19. The moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 12:02 tomorrow morning.
Let’s look at the skies for the month of September. The sun will moving at its greatest speed in its retreat to the south. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 13 hours and 14 minutes today to 11 hours 45 minutes on the 30th. The altitude of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be 54 degrees today, and will descend to 42 degrees on the 30th. The season of summer is getting short, so enjoy it while you can. Summer ends and autumn begins at 10:30 p.m. on September 22nd. Saturn is retreating toward the sun now. Mars is pushing on eastward. On the 27th Mars will be north of the star Antares. It will be a good time to compare their colors.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
September star chart for 10 p.m. on September 15, 2014. Created by my LookingUp program.
The Moon is not plotted. The planets are plotted for the 15th. Mars will move eastward through the month and will approach Saturn.
Astronomical twilight ends at 10:05 p.m. on September 1st, decreasing to 9:01 on the 30th.
Add a half hour to every week before the 15th and subtract and hour for every week after the 15th.
For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.
Also shown is the Summer Triangle in red. Clockwise from the top star is Deneb in Cygnus, Vega in Lyra and Altair in Aquila.
The green pointers from the Big Dipper are:
- Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.
- The arc of the dipper’s handle points to Arcturus.
