11/12/2013 – Ephemeris – Not one but four comets grace the morning sky now
Ephemeris for Tuesday, November 12th. The sun will rise at 7:35. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 42 minutes, setting at 5:17. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 3:19 tomorrow morning.
Comet ISON has competition in the morning sky now. There are actually three other comets within range of telescopes gracing our morning sky now. Comet ISON is still not brightening as predicted. It is still 2 to 3 times dimmer than predicted. Comet Encke is still brighter, Comet C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) discovered two months ago is almost as bright as ISON. It’s moving between Cancer and Leo now. C/2012 X1 (LINEAR) is the faintest of the four and a tough one to spot. It will appear to pass the bright star Arcturus a week from now. I’ll have finder charts for all these comets at bobmoler.wordpress.com with today’s transcript. Apparently the nucleus of ISON is still holding together.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
This is a busy chart with Comets ISON and Encke and Mercury for the period November 13th through 19th of November 2013 at 6 a.m. Created using Carts du Ciel.
Note that the star designated α is Spica, Alpha Virginis.
Comet Lovejoy and the constellation Leo for November 13th through 19th, 2013 at 6 a.m. Created using Cartes du Ciel.
Comet LINEAR track for November 13th through 19th 2013. Created using Cartes du Ciel.
The star designated α is Arcturus or Alpha Boötis. The brightest star is Boötes. Remember follow the arc of the Big Dipper handle to Arcturus.
The following are the latest magnitudes (brightnesses) recorded for these comets:
Comet Magnitude C/2012 S1 (ISON) 8 (1 magnitude dimmer than predicted) P2 (Encke) 8 C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) 6 (2.5 magnitudes brighter than predicted) C/2012 X1 (LINEAR) 8 (5 magnitudes* brighter than predicted) * 5 magnitudes brighter = 100 times brighter! Source is http://www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/CometMags.html. Search page using the C/???? ?? instead of name. Comets Lovejoy and LINEAR have multiple entries.
11/11/2013 – Ephemeris – D-Day and the moon
Ephemeris for Veteran’s Day, Monday, November 11th. The sun will rise at 7:34. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 5:18. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:12 tomorrow morning.
Veterans’ day used to be called Armistice Day, celebrating the end of War to End All Wars. There was, of course a great war after that, and its greatest battle was the invasion on D-Day, a date governed by the position of the Moon. The full moon on June the 6th, 1944 gave light for the gliders and paratroopers light to carry out their operations at midnight. Plus the high tides were near noon and midnight and the low tides near dawn. The idea was to hit the beach at low tide to enable the landing craft to operate without hitting the obstacles the Germans planted in the tidal zone. It was great for the landing craft, but the troops had a lot of open beach to cover to get to some sort of shelter.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
11/08/2013 – Ephemeris – Star Party in the Grand Traverse area tomorrow night
Ephemeris for Friday, November 8th. The sun will rise at 7:30. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:21. The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:42 this evening.
Tomorrow, Saturday the 9th, the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will host a star party at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory from 9m to 11 p.m. On tap if it’s clear will be the moon and later on in the evening the planet Jupiter will rise in the east with its retinue of moons and its cloud bands. There are still some northern summer telescopic wonders; plus rising in the east some star clusters and galaxies bright enough to see in the moonlight. Best of these star clusters is the Double Cluster, and the best of all the galaxies is the Great Andromeda Galaxy. This will be the last Saturday evening viewing opportunity of the year. There will still be a star party on Friday December 6th after the society meeting.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
11/07/2013 – Ephemeris – The Big Dipper’s lowest appearance in the north
Ephemeris for Thursday, November 7th. The sun will rise at 7:28. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 5:23. The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 9:32 this evening.
The entire Big Dipper is at its lowest in the sky at 9 p.m. with the Dipper’s bowl centered due north under the pole star Polaris. The southernmost star of the Big Dipper is the star at the tip of the handle, named Alkaid. Alkaid will be at its lowest at 11:20 this evening, 4 degrees above the horizon for Traverse City, so is circumpolar, meaning it doesn’t set in the IPR (Interlochen Public Radio) listening area. The star name is Arabic and means something like the Chief of the daughters mourning at the Bier. The bier is the bowl of the dipper supporting, I suppose, the body of their father or mother. To the Anishinabek native peoples around here the Big Dipper was the Fisher or Fisher Star, a weasel like creature, whose bloody tail swept over the maple trees, turning their leaves red.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The Big Dipper low in the north at 9 p.m. November 7, 2013. Created using Stellarium.
Fisher Star paints the autumn trees red at 11:20 p.m. November 7, 2013. Created using Stellarium.
For the story of the Fisher Star click here.
11/06/2013 – Ephemeris – Where’s the bright planets and comets this week?
Ephemeris for Wednesday, November 6th. The sun will rise at 7:27. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 5:24. The moon, 3 days past new, will set at 8:25 this evening.
Let’s check out the bright planets. Venus is brilliant in the west southwest after sunset. It will set at 7:46 p.m. The giant planet Jupiter will rise at 9:27 p.m. in the east northeast. It’s cruising against the stars of Gemini now. It will pass due south at 5:04 a.m. Mars will rise at 2:01 a.m. also in the east northeast. Reddish Mars is below and left of the slightly brighter star Regulus in Leo now. It’s in the east at 5 a.m. Comet ISON is nearly the distance below Mars that Mars is below Regulus and nearly in line with the two. My guesstimate for magnitude is about 8, about half as bright as current predictions, but probably visible in small telescopes. Comet ISON will rise about 3:30 a.m. and be visible before the sky begins to brighten around 6 a.m.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Venus and the Moon at 7 p.m. November 6, 2013. Created using Stellarium.
Closeup of the Moon at 7 p.m. November 6, 2013. Created using Stellarium.
Telescopic view of Venus at 7 p.m. November 6, 2013. Created using Stellarium. The faint stripes are not seen in visible light.
Jupiter and Mars with the winter and spring constellations at 6 a.m. November 7, 2013. Created using Stellarium.
Comets ISON and Encke and Mars at 6 a.m. from November 5 to 12, 2013. Created with Cartes du Ciel.
Closeup charts of comets ISON and Encke at 6 a.m. for November 6 through 12, 2013. Created using Cartes du Ciel.
11/05/2013 – Ephemeris – Latest on Comet ISON
Ephemeris for Election Day, Tuesday, November 5th. The sun will rise at 7:25. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 5:25. The moon, 2 days past new, will set at 7:23 this evening.
I’ve seen some observed brightness measurements of Comet ISON reported to the Minor Planet Center, which is the clearing house for all things asteroid and comet related, and Comet ISON is still fainter than predicted by a factor of two. There was one report of someone spotting it with 10X50 binoculars. From all the reports I’ve seen the comet’s nucleus is holding together, and there is great optimism that ISON will survive its close brush with the sun on Thanksgiving day. Some astronomers think that the comet’s nucleus spin axis is currently pointed toward the sun. After perihelion or closest approach to the sun, the opposite pole will be exposed showing fresh material to the sun for a brighter comet in December.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Comets ISON and Encke and Mars at 6 a.m. from November 6 to 12, 2013. Created with Cartes du Ciel.
Closeup charts of comets ISON and Encke at 6 a.m. for November 6 through 12, 2013. Created using Cartes du Ciel.
11/04/2013 – Ephemeris – Comet ISON shares the morning sky with Encke’s Comet
Ephemeris for Monday, November 4th. The sun will rise at 7:24. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 5:26. The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 6:28 this evening.
Yesterday was the peak of the Taurid meteor shower, it was lost in all the other news we had last week. But the source of the Taurid meteor shower is Encke’s Comet. Next to Halley’s Comet it’s that oldest known periodic comet with the designation 2P (Encke). It has the shortest orbit of any known comet of 3.3 years. It also happens that Encke is in the same part of the sky as Comet ISON, and currently outshines it, and if the magnitude projections are correct, and they often aren’t, especially for ISON, will outshine Comet ISON until November 19th, 9 days before ISON’s closest approach to the sun. Both comets will seem to converge for a while. In the last photograph I saw Encke didn’t have a tail, but had a large coma or head and a bright nuclear region.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Mars, Comets ISON and Encke on the morning sky for the first part of November 2013. Created using Cartes du Ciel. Click on image to enlarge.
The positions every three days also show the predicted magnitudes of the comets. ISON appears to be a magnitude dimmer. There is also a rogue position of the moon in the image. I had to allow it to display Mars’ positions.
Time change for us and an eclipse for others
Tomorrow, November 3rd in the US most states will get an extra hour by falling back to relive the 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. hour, when we reach 2 a.m. daylight time. We now spend most of our time in daylight “saving” savings time than in standard time. My locating in the western lower peninsula of Michigan are in the eastern time zone, whose time meridian runs through Philadelphia near the east coast. We are 43 minutes behind our time meridian in standard time. It’s even worse in the western part of the U.P. (Upper Peninsula). It’s bad enough up there so the western counties have defected to the central time zone. Daylight “Savings” Time or “Crazy time” as coined by one G. Michael Ross puts my location at one hour 43 minutes behind the time meridian, which at this moment is somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
Tomorrow morning also there will be a hybrid solar eclipse, one that starts and ends as an annular or ring eclipse and who’s central path becomes a total eclipse. Here’s the eclipse map and description from NASA.
11/01/2013 – Ephemeris – Preview of Comet ISON plus a star party tonight in Traverse City
Ephemeris for Friday, November 1st. The sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 6:31. The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 7:16 tomorrow morning.
This evening’s meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society starting at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory will be a special one. Yours truly will preview the viewing prospects for Comet ISON for this and next month. What will happen? Where do I look to see it? Will it be the comet of the century? On that last question, I can give an answer right now, we’ll know immediately if it isn’t. We probably won’t know for 87 years if it is. The century is still young. Due to the extreme interest in this subject, the visuals and other information from the talk will be released to the society’s gtastro.org web site. At 9 p.m. there will be a star party at the observatory, and another program if it’s cloudy.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Click on image for slides from tonight’s talk:
10/31/2013 – Ephemeris – A look ahead at the skies of November
Ephemeris for Halloween, Thursday, October 31st. The sun will rise at 8:19. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 6:32. The moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 6:07 tomorrow morning.
Let’s look at the skies for the month of November. Comet ISON will continue to brighten this month, but will encounter bright twilit skies as it closes in with the sun the week of Thanksgiving. I’m hoping the comet will be visible to the naked eye by mid-month. The sun is still moving south rapidly. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 10 hours and 10 minutes tomorrow to 9 hours 5 minutes on the 30th. The altitude, or angle, of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be at 30 degrees tomorrow and will descend to 23 and a half degrees on the 30th. The altitude of the sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower. Local noon, this month, will be about 12:30 p.m. when standard time returns.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Star Chart based on 9 p.m. on November 15, 2013. Created using my program LookingUp.
The constellation abbreviations, names and bright star names are found here.
The red triangle is the Summer Triangle. The arrow through then front of the Big Dipper point to Polaris.
The path of Comet ISON and Comet Encke for November 1st through 14th, 2013. Created using Cartes du Ciel. Labels contain date and predicted magnitude. Click to enlarge.
Comet ISON will remain an early morning comet for November and most of December.
The oddball object with the skewed label is the moon.
The path of Comet ISON and Comet Encke for November 15th through 28th, 2013. Created using Cartes du Ciel. The planets, Sun and Moon have been removed for clarity. Labels contain date and predicted magnitude. Click to enlarge.
The above two images are from my program Prospects for Viewing Comet ISON to be given tomorrow night at the regular meeting of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society starting at 8 p.m. at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory south of Traverse City on Birmley Road.
Local school groups or clubs ca request the program by commenting to this post or emailing to info@gtastro.org.
