06/06/2012 – Ephemeris – Where are the bright planets this week?
Ephemeris for Wednesday, June 6th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 9:24. The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 11:31 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:57.
Let’s see what’s happening with the bright planets for this week. Venus is now in the morning sky and very close to the sun, will be seen again in a few weeks. Mars is in the southwest in the evening in the constellation of Leo the lion with its unmistakable bright reddish color, though its fading as it retreats from us. It’s heading eastward toward Virgo. Mars will be setting in the west at 2:20 a.m. Saturn will be in the south above the bright star Spica now. It’s due south at 10:09 p.m. and will set at 3:45 a.m. Jupiter, now a morning planet will rise at 5:01 a.m. in the east northeast. Mercury is in the evening sky but too close to the sun to be seen, we should be able to spot it the last week of this month.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The planets at 10:15 in the evening. Check out Mercury near the horizon. Created using Stellarium.
5:15 a.m. at 6/7/2012. Morning sky and Jupiter. Created using Stellarium.
Grand Traverse Astronomical Society’s Transit of Venus Watch – What a Time!
This was a fantastic event at Traverse City’s Open Space on the bay front. The clouds that threatened all day parted and dissolved to reveal a perfect sky. Hundreds of people turned out. Here are some crowd shots I made with my Android phone, plus one of the transit.
Most of a huge line to see the transit with the GTAS’ 25″ Dobsonian telescope.
Transit Crowds near the telescopes.
More of the Transit Crowd an Bill Renis manning our Lunt Hydrogen Alpha Solar Telescope.
A look at the crowd and our GTAS Banner.
Venus against the sun taken at 8:49 p.m. through the Lunt solar telescope and a Droid Bionic phone.
Update (06/22/2012)
I received photographs from Gary and Eileen Carlisle and put them on the gtastro.org website. Here are theirs below. Eileen took the crowd shots, while Gary took the transit shot just before sunset as the crowds thinned. Gary’s crowd estimate was 500 folks.
More information: The transit started at 6:04 p.m. EDT. I spotted first contact through the Lunt. It took another minute or so to spot it in the white light telescopes. The Lunt showed the sun’s chromosphere that extends some 6,000 miles above the sun’s photosphere. The transit ended fro us as the sun set into the hills of Leelanau County across the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay.
The location we viewed from was the Open Space Park on the bay front in Traverse City, Michigan US. It is also used as the main venue of the National Cherry festival in early July and free outdoors screenings of movies at the Traverse City Film Festival in late July or early August.
Bill Renis (yellow shirt, white hat and sunglasses) helping a person view the transit using the Lunt Solar Telescope. This was also the society’s 30th anniversary. Bill and I were the only two charter members attending.
We brought out our Obsession 25″ telescope, stopped down to 8 inches with a solar filter. It gave excellent images. I saw second contact without the annoying teardrop effect.
Our “Meteorite Man” Joe Brooks brings out his meteorite collection for our events.
Member Ron Uthe brought his 8″ telescope to the event.
This is GTAS president Rich Kuschell’s 4″ refractor.
A little impromptu musical accompaniment.
The sun’s getting low now. That’s me in the blue cap.
The small kids got a chance to create moon craters in pans of flour covered by chocolate drink powder.
Gary Carlisle shielding the sun for a young man viewing through his 8″ telescope.
Gary’s photo of the transit.
06/05/2012 – Ephemeris – Transit of Venus is today!
Ephemeris for Tuesday, June 5th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 9:24. The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 10:46 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:58.
Early this evening we will see a rare event, the transit of the planet Venus across the sun. This will start at a few minutes after 6 p.m. When Venus will start crossing the sun from near the top. While the transit will last nearly 7 hours, we’ll see about 3 hours of it, clouds willing before the sun sets. The safety precautions are the same as viewing a solar eclipse, that is Do Not Look Directly At The Sun. Safe approved solar filters that fit in front of a telescope, projection of the sun’s image with a telescope or binoculars are the ways to view this event. The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be at the Open Space in Traverse City at 6 p.m. tonight for safe views of the event. The next transit of Venus will be in 2117.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Animation of the Transit of Venus from Northern Michigan. Created using cartes du Ciel.
The Animation starts with Venus at contact 1, and every half hour until sunset. That’s why the transit ends abruptly.
For more information check out this NASA page.
How to observe the sun? The same techniques that are use to view a solar eclipse.
06/04/2012 – Ephemeris – Rare Transit of Venus is tomorrow
Ephemeris for Monday, June 4th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 9:23. The moon, at full today, will rise at 9:51 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:58.
A partial eclipse of the moon is in progress this morning, but it started at moon set at 6 a.m. Tomorrow is a much rarer event, a transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This will start at a few minutes after 6 p.m. When Venus will start crossing the sun from near the top. While the transit will last nearly 7 hours, we’ll see about 3 hours of it, clouds willing. The safety precautions are the same as viewing a solar eclipse, that is Do Not Look Directly At The Sun. Safe approved solar filters that fit in front of a telescope, projection of the sun’s image with a telescope or binoculars are the ways to view this event. The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be at the Open Space in Traverse City at 6 p.m. Tomorrow for safe views of the event.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Transit of Venus as seen from the Grand Traverse Region. Created using Cartes du Ciel.
These plots are in 30 minute intervals starting around 6:10 p.m.
06/01/2012 – Ephemeris – Great local astronomical events this weekend
Ephemeris for Friday, June 1st. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 9:20. The moon, 3 days before full, will set at 4:20 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:59.
There’s a chock full weekend of astronomical events this weekend. First, this evening the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will hold its monthly meeting at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory. We’ll preview the Transit of Venus and will be viewing the sun with the society’s new solar telescope if it’s clear. Following at 9 p.m. is the observatory’s star party. Tomorrow evening starting at 9 will be a star party at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at stop 3, the Dunes Overlook, on Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. Both these star parties will feature the nearly full moon and the planets Mars and Saturn. Who knows, we might even spot Venus in twilight. No promises though.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
05/31/2012 – Ephemeris – Previewing June skies
Ephemeris for Thursday, May 31st. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 19 minutes, setting at 9:20. The moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 3:41 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:00.
Let’s preview June skies. There’ll be a lot of sun in June. The daylight hours will increase a bit from 15 hours and 20 minutes on the 1st to 15 hours and 33 minutes on the 20tht, retreating back to 15 hours 30 minutes at month’s end. The big event of the month will be the Transit of Venus across the sun on June 5th. We’ll see the first part of the transit starting about 6:04 p.m. That evening. I’ll have more information on how to safely view this event. Remember looking directly at the sun is dangerous. There will be safe viewing of the event at Traverse City’s Open Space. The next Venus transit will be in 105 ½ years. The extra day in February this leap year pushed the start of summer up to the 20th at 7:07 p.m.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
05/30/2012 – Ephemeris – Where are the bright planets tonight?
Ephemeris for Wednesday, May 30th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 9:19. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 3:07 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:00.
Let’s see what’s happening with the bright planets for this week. Venus is now very difficult to spot low in the west northwest just after sunset. The next time you’ll see it will be passing in front of the sun June 5th, a rare event called a transit. Venus will set at 10:11 p.m. Venus is 27.3 million miles away and won’t get much closer. It is an incredibly thin crescent in telescopes. Mars is in the southwest in the evening in the constellation of Leo the lion with its unmistakable bright reddish color. It has resumed its eastward motion toward Virgo. Mars will be setting in the west at 2:42 a.m. Saturn will be in the south above the bright star Spica this now. It’s due south at 10:37 p.m. and will set at 4:13 a.m.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
05/29/2012 – Ephemeris – The moon tonight
Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 29th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 9:18. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:38 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:01.
The moon tonight is a wonderful sight for binoculars or a small telescope. There are some very nice craters now revealed near the terminator, the line between day and night on the moon. The terminator in the two weeks between new and full is the sunrise line on the moon. From the top or north on the moon is the flat floored crater Plato Then about midway down the moon and right on the terminator is the beautiful crater Copernicus. Then to the south end of the moon is the bright and crisp crater Tycho. Its splash marks called rays will be better revealed at full moon. At the bottom of the moon, just coming into light is the huge crater Clavius. A telescope will reveal smaller craters within.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The moon on 5/29/2012 showing large craters on the terminator. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.
05/28/2012 – Ephemeris – Memorials in the solar system
Ephemeris for Memorial Day, Monday, May 28th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 9:17. The moon, at first quarter today, will set at 2:10 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:01.
Memorial day is a day of remembrance for those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. When astronomers name craters or other features on planets or moons, they are names of those who have gone before. For instance craters near the moon’s north and south poles are named for explorers of the corresponding earthly pole. The Challenger astronauts have craters named for them in the moon system of Uranus, from discovery pictures relayed to the earth by Voyager 2 a few days before the Challenger accident. The Mars Rover Spirit is itself a silent sentinel in the Columbia Hills on Mars, its features named for the Columbia astronauts who died 11 months before Spirit landed.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
05/25/2012 – Ephemeris – Of conjunctions, superior and inferior
Ephemeris for Friday, May 25th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 9:14. The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 12:45 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:03.
The planet Mercury will pass the behind the sun this weekend, in what is called superior conjunction. It is called that because Mercury is beyond or superior to the sun. Venus and Mercury can have both superior and inferior conjunctions because they are inferior planets, not a statement of their quality, but simply because they reside in orbits between the earth and the sun. A conjunction occurs when two solar system bodies pass each other from our point of view. Anyway Mercury will slowly move into our evening sky and by July first might be glimpsed in evening twilight. Mercury can be seen near its greatest elongations or separations from the sun on spring evenings and autumn mornings. July will push it a bit.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
