07/06/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets this week
Wednesday, July 6th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 9:29. The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 12:15 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:04.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets. The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the southwest as it gets dark. It’s near the bright star Spica to its left. Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will set at 1:26 a.m. Saturn is a wonderful sight is a telescope with its rings. The shadows of the rings on the planet and planet on the rings are now near their maximum extent. Its bright moon Titan is also visible. Folks with good telescopes and good eyesight can also see up to four of Saturn’s fainter moons. Jupiter will rise at 2:05 a.m. in the east. Mars will rise at 3:43 in the east northeast. Venus and Mercury are too close to the sun to be seen.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
07/05/11 – Ephemeris – The ancient’s perfect moon
Tuesday, July 5th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 9:30. The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 11:49 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:04.
As we look at the moon tonight we can see dark areas and bright areas. To western philosophers and astronomers from Aristotle to Copernicus objects in the heavens were thought to be perfect and changeless and moved in uniform circular motion around the earth. However the moon doesn’t appear perfect and spotless. It has light and dark areas on it. The supposed explanation for that was that it was a perfect mirror and reflected the earth. It might make sense if you didn’t think about it too much. For a very long time nobody did, at least nobody that made a difference until Copernicus came along. With Copernicus, Galileo and his telescope, Tycho Brahe’s observations, Kepler and Newton, the heavens were changed forever.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
07/04/11 – Ephemeris – Red, white and blue stars
Independence Day, Monday, July 4th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 9:30. The moon, 3 days past new, will set at 11:22 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:03.
Today’s Independence Day so let’s look for some red, white, and blue stars. Red is easy, the red star Antares is seen in the south at 11 p.m. White is easy too, the official white calibration star Vega high in the east at 11 p.m. The blue star is really blue-white. The brightest of these out at 11 p.m. is Spica, low in the southwest. The color is best seen in binoculars. Star colors are quite subtle, and are an indicator of the temperature of their outer gaseous layers. The temperature of a stars outer layers, in order of their increasing temperatures, red, white and blue, is not related to the temperature in their cores. Of these three the coolest on the outside, Antares is really the hottest inside, using helium as fuel.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
07//01/11 – Ephemeris – Meteorite program at the GTAS
Friday, July 1st. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon is new today, and won’t be visible. | Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:01.
Those fascinating bits of rock and metal that fall from the sky, called meteorites will be the subject tonight as the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society holds its monthly meeting at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory starting at 8 p.m. Society member Joe Brooks has a collection of these celestial visitors, and has visited area schools with his collection. Meteorites, for the most part, come from the asteroid belt, bits of a planet that was destroyed or never quite formed due to Jupiter’s disruptive gravitational influence. He has one that may be part of the asteroid Vesta that the Dawn Spacecraft is visiting this month. The observatory is located south of Traverse City, on Birmley Road between Keystone and Garfield roads.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/30/11 – Ephemeris – July Preview
Thursday, June 30th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 30 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon, 1 day before new, will rise at 6:17 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:01.
Lets preview July’s skies. The sun, having reached its northern solstice, is beginning to slide southward again, at first imperceptibly, then with greater speed. The daylight hours will decrease from 15 hours and 30 minutes Tomorrow to 14 hours 41 minutes at month’s end. The daylight hours will be slightly shorter south of Interlochen, and slightly longer to the north. The altitude of the sun at local noon, when the sun is due south will decrease from 68 degrees Tomorrow to 63 degrees at month’s end. The sun will be a degree lower in the Straits area. Despite the warmth, the earth will reach its greatest distance from the sun on Monday the 4th. The range of the earth’s distance from the sun is 3 million out of 93 million miles.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/29/11 – Ephemeris – The bright planets this week
Wednesday, June 29th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon, 2 days before new, will rise at 5:14 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:00.
It’s Wednesday and time again to take a look at the whereabouts of the bright planets. The ringed planet Saturn will be visible in the southwest as it gets dark. It’s near the bright star Spica to its left. Spica has a blue tinge, while Saturn is yellowish. It will set at 1:57 a.m. Saturn is a wonderful sight is a telescope with its rings. The shadows of the rings on the planet and planet on the rings are now near their maximum extent. Its bright moon Titan is also visible. Folks with good telescopes and good eyesight can also see up to four of Saturn’s fainter moons. Jupiter will rise at 2:30 a.m. in the east. Mars will rise at 3:54. Venus now rises too close to sunrise to be seen in the twilight as is Mercury.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/28/11 – Ephemeris – The constellation Lyra the harp
Tuesday, June 28th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 4:19 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:00.
High in the east at 11 p.m. can be found a bright star just above a small, narrow, but very distinctive parallelogram of stars. They are the stars of the constellation Lyra the harp. The bright star is Vega, one of the twenty one brightest stars, called first magnitude stars. Vega is actually the 5th brightest night time star. The harp, according to Greek mythology, was invented by the god Hermes. The form of the harp in the sky, is as he had invented it: by stretching strings across a tortoise shell. Hermes gave it to his half-brother Apollo, who in turn gave it to the great musician Orpheus. In binoculars, near Vega, two stars appear together. They barely appear to the unaided eye as one star, called Epsilon Lyrae.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The constellations Lyra, Cygnus and Aquila. Created using Stellarium.
Lyra has some interesting treats for the telescope.
Lyra in Binoculars. Created using Stellarium.
Epsilon (ε) Lyrae, near Vega is easier to split than this image. In good telescopes each of its stars is again split into two stars. Amateur astronomers call it the Double-Double Star. Not mentioned in the program is the Ring Nebula. It isn’t visible in small finder telescopes, but if you have a telescope point the finder directly between the stars Sheliak and Sulafat, and the ghostly ring of the Ring Nebula will be near in the telescope.
06/27/11 – Ephemeris – Asteroid 2011 MD makes a close approach today
Monday, June 27th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon, half way from last quarter to new, will rise at 3:32 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:59.
At about 1:14 this afternoon a small asteroid provisionally named 2011 MD will pass within 8,000 miles of the earth. The asteroid, discovered last Wednesday, is thought to be about 30 feet in diameter. It will fly well within the communication geosynchronous satellites and 3,000 miles lower than the GPS satellites. It is, however, over 7,000 miles above the orbit of the International Space Station. At its closest approach it will be over South Africa. Back in February an asteroid came within 3,400 miles of the earth. And a few years ago a tiny object was picked up before it entered the atmosphere and broke up over the Nubian Desert. There are several observing programs to spot these near earth objects.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/24/11 – Ephemeris – Local astronomical events this weekend
Friday, June 24th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:54 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:58.
This weekend we’ll have a night and a day of viewing courtesy of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society. Tonight the Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory will be open for viewing starting at 9 p.m. It won’t get dark until after 10 p.m. The planet Saturn, colorful binary stars and some of the brighter deep sky objects later on may be seen if its clear. Saturday, society members will bring their telescopes for viewing the sun and meteorites to the Boardman River Nature Center’s Nature Fest. They’re at, 1450 Cass Road from 10a.m. to 4 p.m. Last week’s viewing at Platte River Point was great. Despite gray skies, we spotted the star Arcturus and our main objective, Saturn and had a turnout of 40 people.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
06/23/11 – Ephemeris – The constellation Hercules
Thursday, June 23rd. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 9:31. The moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 1:30 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:58.
The greatest Greek hero of all, Hercules, gets a dim group of stars on the border between the spring and summer stars. At 11 p.m. Hercules is high in the southeastern sky. It is located above and right of the bright star, Vega, also in the east. Hercules’ central feature is a keystone shaped box of stars, called the Keystone, which represents the old boy’s shorts. From each top corner extend lines of stars that are his legs, from the bottom stars, the rest of his torso and arms extend. So in one final indignity he’s upside down in our sky. Just below and right of the topmost star of the keystone is what looks like a fuzzy star in binoculars or small telescope. It is the Great Hercules Globular Star Cluster, home to a million stars.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The constellation Hercules and his neighbors. Created with Stellarium.
