Merry Christmas!
Have a very merry and safe Christmas from this old astronomer. I hope Santa is good to you.
Wishing you clear skies to you and Santa.
12/24/10 – Ephemeris – Musings on the Star of Bethlehem
Friday, December 24th. The sun will rise at 8:17. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:06. The moon, half way from full to last quarter, will rise at 9:21 this evening.
Before the moon rises tonight the planet Jupiter will shine brightly as our Christmas star. The actual Star of Bethlehem, if it was a natural phenomenon, was not the bright star that we imagine. The Chinese, who were excellent observers and catalogers of novae and comets recorded nothing unusual in the time period of the Nativity. The Magi, if that’s the correct translation of the visitors, were astrologers who saw significance in the mundane movement and patterns of the planets. They were the only ones who did. The Chinese had a whole other system of astrology. The Jews themselves had Biblical prohibitions against astrology. So the Star remains a mystery. Have a merry Christmas.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/23/10 – Ephemeris – Saturnalia
Thursday, December 23rd. The sun will rise at 8:17. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:06. The moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 8:05 this evening.
Winter began 2 days ago. That’s when the sun reached the winter solstice, when the sun stopped its southward motion and began to head back up north. It was greeted with great relief by the ancients, who didn’t understand what was really going on. What if the sun continued southward and stayed below the horizon, even at noon? The joy over the turning of the sun northward was the impetus for the Roman festival of Saturnalia, whose celebrations were not very unlike today’s goings on of the quote… “Holiday Season.” with garlands of holly and mistletoe, gift giving and revelry. The early Christians apparently placed their celebration of the birth of Christ during this period so their joy would blend in with the pagan celebrations of that time.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/22/10 – Ephemeris – The bright planets visible this week
Wednesday, December 22nd. The sun will rise at 8:16. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:05. The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 6:49 this evening.
Lets take a look at the bright planets for Christmas week. Mars is very low and lost in the evening twilight. The planet Jupiter is up in the southwestern sky in the early evening. It is a spectacular sight in a telescope with its four satellites, shifting their positions from night to night, and the cloud bands running in the directions of the satellites. Jupiter is the brightest starlight object in the evening, becoming our Christmas Star this year . It’s located below the Circlet in Pisces now and will set at 12:13 a.m. The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 1:53 a.m. in the east southeast. It’s located in the constellation Virgo this year. It’s rings are opening nicely for telescopic observers. Venus is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 4:23 a.m. in the east southeast.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/21/10 – Ephemeris – Winter solstice
Tuesday, December 21st. The sun will rise at 8:16. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:05. The moon, at full today, will rise at 5:37 this evening.
Today autumn will end and winter will start. The exact moment will be at 6:38 this evening. That’s when the sun will appear directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23 ½ degrees south latitude. After that moment the sun will appear to inch northward. Winter will end as the sun crosses the equator on March 20th next year. The sun’s low appearance in our skies and the fewer hours of daylight now, due to the earth’s tilt has caused the rapid decrease in temperatures we are experiencing. Unfortunately with the increased amount of solar heat we in the northern hemisphere will be getting starting tomorrow, it will take until mid January before the sun’s effect begins to show with warmer days. It’s hard to believe but winter is the shortest season.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/20/10 – 12/21/10 Live eclipse blogging
9:47 p.m. EST: It started out clear, but by 9:30 p.m. we’re getting some light cloud. I’m staying home for this one near Traverse City, Michigan. Below is my 9:30 p.m. picture:
The full moon 12/20/10 9:30 p.m. EST through light clouds
My equipment is simple. I’m using my Canon A570 IS camera with 2X telephoto in manual mode.
11:23 p.m. EST: It’s hazing over. The moon looks better than this photograph taken at 11:10 p.m. The color balance is off. I don’t know whay, though it is intensified by adjusting the levels of the image.
The moon at 11:14 p.m. EST
According to http://www.wunderground.com (Weather Underground) at this time we’re in the middle of a relatively thin cloud band that may pass over before the eclipse starts. Here’s hoping.
12:27 a.m. EST: The penumbral part of the eclipse is starting now. The moon is entering the moon’s outer shadow. Nothing will be visibly different about the moon until about 1 a.m. when the left part of the moon will begin to appear a bit dusky. It’s still hazy out but not as bad as an hour ago. The map on Weather Underground shows the cloud dissipating and moving to the east. Looks like the clouds are coming from the southwest. However now we’re getting a radar image of precipitation now moving near Manistee, about 6o miles southwest of us. It’s gong to be a race to see if we can see the start of the partial eclipse before the clouds and snow get us. The weather service says that there will be snow after 1 a.m. I’d hate for them to be right for a change.
1:11 a.m. EST: When I took the shot below it was much clearer than a half hour ago. I underexposed the photo but it does show the duskiness on the left edge of being deep in the penumbral shadow. It really wasn’t apparent to the eye. Sunglasses help is seeing it.
Under exposed moon about half way into the earth's penumbral shadow at 1:03 a.m.
1:17 a.m. EST: The Weather Underground maps show the snow either dissipating or moving east rather the northeast. We might get this eclipse in after all.
1:38 a.m. EST: We are in the partial phase now: The image below was taken at 1:33, just 2 minutes into the eclipse.
The moon 2 minutes into the partial phase of the eclipse at 1:33 a.m.
It is clearer that at any time since the first photograph. I did spot some heavier clouds to the southwest, but they weren’t very big. The Weather Underground map still looks promising.
1:57 a.m. EST: High clouds are affecting the moon’s image again making it fuzzy. It looks clearer visually than in photographs. At this point in the eclipse I try to get an idea of the brightness and color of the umbra. The haze has so far prevented me.
The partially eclipsed moon at 1:53 a.m.
2:15 a.m. EST: It’s getting hazier, so I didn’t attempt a photograph. With binoculars I was able to ascertain that the umbral shadow appears to be the red of a normal eclipse. I heard one prediction on the radio yesterday that the shadow may be darker than usual due to volcanic ash high in the atmosphere. Whomever didn’t quote a source. Bu it looks like a normal red colored moon in totality.
2:42 a.m. EST: We’re in totality. I can hardly see the moon through the thickening clouds. I can see the the moon in binoculars, so this isn’t a particularly dark eclipse. I’m hanging it up now. I have to go to work this morning.
Update 3:40 p.m. EST: It never did clear up after my last post, so I got nearly 3 hours sleep. I’m really dragging about now. There’s lots of good eclipse images posted on space.com, spaceweather.com and even the Huntington post.
12/20/10 – Ephemeris – Total lunar eclipse tomorrow morning
Monday, December 20th. The sun will rise at 8:15. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:04. The moon, 1 day before full, will set at 8:33 tomorrow morning.
The winter solstice occurs tomorrow, coincidentally there will be a total lunar eclipse after midnight tonight. The eclipse will start at 1:32 a.m. when the moon will begin to slip into the earth’s inner shadow. The moon will be completely inside the shadow at 2:40 a.m. beginning totality. The moon should still be visible but be a dim red color. The color and brightness of the eclipsed moon depends on the transparency of the earth’s atmosphere because it is illuminated by light being bent into the earth’s shadow by the earth’s atmosphere. Mid eclipse occurs at 3:17 a.m.. Totality will end at 3:53 a.m. when the moon peeks into sunlight again. The partial phase will end at 5:01 a.m. Our next lunar eclipse won’t be until December next year.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/17/10 – Ephemeris – My favorite explanation for the Star of Bethlehem
Friday, December 17th. The sun will rise at 8:13. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:03. The moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 5:34 tomorrow morning.
For over 400 years astronomers have wondered and looked through ancient Chinese records, ran the positions of planets back 2000 years, and still no one knows for sure what the Star of Bethlehem really was, but here’s my favorite scenario. On August 13th of 3 BC Jupiter and Venus briefly merged in the pre-dawn skies against the constellation of Leo the lion. A month later Jupiter was in conjunction with Regulus the bright star in Leo, the little king star. Then 9 months later, after sunset on June 16th of 2 BC the two planets again joined as one in Leo. The king of the planets twice mating with Venus as Ishtar the Babylonian goddess of fertility against the constellation of the lion signifying Judah in Genesis? The Magi not being Jewish might have found meaning in all that.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/16/10 – Ephemeris – Who were the Magi?
Thursday, December 16th. The sun will rise at 8:13. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:03. The moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 4:28 tomorrow morning.
The Star of Bethlehem is one of the great mysteries of Christmas. The Chinese of that time were the only ones that recorded the happenings in the heavens and there were no bright stars that appeared near the time of Christ’s birth. That leads us to the Magi themselves, if that’s who they were. Magi were astrologer priests of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. They could see signs in the positions of the planets that would go unnoticed to the Jews to which astrology was forbidden. Conjunctions where to or more planets gathered together were the most powerful of these configurations. There was a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in seven BC that’s the most famous, but I have another set of conjunctions in mind to tell you about tomorrow.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
12/15/10 – Ephemeris – The bright planets for this week
Wednesday, December 15th. The sun will rise at 8:12. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:02. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 3:23 tomorrow morning.
Lets take a look at the bright planets for this week. Mars is very low and lost in the evening twilight. The planet Jupiter is up in the southern sky in the early evening. It is a spectacular sight in a telescope with its four satellites, shifting their positions from night to night, and the cloud bands running in the directions of the satellites. Jupiter will pass due south at 6:47 p.m.. It is the brightest starlight object in the evening. It’s located below the Circlet in Pisces now and will set at 12:36 a.m. The ringed planet Saturn will rise at 2:18 a.m. in the east southeast. It’s located in the constellation Virgo this year. It’s rings are opening nicely for telescopic observers. Venus is brilliant in the morning sky and will rise at 4:22 a.m. in the east southeast.
* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
