August 2011, 08.10.11

The month starts out with relatively dark skies, but by the 13^th we will have a full moon on our hands. It will be in its new phase by the 28^th, though, so back to dark sky gazing then! Did you know that some scientists are theorizing that Earth actually had two moons long ago? Check it out here at: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/04/138954932/early-earth-may-have-been-orbited-by-two-moons?sc=emaf.

If you are into sun spots, there has been a lot of sizzling and popping going on lately. Sunspot 1263, yesterday, just fired off the largest solar flare seen in years, an X7 class.  No need to worry, though. It was not aimed at us. The way things are looking now, we will probably have plenty more sunspots in our near future. Remember: always use proper observation gear, and NEVER look directly at the sun.

  

As for meteors, the best shower of the year hit at a pretty bad time this year. The Perseids, long considered to be one of the most prolific meteor showers, peaks during our full moon. Your best bet for seeing any at all will be to go to a very dark observation field just before sunrise up until about the 10^th or 12^th of this month. Radiating from the constellation Perseus, the Perseids are caused by the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, and should produce up to 60 meteors per hour. Good luck and good hunting!

Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd) at a magnitude of 8.2 should be visible in binoculars in the constellation Pegasus moving to Sagitta by months end. We are definitely going to keep an eye out for this; comets are always a cool sight.

Two bright constellations are straight up this month: Lyra, the harp, and Cygnus, the swan. Both have bright alpha stars. Vega, in the constellation Lyra is an A0V star 25 light years away. Deneb, which means “tail” of the swan, is an A2Ia class star and is about 3,229 light years away. Why is Deneb so bright and so far away? Because Deneb is a super giant, and Vega is a dwarf.

For planet-hunters, Saturn is setting now right after sunset, but Jupiter will be taking its place soon. Jupiter is right now rising early in the morning well ahead of the sun. Neptune and Uranus are also out but you’ll need a decent telescope to see them. Mars and Venus are rising just before sun up. Remember to always look to the ecliptic to spot the planets.

If you have any questions about these subjects or any other subjects in astronomy join us on the 3^rd Tuesday night of each month for out Sumer Astronomy Series, on Aug 16^th and Sept 20^th.

May 2011

April showers are trying to decide if they are going to leave us alone, but we will catch plenty of snatches of the sky in between the rain clouds to see some pretty neat stuff!

May begins with a nice, dark sky until around the 17th when the moon is finally full. We will end out the month with a new moon and dark skies again.

The year is continuing to bring a lot of sunspots; there have been 57 to date this year. Sunspot 1203 will be visible, bringing a low level threat of producing C-class flares.

There was more than one kind of April shower last month. The Lyrids shower is still flinging a few leftovers here and there, with a few impressive lone fireballs spotted by eyewitnesses in this region in recent days. We begin the month with another shower on the 5th and 6th, but it will probably be a weak show. This particular shower is caused by debris dropped by Halley's Comet, discovered by Edmond Halley in 1705.

An excellent constellation to check out this month is Virgo, with its bright alpha star Spica. Virgo is home to the Virgo cluster, a group of galaxies akin to M84 and M86, except all grouped together in one area. Stars 61vir and 70vir are known to harbor their own solar systems, too, so try to keep an eye out for those stars.

During the first week of May, a beautiful planetary conjunction will be visible in the morning sky just before dawn. Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter will all be there to greet you in the east. Uranus will be there, as well, but you will need a decent telescope to catch a glimpse of it. All can be seen in the constellation Pisces. Saturn can be seen cruising through the constellation Virgo.

December 2010

As we shiver our way into the cold, clear months of winter, December brings some sights worth lugging some coffee along with you and losing a few hours of sleep to see.

The Geminids meteor shower will go streaking again! Expect to see a good show December 14th from about 12am to sunrise. While the Geminids can be seen from any point on the globe, in the northern hemisphere, the constellation Gemini should be directly overhead during the previously mentioned time frame; that should be a good place to begin searching. You can expect to see upwards of 100 meteors per hour!

Ever seen a full lunar eclipse? Now is your chance! Beginning just a little before midnight on December 20, the moon will go completely through earth's shadow throughout the night, coming out of it in the wee hours of the morning. And yes, the moon would have light from the the sun on the other side of earth shining on it, lighting it up in its usual grey. But, during an eclipse the light is coming in more at an angle, and this filters out all of the blue light that we normally see reflected through our atmosphere. The only colors that are left for us to see are the colors on the other end of the light spectrum (the reds, greens, and resulting browns). If earth had no atmosphere at all for light to be filtered through, the moon would look black and disappear completely during a total eclipse. So we are just (literally) seeing the shadier side of the moon! As the eclipse rings in the winter solstice, be sure to bundle up while you watch it-- unseasonably cold temperatures are being reported all around the world this autumn!

You can also expect to see Mercury and mars throughout the month in the west, as well as Jupiter and Uranus cruising high overhead near the constellation Aquarius. The more memorable constellations Orion and Taurus will be well above the horizon after sunset.

Pleiades (the seven sisters) is an open star cluster that is riding on the back of Taurus, and is best observed with binoculars. Pegasus and Andromeda are almost straight up. Look for the tiny fuzzy patch in Andromeda; this is M31, the Andromeda galaxy, the furthest the human eye can see. How far away is it, you ask? Oh, just 2.2. million light years away.

Good luck, and happy hunting!

For more information or for tips on star gazing, call 229-432-6955.

*UPDATE*

NASA had a super-awesome sky-watching promotion to tie in with the lunar eclipse: these badges for those who committed to report in when they saw the eclipse. You better believe we were all over that!

Image credit: NASA.