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Astronomy Events – December 2012

November 30, 2012

by yaska77

We’re now into advent calendar territory as we venture into December! Another year nearly done but don’t look too far ahead just yet.

Listed below are some upcoming astronomical events with something to interest everyone, so we hope you can get out there and get stargazing. If anyone is taking pictures please tweet them to us on Twitter!

Clear skies all…

Monday 3rd December - The gas giant Jupiter is at Opposition in Taurus, meaning it will be observable in the night sky all evening as it’s opposite the Sun in the sky

Tuesday 4th December – Mercury is at its Greatest Western Elongation today and rises before the Sun. It forms a nice alignment with Venus, Saturn and the star Spica (shown below)

Mercury will be visible as a morning object for the first couple of weeks of the month

Shown at 06:30 UTC, this morning is a good opportunity to image Mercury if your eastern horizon is flat enough (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Shown at 06:30 UTC, this morning is a good opportunity to image Mercury if your eastern horizon is flat enough (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Thursday 6th December – This evening is a last quarter Moon

Wednesday 12th December – Today the Moon is at Perigee at a distance of 357,075 km (221,876 miles), the closest point in it’s orbit to the Earth

Thursday 13th December – This morning sees a New Moon which rises and sets with the Sun, so with the darker skies now is a good time for observing deep sky objects like galaxies and nebulae

M42 the Orion Nebula (in the constellation of the same name) will be high and south at midnight (see below)

M42 the Orion Nebula is a great sight through binoculars or a small telescope (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

M42 the Orion Nebula is a great sight through binoculars or a small telescope (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Thursday 13th into Friday 14th – The annual Geminid meteor shower peaks at 19:00 UTC on Thursday evening, with a ZHR of over 100 being fairly common. Viewing rates are expected to be good all night through to dawn so if you can brave the damp and the cold they should be well worth a look (and early enough to get kids involved!)

We’ve put a radiant guide below (the direction the meteors will appear to originate from) but the meteors will be visible flashing all over the sky. As Geminids enter the atmosphere at a relatively slow speed, and are fairly robust in composition, the streaks can last longer than the quicker Orionid or Perseid meteors

The Geminid Meteor Radiant is shown on 13th December at 22:30 UTC (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

The Geminid Meteor Radiant is shown above on 13th December at 22:30 UTC, but meteors will be visible all over the sky (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

And with the added bonus of the Moon being out of the way any you see should be bright against the dark sky, so happy hunting!

Tuesday 18th December – The dwarf planet Ceres is at opposition in the constellation Taurus, though you’ll need a telescope or some good binoculars to see it

Thursday 20th December – This morning it’s a First Quarter Moon

Friday 21st December – Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere

Tuesday 25th December – Today the Moon is at Apogee at a distance of 406,100 km (252,339 miles), the farthest point in its orbit to the Earth

Friday 28th December – Today’s Full Moon is also sometimes known as the Oak Moon, Frost Moon or Winter Moon

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Saturn

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy! :)

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – November 2012
Astronomy Events – October 2012
Astronomy Events – September 2012

or click on Monthly Guide for the full archive

Posted in Astronomy, Jupiter, Mars, Meteor, Moon, Night sky, Planets, Resources, Space, Stars, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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Astronomy Events – November 2012

October 31, 2012

by yaska77

Dark early evening skies are back with us now British Summer Time has ended, and winter is fast approaching.  We’ve had little to no opportunity for much observing or photography in recent months, something we’re hoping desperately to rectify as soon as possible!

Listed below are some upcoming astronomical events with something to interest everyone, so we hope you can get out there and get stargazing.

Clear skies all…

Thursday 1st November - Today the Moon is at Apogee (the furthest point of its orbit away from the Earth) at a distance of 406,050 km (252,308 miles)

If you have clear skies and a good pair of binoculars (or a small telescope), Uranus will be visible due south at 21:30 UTC at an altitude of 40°. See below for a guide to locating this often elusive planet!

The planet Uranus will be due south at 21:30 UTC on 1st November (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Sunday 4th November – If you’re up late on Saturday evening, the Great Red Spot of Jupiter will be central in its band at 01:45 UTC on Sunday morning

Up fairly high above the bow of the constellation Orion and close to bright star Aldebaran in Taurus, good binoculars should help you see its moons with Ganymede closest to the gas giant (see below)

The Great Red Spot of Jupiter will be central in its band at 01:45 UTC on 4th November (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Wednesday 7th November - Today is a last Quarter Moon

Friday 9th November – Io, one of the moons of Jupiter, will transit the disc of the gas giant this evening beginning at around 21:40 UTC. A great target for astrophotographers, Io will cast a dark shadow on Jupiter which looks great if you can capture it in an image

Catch it early enough in the transit too and you should also get the Great Red Spot in the same shot!

Sunday 11th November – Bright planet Venus will appear very close to the waning crescent Moon before Sunrise this morning, visible around 05:15 UTC to the east and a great target for a photo or two!

Different Moon phase but similar effect, our image of Venus and the waxing crescent Moon from January this year came with added Earthshine! (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Tuesday 13th November - Today there is a new Moon which rises and sets just before the Sun, so now is a good time (especially with longer evenings!) to view deep sky objects like galaxies and nebulae

Wednesday 14th November - There will be a total eclipse of the Sun today, with totality visible from northern Australia and the southern Pacific Ocean. The most populous city to experience totality will be Cairns, which will experience 2 minutes of totality just an hour after daybreak (06:38 AEST 14th November/20:38 UTC 13th November)

The Moon is also at Perigee (the closest point of its orbit to the Earth) at a distance of 357,360 km (222,053 miles)

Friday 16th November - The annual Leonid Meteor Shower peaks overnight this evening (actually at 09:30 UTC on 17th) but you could see between 5-15 meteors per hour as the night progresses

The Leonid Meteor Radiant shown above at 02:00 UTC on 17th November (where the meteors will appear to enamate from). Leonids are famous for appearing as fireballs with fast tails (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

While it’s not expected this year’s shower will produce the high numbers of meteors seen in previous years, they should still put on a good display for a couple of days yet

And with the Moon out of the way it could be a good show!

Saturday 17th November - Mercury is in Inferior Conjunction, and won’t be visible until the end of the month when it will rise just before the Sun

Also another good evening for Leonid spotting

Tuesday 20th November - First Quarter Moon

Wednesday 28th November - Today’s Full Moon is also sometimes called Beaver Moon, Frost Moon or Hunter’s Moon, which is also at Apogee at a distance of 406,100 km (252,339 miles)

It also sees the second of two Lunar eclipses this year, in what is known as a Penumbral eclipse. This is where the Moon passes through the Earth’s shadow rather than directly behind the Earth itself (which is known as an Umbral eclipse), resulting in a partial eclipse (this time visible across the Moon’s northern region)

This image shows where on the Earth the partial eclipse will be visible (click to enlarge) – Credit: Fred Espenak (NASA GSFC)

Observers in Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, or east Asia will catch the whole event, with the US and Canada seeing it at Moonset (see above), and Europe seeing some of the partial eclipse at Moonrise

However, in the UK the Moon will rise at 15:30 UTC so with this partial eclipse only lasting just over an hour it will be very difficult to see

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Saturn

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy! :)

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – October 2012
Astronomy Events – September 2012
Astronomy Events – August 2012

or click on Monthly Guide for the full archive

Posted in Astronomy, Jupiter, Mars, Moon, Night sky, Planets, Resources, Space, Stars, Sun, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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Astronomy Events – October 2012

September 30, 2012

by yaska77

As it is getting darker earlier and the nights once again have that familiar chilly bite, it can only mean we’ve reached our Astronomy Guide for October already!

We were lucky to observe a very active Perseid meteor shower in August, so with two showers reaching peak in October we’d like to get some more photos! Get out there and enjoy the best free shows on Earth!

Clear skies all…

Thursday 4th October – One of our favourite planets Jupiter can be located right between the “horns” of Taurus this evening, and will appear high and bright in the sky to the south around 04:00 UTC (05:00 BST) on Friday morning

A bright Moon may make images tricky, but we might try to get Jupiter, the Moon and Pleiades in the same shot (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Friday 5th October – The Moon is at Apogee at a distance of 405,160 km (251,755 miles)

Monday 8th October – This morning’s Moon is at Last Quarter phase, and the Draconid Meteor Shower reaches its peak around lunchtime. With this in mind the best time for meteor spotting will be after nightfall and before Moonrise at 23:00 UTC/00:00 BST

The radiant will be almost directly overhead at dusk so meteors could appear anywhere in the sky!

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Thursday 11th October – With the Moon out of the way for a while why not try get a look at our sister galaxy Andromeda this evening? It will be at its highest point in the sky at midnight (see above)

Friday 12th October – The bright planet Venus is a beautiful sight in the early morning sky, appearing close to the waning crescent Moon today (see below)

Venus will rise to the east with the waning crescent Moon just before 03:00 UTC/04:00 BST (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Monday 15th October – It is a New Moon today that rises and sets with the Sun, so now is a good time to observe deep sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae

Wednesday 17th October – The Moon is at Perigee at a distance of 360,670 km (224,110 miles)

Thursday 18th October – The waxing crescent Moon appears close to Mars
 in the sky this evening, and will set a few hours after the Sun

If you have a flat south west horizon look for Mars and the Moon at dusk this evening, shown above at 17:30 UTC/18:30 BST (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Sunday 21st October – The First Quarter Moon will set around 22:00 UTC/23:00 BST tonight, leaving most of the night glare free for the peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower

The most prolific Meteor Shower associated with Halley’s Comet, its radiant is to the top left of Orion so meteors will appear to be streaking away from this famous constellation, blazing their way across the sky

This Perseid meteor we snapped in August has given us a taste for more meteor photography, so we’re hopeful for a good Orionid show! (click to enlarge) Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Thursday 25th October - The planet Saturn is in superior conjuction with the Sun, so will be unobservable from northern latitudes throughout October

Friday 26th October - Mercury is at Greatest Eastern Elongation so will be visible (if your western horizon is flat enough) just after sunset; best in equitorial or southern latitudes

Sunday 28th October – British Summer Time ends in the UK, and the clocks go back 1 hour to GMT/UTC at 02:00 BST

Monday 29th October – The Full Moon this evening is also known as the Hunter’s Moon or Blood Moon

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy! :)

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – September 2012
Astronomy Events – August 2012
Astronomy Events – July 2012

or click on Monthly Guide for the full archive

Posted in Astronomy, Jupiter, Mars, Meteor, Moon, Night sky, Planets, Resources, Space, Stars, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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Astronomy Events – September 2012

August 31, 2012

by yaska77

The evenings are drawing in again and already it’s time for another of our monthly guides! Where is the year going?

We were very lucky with the Perseid meteor shower last month (despite a lot of August seeing shrouded night skies) but staying ever optimistic we’ve listed below something of interest for everyone to enjoy throughout September, so get out there and look up. Clear skies all!

Friday 7th September – The Moon is at Apogee at a distance of 404,125 km (251,112 miles)

Saturday 8th September – Tonight sees a Last Quarter Moon which will appear very close to the brilliantly bright planet Jupiter and next to the Hyades cluster (see below)

Last quarter Moon, Jupiter and Aldebaran form a triangle in the night sky this evening, shown above at 00:30 UTC/01:30 BST on the 8th (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Monday 10th September - Mercury is in Superior Conjunction and will remain unobservable until the end of the month (when it will become visible in the western sky after sunset)

Wednesday 12th September – Early this morning the waning crescent Moon appears close in the sky to a still very bright Venus (see below)

The waning crescent Moon rises near to Venus early morning on 12th September, as shown at 03.30 UTC/04.30 BST  (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Thursday 13th September - Venus passes very close to an object we’ve imaged before in the early hours of Thursday morning (see below)

The Beehive Cluster (also called Praesepe) can be spotted just up and to the left of bright Venus (to the east at 04:00 UTC/05:00 BST), which itself will appear above the waning crescent Moon

This image of ours shows Mars passing very close to the Beehive Cluster from early October 2011 (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Sunday 16th September – Tonight is a New Moon which rises and sets with the Sun, so tonight is a good night for observing deep sky objects!

Wednesday 19th September – The Moon is at Perigee at a distance of 365,750 km (227,266 miles)

Saturday 22nd September – Today is Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and a First Quarter Moon

A daytime First Quarter Moon we photographed in April this year (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Saturday 29th September - Uranus is at opposition in Pisces, which means it’s in an opposite position in the sky to our Sun so will rise at sunset and set at sunrise

We’ve not yet managed to image this elusive planet so may well try it tonight if the clouds behave!

Sunday 30th September – Tonight’s Full Moon is sometimes also called the Harvest Moon, Fruit Moon, Corn Moon or Barley Moon

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Saturn
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy! :)

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – August 2012
Astronomy Events – July 2012
Astronomy Events – June 2012

Posted in Astronomy, Jupiter, Moon, Night sky, Planets, Resources, Space, Stars, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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Transit of Venus 2012 – My “last in our lifetime” washout (but with a silver lining…)

June 6, 2012

by yaska77

The alarm went off just after 4am this morning. Dragging myself to the window in the hope last night’s rain had passed and the sky would allow unrestricted access to the transit of Venus, I drew back the curtains to find a dull cloudy grey blanket with occasional downpours of rain.

On June 5 2012, SDO captured this image of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA/SDO, HMI

I waited up for half an hour to see if there was any sign of improvement, and if anything it rained more.

While the images already being posted online in their hundreds provide a great catalogue of this special event, I personally lucked out again thanks to the British weather.

Typically, when I got up later the clouds were breaking and the Sun could be seen.  I’m prepared to admit I spent rather a lot of time making a homemade solar filter for my camera using Baader AstroSolar Safety Film, so I was certainly not going to waste a chance to at least test it.

By cutting a hole of equal size in two squares of card, you can then fix the solar film between them, then make a collar for your lens by wrapping strips of card around it and then fixing it to the filter square (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

The next image that follows is bittersweet for me. Sweet in the fact that I’ve been able to image the Sun using a standard zoom lens on my Canon Eos 550D for the first time, but bitter because is shows I could clearly have captured the Venus transit this morning if only the weather had played ball.

C’est la vie.

Shot from my own back garden, the sunspots match those in the SDO image at the top, so I could have captured my own bit of history (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Sadly my image is missing the very important detail of the planet Venus during transit, as the sunspots match those seen in the SDO image released by NASA.  If only it could have held out for a few more hours (ha!) I’d have got it, and with some degree of clarity too. Not to be seen again until 2117…

Using this solar filter however has sparked an idea, one which will require some more sunspot activity but also a week of good weather with clear skies at about the same time of the day for several days in a row.

I’d like to show the relative movement of similar massive sunspots over a short period of time.

So should this come to fruition the transit blocking clouds may well have had a silver lining :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Space, Sun, Venus, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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