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Astronomy Events – May 2013

April 30, 2013

by yaska77

Hot on the heels of an unexpected break in the weather (allowing us to see April’s partial eclipse of the Moon) we’re eager to get stuck in to another new month of astronomical events!

Now spring has finally arrived in the UK we’re hoping to be able to get some new images to show you, and if you get any snaps yourself please feel free to tweet them to us.  Is there anything in particular you’re looking forward to?

Thursday 2nd May – The Moon is at Last Quarter phase today

Monday 6th May – The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks early this morning (01:30 UTC/02:30 BST) with an expected ZHR of 10 meteors per hour as viewed from the UK (observers from more southern latitudes could see up to 55 per hour).  Appearing to originate from the constellation Aquarius (hence the name), Aquarids are known for bright tails left by fast moving meteors

Aquarid Meteor Radiant 06052013 02.30 UTC Sky-Watching.co.uk

Shown above at 02:30 UTC/03:30 BST on 6th May, the Aquarid meteor shower will be active from the end of April until the end of May (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Thursday 9th – Friday 10th May – An annular solar eclipse occurs today when the Moon’s apparent diameter is smaller than that of the Sun (blocking most of its light) which causes it to look like a ring (or annulus)

This type of eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region thousands of kilometres wide, and will be visible from northern Australia and the southern Pacific Ocean, with the maximum of just over 6 minutes visible from the Pacific Ocean east of French Polynesia

The eclipse begins at 21:25:10 UTC

Friday 10th May – Today sees a New Moon so now is a good time for observing deep sky objects usually affected by moonlight

Saturday 11th May – Bright planets Venus and Jupiter flank the Moon just after sunset.  Shown below at 19:45 UTC/ 20:45 BST, if your NW horizon is flat enough this could be a great target for some photos!

Jupiter, Moon and Venus 11052013 19.45 UTC Sky-Watching.co.uk

Jupiter, the Moon and Venus all pay Taurus a visit soon after sunset this evening, look WNW and see if you can spot them! (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

The planet Mercury is also in Superior conjunction today, so is unobservable until later in the month

Monday 13th May – The Moon is at Apogee today at a distance of 405,825 km (252,168 miles), the farthest point in its orbit from the Earth

Saturday 18th May – This morning the Moon is at First Quarter phase

Saturday 25th May – Today’s Full Moon will experience another penumbral eclipse (where it skims the edge of the Earth’s shadow), this time however it will be virtually imperceptible unlike the partial eclipse witnessed on 25th April

Penumbral Eclipse 25042013 21.22 BST Sky-Watching.co.uk

In April the Full Moon also experienced penumbral eclipse, shown above at 20:22 UTC (21:22 BST) with the Earth’s shadow visible across the northern edge (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

May’s Full Moon is also sometimes known as the Milk Moon, Dragon Moon or Hare Moon

Sunday 26th May – Soon after twilight this evening the planets Jupiter, Mercury and Venus should be visible forming an equilateral triangle to the WNW (West North-West)

Jupiter, Mercury and Venus 26052013 20.15 UTC Sky-Watching.co.uk

Forming an equilateral triangle in the twilight sky, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus appear close to each other just after sunset on 26th May, as shown at 20:15 UTC/21:15 BST (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

These planets will be near neighbours from 23rd to 31st of this month, but appear closest together this evening

And today the Moon is at Perigee at a distance of 358,375 km (222,684 miles), the closest point of its orbit to the Earth

Friday 31st May – Tonight sees the Moon at Last Quarter phase; and twilight planets Jupiter, Mercury and Venus appear aligned soon after sunset

Planets visible this month:

Jupiter
Saturn
Venus
Mercury

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 – April 2013
Astronomy Events – March 2013
Astronomy Events – February 2013

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

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Astronomy is contagious!

April 29, 2013

by yaska77

The great thing about astronomy is that anyone with a sky over their heads can get involved. You don’t need a truckload of expensive gear, just an interest and a modicum of patience will get you a long way!

Soon after I got my camera and started posting images on this blog, Mick Judd (a talented photographer who I happen to work with) also began skywatching, and he has captured some great shots with limited “astro-specific” equipment.

After we recently discussed the upcoming penumbral eclipse on 25th April (see our images here) Mick went home and over the course of a few evenings has produced the following short video, which we hope you enjoy.

We think it’s great, and just the sort of thing we hope will help others catch the astronomy bug! But how did he do it?  I’ll let him explain that himself!

“To capture the images I used two different eyepieces on a D=60mm F=700mm telescope; an H20 to fit the whole of the moon in the frame and an HF6 for the close-ups of the lunar surface and for Saturn. To attach the camera (a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S mobile phone) I drilled a hole in the middle of a plastic lid from a can of hair mousse, and glued it around the lens hole on the phone’s protective case.

Slotting the plastic lid over the eyepiece housing on the telescope and pushing it into place, it’s then a bit of hit and miss with lining up what I can see in the finder scope with what I can see on the phone’s display. The Xperia Arc S has a lot of camera settings so it’s just a matter of adjusting EV levels and using a bit of digital zoom to fill the frame to avoid seeing the round edge of the eyepiece.

To try and make sure that I capture something that is sharp I slightly tweak the scope’s focus every now and then between shots. The Sunspots were viewed through an additionally fitted Solar filter.  All the footage in the video was captured between 15th and 27th April 2013.”

Top work Judd bloke, and an ingenious set up!

You can see more of Mick’s photos on his Flickr page here

Now everyone get outdoors and enjoy the night sky! :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Eclipse, Moon, Saturn, Sun, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Penumbral eclipse, full moon, no clouds!?

April 25, 2013

by yaska77

It’s been a very slow couple of months of late. The British weather is infamous the world over, and not only have we just experienced the first real warmth of spring, but an abundance of evening clouds have kept many a garden astro indoors.

The signs were good this evening however, there was a penumbral eclipse on the April Full Moon (as noted in our April Astro Guide), and not a cloud in the sky! What madness was this!?

Penumbral Eclipse 25042013 21.07 BST Sky-Watching.co.uk

Taken with a Canon Eos 550D and a 250mm lens mounted to a fixed tripod, the penumbral eclipse is visible over the top left edge of the full Moon (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Some time ago the spotter scope on my telescope was knocked out of alignment, so combined with the clouds it’s been a shamefully long time since I used it.

Looking on this evening as a chance to at least re-align the spotter scope (even if the Moon would not rise high enough to see any of the partial eclipse), I set up and found my fence was just low enough for the scope to catch it before the shadow passed!

Penumbral Eclipse 25042013 21.22 BST Sky-Watching.co.uk

Now mounted to my Sky-Watcher 200P Telescope, the partial eclipse is still a visible shadow over the northern edge of the Full Moon (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

So finally we’ve had an astronomical event that the clouds missed. But not by much I can tell you, an hour after these photos were taken the Moon was enveloped behind a blanket of cloud.

So we do get a break once in a while after all :)

Posted in Astronomy, Blog gallery, Eclipse, Moon, Night sky, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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Hubble eyes up comet ISON

April 24, 2013

by yaska77

Billed as possibly the “comet of the century”, C/2012 S1 ISON has recently found itself in the sights of the Hubble Space Telescope. Still too far away to be seen by the naked eye, what has been exciting astronomers about ISON is its potential to become briefly brighter than a full Moon as it makes its closest approach to the Sun around the 28th of November.

hs-2013-14-a-large_web

Even at a distance of 386 million miles from the Sun, comet ISON is being warmed causing sublimation, the creation of its tail (click to enlarge) – Credit: NASA, ESA, J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute), and the Hubble Comet ISON Imaging Science Team

The comet’s dusty coma, or head of the comet, is approximately 3,100 miles across, or 1.2 times the width of Australia. A dust tail extends more than 57,000 miles, far beyond Hubble’s field of view.

More careful analysis of the image (captured on 10th April) is currently underway to improve these measurements and help predict the possible outcome of the sungrazing passage of this comet, but the formation of a tail while still so far from the Sun could mean ISON breaks up before putting on the show we all want it to!

ISON was discovered in September 2012 by the Russian-led International Scientific Optical Network using a 16-inch telescope.

Source: Hubblesite.org

Posted in Astronomy, Comet, Hubble, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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April showers of the Lyrid kind

April 17, 2013

by yaska77

Beginning now until the 25th of this month we see the April Lyrid meteor shower (peaking on April 22nd before dawn). The meteors in this shower tend to be bright and leave persistent trails as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere.

In recent years the shower has seen anything from 10 to 20 meteors per hour.

01-wye-downs-perseid-12082012-sky-watching-co-uk

We caught this Perseid meteor flashing across the night sky in August 2012, so we’re hoping to have clear skies for the Lyrids! (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Although that might sound like a fairly mediocre “shower”, it has been known for the Lyrids to surge to over 100 per hour! This is what makes this shower so difficult to predict. How many will we see?

Will it be a downpour of shooting stars or a washout this year!?

Lyrid Meteor Radiant 22.04.2013 01.00UTC Sky-Watching.co.uk

Although the meteors will seem to originate from Lyra, they can appear all over the sky. Shown above at 01:00 UTC (02:00 BST) on 22nd April just at the start of the peak (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Lyrid meteors originate from a radiant point in the constellation of Lyra which is where this shower gets its name. The best time to look for Lyrid meteors is late in the evening after 21:00 UTC (22:00 BST) however, the waxing gibbous Moon will still be in the sky until the early hours so its light may wash out the fainter meteors.

02-perseid-from-andromeda-12082012-sky-watching-co-uk

Another Perseid from August 2012, this one has more definition to the shape at the end of the streak and is seen heading away from the Andromeda galaxy (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Don’t let this deter you though, the unpredictable nature of the Lyrid shower is what makes it worth watching so we hope you have clear skies!

Now we’ve expressed an interest we’re expecting it to be cloudy, but amateur astronomers are nothing if not optimistic :)

Posted in Astronomy, Meteor, Moon, yaska77 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

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