I went out Monday evening, 20 May, to look for Venus, Mercury and Jupiter as the “Trio” conjunction approaches this weekend

Using a pair of 7 x 50 binoculars I found a spot with a low horizon to the west-northwest. This is a bit tricky because Venus and especially Mercury are still low off the horizon

Best time to spot the Trio is about 30 minutes after sunset. At my location this is about 01:20 UT or 9:20 pm local time. The planets will appear as the sky darkens. Venus appeared first since its the brightest of the Trio followed by Jupiter

I measured Jupiter at about 8 degrees above and left of Venus. I knew Mercury would appear below and to the right of Venus

As the sky darkened I positioned Venus at “10 o’clock” in the binoculars field of view and few moments later dim, rusty red Mercury appeared out of the glowing twilight at about the “5 o’clock” position in my field of view

Mercury was just a couple of degrees above a cloud bank and about 5 degrees off the horizon

Mercury and Venus will rapidly climb toward Jupiter over the next few days. Jupiter was about 17 degrees above the horizon Monday evening

The chart above left shows the position of the “Trio” for Tuesday evening, May 21 local time. Click on the chart to enlarge

The “Trio” of planets will bunch together visibly over the coming nights so I encourage you to spend a few moments observing each night

The forecast at my locale is calling for clouds and rain over the next three days

Please send me details of your observations and I will post them here on the website

With a break in the clouds I ventured out Tuesday evening, 12 March, to try and catch a glimpse of comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS.

Had a bit of a problem finding an ideal observing site with a low unobstructed view to the west. Had two small telescopes and a tripod mounted digital camera set up by about 7:45 pm local time, fifteen minutes before sunset at 38 degrees north, 86 west.

I spotted the 40 hour old crescent Moon at 00:15 UT (8:15 pm EDT). The sky above my western horizon was partly cloudy and there was a heavy cloud bank looming on the distant horizon.

The Moon was higher than I had anticipated. I continued scanning with binoculars until the sky darkened enough for the comet to reveal itself at approximately 8:25 pm. PanSTARRS appeared about 5 degrees south-southeast of the Moon’s thin crescent.

The comet’s coma was concentrated and bright and it exhibited a stubby dust tail spanning just under a degree. I would estimate the comet’s magnitude at approximately a +2 although it was very difficult for me naked eye and was deep in the glow of twilight. Image left: courtesy Don Spain, Little Bear Observatory, Hillview, KY.

Twenty minutes later the Moon and comet PanSTARRS were at my horizon. The Moon is climbing away from the comet and therefore will not provide the convenient nearby reference point on upcoming evenings. This evening (13 March local, 14 March UT) the comet will appear about twenty degrees below and left (7 o’clock position) of the Moon.

Image left from Mohammad Odeh, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Thank you for allowing me to publish your image, Mohammed!

Notice the differences in the angle of the comet’s tail. I believe this is due to the different latitudes of the observers.

A low, clear horizon to the west is essential. Again, I had difficulty spotting the little fuzzball naked eye in the glare of twilight. Over the coming days and weeks PanSTARRS will climb out of the twilight glow but it will also fade as it leaves the inner solar system.

Comet C/2011 L4 was discovered in June, 2011 by the Pan-STARRS automated sky survey.

Track observations of comet Pan-STARRS on this blog at Sky and Telescope

The Mars Science Laboratory, Rover Curiosity, is about to celebrate its 200th “Sol” (Martian day) at Gale crater. Curiosity took its first rock sample on 8 February and experienced a computer memory glitch 25 February. For details visit the JPL/MSL website

Image left: Playing in the dirt at Gale crater. This recent image taken by Curiosity’s Mast Cam shows the layer of dust on the rocks at Yellowknife Bay. Courtesy: NASA/JPL

The Cassini mission at Saturn captured spectacular images of planet Venus through Saturn’s rings. Read more on the Cassini mission website.

Aboard the International Space Station Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford of NASA, Russian Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy and Russian Flight Engineer Evgeny Tarelkin will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the station at 8:30 p.m. EDT, March 14, heading for a landing in Kazakhstan northeast of the remote town of Arkalyk about three hours later. Visit the ISS website for details.

Speaking of the ISS, we’re into a period where ISS is visible on morning passes over North America. On Saturday morning, 16 March, in what I call “Satellites at Sunrise” ISS, China’s Tiangong-1 Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope will make visible orbital passes over the U.S. midwest within the period of about an hour.

ISS will lead the parade passing overhead from SSW to NE at 6:25 am EDT followed by Tiangong at 7:14 am and HST moments later. I will be holding a “Satellites at Sunrise” viewing event as part of the Comet Watch Weekend at Southern Grace B&B.

For details click the Heavens-Above link to the right.

February 18th is Pluto’s “birthday”. The dwarf planet was discovered February 18, 1930 by self taught astronomer Clyde Tombaugh working at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona

Coincidentally, the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered two tiny “moons” orbiting the dwarf planet bring the number of satellites at Pluto to five

The SETI Institute is conducting an online vote to name the moonlets which are currently designated “P4″ and “P5″

Balloting ends Monday, February 25. Visit Pluto Rocks

I have one more important birthday for you. The 540th anniversary of the birth of father of the Scientific Revolution who developed the heliocentric model of the universe (the Sun, not Earth was center of all), Nicolaus Copernicus, is Tuesday, February 19th

Rather than trying to cram 540 candles on a cake I suggest you go out Tuesday or Wednesday evening and check out the 90 km wide crater Copernicus which should be just about ideally placed along the sunrise terminator Tuesday evening

Updated February 14

Friday, February 15, marks the 449th birthday of my favorite Tuscan, Galileo Galilei. An uninvited celestial interloper is demanding an invitation to the “G-man’s” birthday celebration

At 19:24 UT (2:24 pm EST) Friday an asteroid designated 2012 DA-14 will whisk past the Earth at a mere 18,000 miles above the western Indonesian island of Sumatra at 17,450 miles per hour, fast enough and nearly close enough to snuff the 449 candles on Galileo’s birthday cake

Discovered on February 23, 2012 by the La Sagra Sky Survey at Observatorio Astronomico de La Sagra, 2012 DA-14 orbits the inner solar system between 83 and 103 million miles from the Sun

This near earth object has a diameter of approximately 150 feet or 45 meters, about half a football field, and is similar in size to the object that created Meteor Crater in Arizona 50,000 years ago or the Tunguska event over the Siberian outback on June 30, 1908

The flyby of 2012 DA-14 will be the closest known encounter of a body of this size on a trajectory which will take the space rock from south to north inside the ring of geostationary communications and weather satellites orbiting at 22,500 miles above the equator

Researchers will be tracking the asteroid with ground based telescopes observing in the infrared monitoring solar heat refected by the asteroid

Some researchers speculate there may be asteroid-quakes during the close encounter with Earth

After nearest encounter NASA continue radar tracking the object as it tracks high across the northern celestial sphere at JPL/NASA’s Goldstone tracking station

Timing of the asteroid’s nearest encounter favors observers in Asia and Europe where it may approach naked eye visiblity around 20 hours UT Friday afternoon. Observing in North America will require a medium or larger telescope. The asteroid will move quickly through Ursa Major from approximately 00 to 03 hours UT, February 16. Visit SatFlare for tracking information

I believe the man who developed the law of the pendulum, tried to determine the dimensions of Dante’s inferno, developed a rudimentary thermometer and made the first telescopic observations of the Moon and the 4 “Galilean”  Moons of Jupiter 400 years ago would find the timing of the our latest encounter with the cosmic renegade 2012 DA-14 amusing

For additional background on 2012 DA-14 read this article from the IAU Minor Planet Center

Watch live USTREAM coverage from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

February 13 NASA press release on the encounter

Links you may find interesting:

Museo Galilei , NASA Galileo Mission , The Galileo Project

MMMM! This weekend its a Meeting of Mercury, Mars and the Moon in your southwestern sky at dusk

Friday evening,  February 8, Mercury meets Mars for the closest planetary conjunction of 2013. Tiny Mercury will be the brighter of the duo shining at magnitude -1.0 about a third of a degree above dimmer Mars at mag 1.2. Chart shows western horizon at 6:30 pm local time. Click to enlarge

This planetary “cuddle” will be brief. Speedy little Mercury is circling around from behind the Sun on its way to the best evening eastern elongation of the year on February 16

Monday evening a very slender day old crescent Moon will join the group just five degrees above the planets

Chart at left, one day old thin crescent Moon appears 5 degrees north of Mercury and Mars, Monday February 11 at dusk. Click to enlarge. Chart prepared using YourSky

Go out thirty to forty-five minutes after sunset. You will need binoculars. Watch each evening as Mercury climbs away from Mars and the Moon phase and position changes

 Next: Put on your hardhat…asteroid 2012/D-14 is coming!!!!!

On October 4, 2012 three tiny “cubesat” satellites were launched from the International Space Station as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI).

The cubesat form factor is a 10 cm (4 inch) cube that weighs about 3 pounds. One of the 3 satellites launched last October was “Fitsat-1″ a project of the Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT). Fitsat-1/Niwaka has several amateur radio experiments, two digital cameras and an array of LED lamps on the top and bottom panels of the cube.

The amateur radio experiments consist of a UHF CW (morse code) beacon operating at 437.250 Mhz, telemetry at 437.445 Mhz and a high speed data downlink at 5.840 Ghz.

The optical experiment consists of arrays of green and red LEDs which can be activated in either “bright” or “faint” modes flashing either a morse code message or “twinkle” mode flashing 10 times per second.

The satellite also carries a magnet system which keeps one axis of the cube aligned with Earth’s magnetic field. The green LEDs are visible only to observers in the northern hemisphere, the red those south of the equator.

Recently while checking Heavens-Above for upcoming visible ISS passes I noticed Niwaka will be making several visible passes here in the Ohio Valley in the upcoming days.

I contacted Mr. Takushi Tanaka, JA6AVG, at FIT to inquire about the possibility of scheduling Niwaka’s LEDs on for an excellent visible pass on Tuesday evening, February 5th.

Mr. Tanaka kindly agreed and will turn on Niwaka’s LED array at 0121-0123 UT 06 Feb (Tuesday evening 8:21-8:23 pm) in the flashing mode.

Estimated visual magnitude of Niwaka’s LEDs is +7 to +8, about the same brightness as the Milky Way at a dark site. Observing the light experiment will be very difficult in light polluted city areas and binoculars or a telescope are recommended. See actual video here from Southgate Amateur Radio Club

The name NIWAKA is from “Hakata Niwaka”, which is traditional impromptu comical talking with a mask. Here, Hakata is old name of Fukuoka city.

Two Line Keplerian Elements are available at Celestrak.com

Track Fitsat-1 here Learn more about Fitsat-1 from the American Radio Relay League

The FIT operations team is very interested in reports of both the radio signal and optical experiment. I encourage you to participate however you can and report your results to me here Due to changes in Fitsat-1’s orbit the Keplerian elements are revised daily. There may be a slight adjustment on the timing of the LED activation.

Here are selected celestial events for late January and early February. Get out and take a look at the events listed in BOLD type. Times listed are Eastern Standard. If you live in Europe or Africa objects in the sky will appear slightly west (right) of the positions in the charts. For those living in the western part of North America or the Pacific region they will appear slightly east (left) of placement in the charts

• 18-Jan  Mercury at superior conjunction. Tiny, Mercury is on the far side of the Sun now. Speedy Mercury will make an evening appearance in early February. See February 16

Sunday, 20 January Edwin E. Buzz Aldrin, NASA Astronaut and second man to walk on the Moon turns 81 today

• 26-Jan  Full (Wolf) Moon at 11:38pm EST 

• 27 January 1967 Apollo 1 astronauts Edward White, Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Roger Chaffee perish in a fire during a launchpad test

•  Tuesday, 29 January. Visible morning pass of the International Space Station. ISS is currently in a phase of visible morning passes over North America. This morning ISS will make an excellent, nearly overhead pass for observers in the midwest. Here in the Louisville/southern Indiana area ISS will rise over the northwest horizon at 6:38 am EST and pass to the southeast, peaking at 83 degrees off the NE horizon at 6:40. Dress warmly and step out a few minutes early so your eyes dark adapt.  ISS will fly off to the southeast and disappear at 6:44 am. Check the Heavens-Above link to the right for passes at your location

• 28 January 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after launch killing all seven crew members

• 31 January 1958 United States enters the space age with launch of Explorer 1 satellite

• 1 February 2003 Space Shuttle Challenger breaks up on orbital re-entry with crew of seven aboard

• 2 February Candlemas a cross quarter day. The mid-point of winter (and the reason for Ground Hog day!)

• 3 Feb   Last Quarter Moon at 8:56am EST

• 3 Feb Note! This near conjunction will actually happen on SUNDAY morning! Saturn is 3 degrees north of the Moon this morning.  Observing this one will be best just prior to sunrise Sunday morning when the Moon and Saturn will be highest off the south-south west horizon. I suggest you step out for a look between 6:30 and 7 am local time. Saturn and the Moon will rise around 3 am local time this day.  During your pre-sunrise observing see if you can spot Venus low in the southeast.  Click chart to enlarge
  

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• 10 Feb  New Moon at 2:20am EST 

• 16 Feb Saturday Mercury at greatest Eastern elongation . Look for tiny orange-red Mercury 30 to 45 minutes after sunset, east (above and left) of where the sun set on the west-southwest horizon and slightly above right of Mars. Map planet key: Uranus- light blue, Mercury- green, Mars- Red, Neptune-blue . Observing tip: You’ll need binoculars!
  

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• 17 Feb  First Quarter Moon at 3:31pm EST

Charts prepared using John Walker’s Your Sky

You’ve probably noticed planet Jupiter’s current appearance as the “evening star”. Jove reached opposition in early December, it dominates the evening eastern sky now and is visible all night. At opposition Earth passes the outer planet in it’s orbit nearer the Sun.

When a superior planet, like Jupiter, is overtaken by Earth its normal direct motion appears to become retrograde. Planets in direct motion appear to move east to west against the background stars. In retrograde motion the superior planet appears to make a “backward” or west to east loop against the stars.

From our viewpoint here on Earth Jupiter has been in retrograde motion since early October in Taurus. Jove is spending December nestled in the Hyades asterism just 5 degrees away from red giant Aldebaran. Christmas week the Moon will join the beautiful duo of sparkling white Jove and orange fire red Aldebaran for one of the finest conjunctions of the year.

Christmas eve finds the Moon about 15 degrees west of Jupiter. On Christmas night Luna, Jove and Aldebaran are clustered within a 5 degree circle. December 26th the Moon has moved on and will appear about 12 degrees to east of the planet and star. The Moon reaches full phase two nights later.

Jupiter and Aldebaran make great reference points against which the Moon’s motion from night to night can be easily observed. Go out each evening and watch Luna’s celestial dance past the more distant planet and stars. December’s full Moon is known as the “Moon before Yule” or the “Long Night Moon”.

It will also be interesting to watch as Jupiter continues it’s retrograde loop west and pulls away from Aldebaran.
The Hyades asterism is a V shaped open cluster consisting of more than 200 stars and is our nearest open cluster. It makes up the “head” of the zodiacal constellation Taurus. Aldebaran is the red eye of the bull. These evenings as Taurus is rising in the east the constellation is lying on its side with the Hyades “V” open to the north or left. The bull’s horns stretch to the left or north between Orion and Auriga, one of the horn tips is the star Alnath (Nath) which Taurus shares with Auriga, the Charioteer. Its much easier to see the bull as the constellation stands upright high in the southwest around 2 am. Use Jupiter as a reference point, Taurus will be standing high to the planet’s left at that hour.

The chart above depicts the sky above the eastern horizon at 7pm, December 25th, at latitude 38 North. Chart prepared using YourSky. Click to enlarge chart.

Although the winter solstice is two weeks away we are now into what I call the
“solstice season”. I describe it this way because it doesn’t happen all at once on the same
day. Since the end of November, at 38 degrees north latitude, we’ve been in a period of earliest
sunset, 5:23 pm. This will continue until 13 December.

On December 21st, the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, we will have
the “shortest” day. Sunrise at 11:11 UT or 6:11 AM EST, sunset at 5:26 PM

The latest sunRISE will occur from about 31 December to 10 January with sunrise
at 8:00 am. The above noted times are for those living in the Louisville, KY area.

I thought it might be interesting to compare sunrise/sunset times on Friday, December 21, the date of the winter solstice here in the northern hemisphere.

I have family in Wyoming and Southern California, respectively. So, lets compare. Again, here in Louisville sunrise/sunset will happen at 7:56 am and 5:26pm. In Wyoming it will be 7:43 am and 4:41 pm and out in California 6:54 am and 4:47 pm. Some of this has to do with how far west you are located within the time zone.

Just for fun I thought it would be interesting to check some “extremes”. If you love summer you probably won’t want to learn that in Christchurch, New Zealand where it will be the first day of summer on December 21st sunrise/sunset will happen at 5:44am and 9:10pm!

So you won’t feel so bad, for the folks living in Stockholm, Sweden (including my friend Teemu) the sun will rise at 8:45 am and set at 2:46 that afternoon. 5 hours and 59 minutes of daylight!

By the first week in January here in Indiana sunset will have already gotten 10 minutes later
than the earliest at 5:33 pm.

I’ve mentioned before that one of my favorite skywatching activities is observing the “Belt of Venus”. Watch as Earth’s shadow falls toward the horizon moments before sunrise or climbs immediately following sunset on the horizon opposite the sun (west mornings, east evenings). I shot this image of the evening Belt of Venus in late November. Click image to enlarge.

If you’re anxious to start your evening observing as early as possible now is
the time to do so…by solstice you will have to wait 3 minutes longer!

Calculate your sunrise/sunset times at sunrisesunset.com

Please join me for our Winter Solstice/Its Not the End of the World event Saturday, December 22nd at Granny’s restaurant, Elizabeth, IN