The holidays bring out the kid in all of us and we astronomers are not immune, especially if there’s a celestial light show in the offering.  Remember the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn back in December 2020?   I do, and what a magnificent sight it was!   Well, hold on to your Santa hats and reindeer headbands because the celestial holiday magic for this year involves the Moon making Mars disappear right in front of your very eyes on the night of December 7.   A week later, on December 14, you get the chance to see asteroid crumbs burning up as they plow into the Earth’s atmosphere.  I’m excited just writing about all of it!

DECEMBER 7: THE MOON OCCULTS MARS

As with the Sun and the background stars, the Moon and planets appear to rise in the east, move across the sky, and then set in the west since the Earth is rotating upon its axis.   Let me reemphasize that: the nightly progression of celestial objects from east to west is an apparent motion created because of the Earth rotating upon its axis.   But the Moon is also physically moving within its orbit around the Earth, doing so at an average speed of some 2,288 mph.   In an hour’s time, the Moon can be seen to drift eastwards by one span of its own diameter, or half a degree.  Within a 24-hour period, the Moon will have shifted its position some 12-13 degrees upon the sky, in an easterly direction.  In 27 days, 7 hours and 43 minutes, the Moon will have completed one full orbit around the Earth.  This motion across the sky is real, as opposed to its nightly westward apparent motion, and while it is slow you can still observe it.  Just go out one night and pay special note to where the Moon is in relation to the background stars within a given constellation.  Go back inside and then return a few hours later, or the next night at the same time, and observe where it is then.  What you will find is that the Moon really is in motion, endlessly traversing the sky in an easterly direction.

The Moon’s motion across the sky leads to two particular kinds of events that are a delight to astronomers the world over and can be appreciated by just about everyone using nothing more than their unaided eye or a basic pair of binoculars.  I’ve already mentioned one of them in the very first paragraph.  Conjunctions can be defined as close groupings or pairings of bright stars or planets and the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was one of the best that we’ve had in quite a while.  More often, a conjunction involves a pairing or a grouping between the Moon with a bright star or planet and we usually see a few of these each month.  How close can these objects appear to be?  Well in some cases, a pair of objects may appear so close together that they almost appear to be a single light source and you would need binoculars or a small telescope to split them apart visually.  Every now and again a pair of objects will appear to get closer together than that and we call them “occultations”

Okay, let’s all settle down, I know occultations sounds a bit spooky (I mean, it has the word “occult” being loud and proud in there) but all it means is that something along our line of sight has temporarily blocked our view to another object along the same line.  A good example of one is whenever the new Moon blocks our view of the Sun in a total solar eclipse.   Yes, the words “occultation” and “eclipse” can be used interchangeably.

The word “occult” is derived from the Latin word, “occultus” and means “hidden” or “secret”.   In astronomical parlance it’s used as a verb but if you tell your co-workers that you saw your neighbors and some of their friends gathered in a circle around an altar in their backyard at midnight, wearing hooded black robes while sacrificing a goat, and you think they might be dabbling in the “occult”, then you are using it as a noun.

Each night, the Moon is gliding along in its orbit around the Earth and, as it does so, it is always occulting a few of the more distant background stars.  Lunar occultations of bright stars are going to be more interesting to observe than are the fainter stars and, ideally, you would want to observe an occultation event when the Moon is at a partial phase since a full Moon’s glare can really compete with even the brightest of stars.  A full Moon can also make it difficult to predict where the occulted star will reappear on the Moon’s other side.  We see stars as point sources of light and when one is being occulted, they will blink out very suddenly.

While the Moon is occulting stars all the time it is uncommon for it to do so with planets, but when it does, it is something you really want to try and see.  The Earth, Moon, and all the other planets of our solar system orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane.  From Earth, we see this plane projected onto our sky as the path the Sun, Moon, and planets all appear to traverse over the course of the year.  We call this path, the “ecliptic”, so named by astronomers of ancient times because that’s where in the sky one would expect to see an eclipse (or occultation).  Inevitably, there will be a time when the Moon’s orbital path causes it to pass in between our line of sight to a planet (or even a bright asteroid).  Viewed with binoculars or a small telescope, a planet appears as a disc, rather than as a point source, consequently, an occulted planet will not suddenly blink out as a star would, it instead appears to hover over the Moon’s surface before gradually fading from view.  In what is known as a “grazing occultation”, the Moon appears to skim by a planet (or other celestial object) and, with a telescope, you can actually see the planet play hide-and-seek through the gaps in the Moon’s mountains!

On the night of December 7, the Moon reaches full phase and the planet Mars reaches opposition on December 8.   An “opposition” of a planet simply means that the Earth is at a point in its orbit where it passes in between the Sun and the planet in question.  For example, seen from “above” the solar system, you would observe a configuration like this: Sun->Earth->Mars.  A planet at opposition is rises at around sunset and is up all night long.  It’s often at the closest point to Earth for the entire year and therefore is at its biggest and brightest.  In other words, it’s a good time to observe telescopically.   Mars comes into opposition roughly every two years and no two oppositions are the same due to Mars’s long, elliptical orbit.  This year’s opposition is not the greatest for observing with a telescope but it’s better than the next few oppositions so, get out now and observe it.  As is always the case with Mars, use as large an aperture as you can and as much magnification as your telescope will allow.

While the Moon is full this night and is not exactly perfect for observing an occultation, it is still going to be worth your while.  Much of North America is going to witness this event, the exception is going to be much of the southeast.  Little Rock is right along a line that represents the cutoff point for observing the complete occultation.  Times for the occultation vary depending on where you are in the United States, as does where along the Moon’s edge Mars will disappear and then reappear.  In Little Rock, Mars will disappear at around 9:06 PM and reappear at 9:32 PM.  Now, if you have been paying attention, you will notice that is not an hour, or how long it takes for the Moon to move a full diameter.  From Little Rock, we will see Mars become occulted along the Moon’s far southern hemisphere and, consequently, it will pop back out pretty quickly.

While the occultation can be seen with the unaided eye, I highly recommend that you use binoculars or a small telescope for the very best experience.  Thanks to the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society, you can now check out telescopes from the Central Arkansas Library System (all branches) just like you can a book, so you might want to grab one ASAP.

DECEMBER 14TH: THE GEMINID METEOR SHOWER

Of the various annual meteor showers, we always close out the year with the best, the Geminids, whose numbers rival those of the Perseids in August.  Under the very best of conditions, it is possible to see 120 per hour.  But that’s assuming a lot about your viewing conditions and prime conditions are rarely ever met and this year, the biggest problem will be a bright waning, Moon.  But all is not lost, it will still be possible to see a few of these bright meteors.

For most meteor showers, what we are seeing are the sand grain-sized bits of comet dust burning up in our atmosphere but with the Geminids the parent source is an asteroid named 3200 Phaethon.  Comets are primarily ice while asteroids are rocky material and the crumbs left behind in the wake of the passage of 3200 Phaethon are more pebble-sized than dust grain-sized, as a result they tend to produce much brighter meteor streaks across the sky.  That’s good because some of them can be bright enough to overcome the Moon’s glare.

My advice for this year is to get out on the night of December 13 and continue watching for as long as you can until the Moon rises during the wee hours of December 14, the predicted peak.  Observe from outside the city, under as dark a sky conditions as you can find (I cannot stress this enough).  To find a good observing site here in the state, please visit the Arkansas Natural Sky Association’s website for a list of suggested locations: https://darkskyarkansas.org

Also, be sure and bundle up, bring snacks, and warm beverages.

Happy Holidays and remember to keep looking up in both awe and wonder.

The post December 2022 – Mars Attacked! (By the Moon) plus Best Meteor Shower appeared first on University Television - Comcast 61/1095 & UVerse 99.

Eclipses and meteor showers always have the potential to be great celestial naked eye spectacles and this November we are being given a shot at both.

NOVEMBER 8: TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

The great thing about this month’s two astronomical happenings is that no expensive equipment is required to observe them. All you need do is sit back, look up, relax, and enjoy. Oh, and you might need some caffeine since both of these events take place during the very early to late morning hours, right before sunrise.

A total lunar eclipse can only happen during a full Moon. At full Moon, the Earth is positioned in between the Moon and the Sun, allowing for the possibility for the Moon to enter the giant cone-shaped shadow that our planet casts out into space. But if we have a full Moon every month, why do we not always see a lunar eclipse? Two reasons. First, the Moon’s orbit, relative to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, is inclined by 5-degrees. This tilt means that the full Moon-Earth-Sun alignment is not always as precise as needed for an eclipse to occur. Secondly, the Moon’s orbit around the Sun is not a perfect circle, it’s actually in the shape of a somewhat flattened circle known as an ellipse. An elliptical-shaped orbit means that the Moon’s distance from Earth is always varying. On average, the Moon is about 238,900 miles away. Sometimes it can get as close as 225,623 miles and, at its most distant, the Moon can be as far away as 252,088 miles. For a total lunar eclipse to occur, the Moon needs to be in a precise “sweet spot” in order to pass into the deepest part of the Earth’s shadow AND do so at the precise time.

As I said, the Earth casts a cone-shaped shadow out into space. This shadow, seen in cross section, is a circle. Yes, even people in ancient times had deduced that the Earth is a sphere just by observing lunar eclipses. This shadow has three distinct areas. The outer part of the shadow is rather faint and is called the “penumbra” while the dark core of the shadow is the “umbra”. Where the shadow begins to taper down to a point you will find another faint section known as the antumbra. It’s much like the penumbra but forms at a certain distance from the object casting the shadow. It’s not going to be a major player here so let’s just agree to ignore it for now.

When the Moon enters the penumbra, not a lot can be seen to be happening, just a subtle dimming of the lunar surface. But, as soon as the Moon glides into the umbra you will notice the difference. For a period of time, the moon will appear to have had a bite taken out of it. In fact, the mythology and superstations of many different cultures explain a lunar eclipse as being the result of demons or giant celestial animals attempting to devour the Moon. Since this particular “blood moon” total lunar eclipse falls on an election day, November 8th, feel free to read into that what you will (but, whatever you do, please vote!).

As the Moon becomes enveloped by the umbra you will begin to see the once silvery surface turn a rusty red color. Remember, during a full Moon, the Earth is being backlit by the Sun. The Sun’s light is now being filtered by our precious life-sustaining atmosphere. In doing so, the short wavelength, bluer portions of the Sun’s light get scattered by particles in the atmosphere, while the longer wavelength, redder portions, pass right on through. It’s the same phenomenon that makes our skies appear blue and sunsets red. Physicists call it “Rayleigh scattering” (named for the 19th century British physicist, Lord Rayleigh). It’s those longer wavelengths of red being projected onto the lunar surface that are responsible for our so-called “blood Moon”.

November is often a cloudy month here in Arkansas so let’s hope for clear skies during the morning hours of the 8th because North America will not see another total lunar eclipse until March of 2025. The chart below is from Time and Date, and it shows the times for the different sequence of events for this month’s eclipse.

Should we get clouded out, do not despair, NASA has this recommendation:

“Numerous organizations and individuals around the globe present live streams and videos of lunar eclipses. An online search will provide multiple options for viewing from your computer screen. You can also visit NASA’s Dial-a-Moon for a visualization of the eclipse.”

LEONID METEOR SHOWER

Our next celestial highlight this month is a meteor shower and one that has some notoriety to it. The Leonid meteor shower typically produces a modest 15 meteors per hour but, every 33 years or so, this trickle of meteors can become a torrent. At this point, we are no longer talking about a shower but a storm. In the year 1833, observers across parts of the US, saw hundreds of thousands of meteors per hour. On the morning of November 17th, 1966, folks living in the American southwest, for one 15-minute period, were stunned by the sight of 40 to 50 meteors per second. That translates into 2,000 the 3,000 meteors per minute. Witnesses to such events have been said to have dropped to the ground, clinging on for dear life because of the illusion created that the Earth was suddenly zooming off into space.

Will this year produce such a spectacle? Unfortunately, no, it’s not very likely. However, there are some meteoriticists (sadly, the term “meteorologist” had already been claimed by the weather folks) who are expecting an outburst of some sort for this year’s Leonids. But before we delve into that, let’s get some basics out of the way.

Meteors are often referred to as “shooting stars” but of course they are no such thing. On any given night, you stand a good chance of seeing a few meteors provided that you are observing from a dark sky location. Each meteor streak you see in the sky is the result of a bit of ice, rock, or metal, burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere and they are typically no bigger than a grain of sand.

Meteor showers result when the Earth passes through a stream of the particle-sized debris left behind from the wake of a comet. Comets are often mountain-sized objects made from loosely packed ice and rock. They normally exist on the outer edges of our solar system but, on occasion, their orbits become perturbed, and they find themselves careening in towards the Sun. As they get closer to the Sun, say out near the orbit of Mars, their ices warm up and the comet begins to eject gas and dust, leaving a long stream of debris in their wake. It’s this material that will burn up in the atmosphere, creating the spectacle of a meteor shower. Well, I say “spectacle’ but your mileage may vary depending upon the meteor shower in question and its productivity.

The parent comet for the Leonid meteor shower is 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, discovered first in 1865 by astronomer Ernst Tempel and then again, independently, in 1866 by Horace Tuttle. It’s a rather small comet, with a nucleus (the main body of the comet) that measures some 2.24 miles across. It only takes 55P/Tempel-Tuttle 33 or 34 years to make one complete lap around the Sun and, each time it does so, it lays down a stream of debris. Over time, these streams of meteor dust widen out but some of 55P’s streams contains denser regions than others and it’s these denser sections that, on occasion, produce meteor storms. Or at least, an occasional outburst.

The peak of the Leonids is on November 17th, just after midnight when the radiant, the section upon the sky from which most of the meteors appear to originate, rises. The radiant just indicates the direction out in space where the meteor stream is located and for the Leonids, that happens to be within the constellation of Leo, hence the name for the shower. But that’s not the night for which this year’s outburst will take place, that is predicted to occur on the night of the 19th at around 1:00 AM. Two different meteoriticists, folks whose area of expertise is the dynamics of meteor streams, predict that the Earth will pass through a dense portion of a stream laid down back in 1733 by 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Russian meteoriticst, Mikhail Maslov says the outburst could produce up to 250 meteors per hour. Japanese meteoriticist Mikiya Sato says around 50. That’s a fairly big discrepancy and it highlights the fact that predictions of meteor shower numbers are far from being an exact science. On the other hand, as we continue to learn more about these streams and construct better models, we have gotten better at forecasting such things. Does that mean we are likely to see a great show? I have no idea but, skies permitting, I will be outside and looking up with hopeful eyes.

The best times to look for Leonids on the peak night will be after midnight and the radiant will not reach its highest point until just before dawn. So, anywhere after midnight will be the best times to look but your chances of seeing the most won’t be until the wee hours before sunrise. Don’t focus exclusively on the radiant, which rises in the east after midnight, as meteors can appear in just about any area on the sky. Dress warmly, get comfortable in a reclined position, have warm beverages on hand, bring snacks, and enjoy. I also cannot stress the absolute need to be observing as far away from city lights as possible. Also, the Moon phase is at last quarter so it should be setting before the best viewing hours and won’t be too much of a nuisance.

Even if there is no meteor shower outburst, keep in mind that the Leonids also have a few other cards up their sleeve. According to NASA…

“Leonids are also known for their fireballs and Earth-grazer meteors. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak. This is due to the fact that fireballs originate from larger particles of cometary material. Fireballs are also brighter, with magnitudes brighter than -3. Earth-grazers are meteors that streak close to the horizon and are known for their long and colorful tails.”

Meteors and blood Moons! This month has some wonderful viewing opportunities for us stargazers so, get outside and keep looking up in both awe and wonder.

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October 1st is NASA’s International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) event and this month’s blog is devoted to sharing the lunar love all year long.

InOMN is a NASA sponsored event with the aim of inspiring people from around the world to all look up on this one night of the year in order to not only see the moon but to observe it as well.  When was the last time you looked at the moon? And I’m not talking about just noting its presence in the sky that one night while you were driving down the road. I mean, when did you last look at the moon with the same eyes as when you were a child, when you were full of curiosity and wonder and you had so many big ideas, your head seemed too small to ever hold them all in? Can you even remember the last time?  The moon is such a rewarding object for observation, it’s a shame that we take its familiar presence for granted.

The moon is not only our constant celestial companion, it is also our closest. Its silvery, silent, presence has graced our night skies long before there were people and even before there was life on Earth.  The Earth formed some 4.6 billion years ago from out of the miniscule particles of gas and dust that formed a disc around our nascent Sun.  This disc of gas and dust were the leftover material from the Sun’s formation and through countless collisions with one another, these particles of gas and dust would eventually snowball and form the planetismals, planets, asteroids, comets, and moons of our solar system.  In recent years, with the aid of telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to witness this same process occurring at different stages around other, younger, stellar systems.  The young Earth kept growing in size by accreting more and more matter through these multiple collisions.  It would finally reach its current size through one final cosmic fender bender.

4.5 billion years ago, the solar system is a chaotic place as the various planets, planetismals, asteroids, etc. are all playing bumper car before achieving stable orbits around the Sun.   It was amidst all of this pandemonium that a Mars-sized object would collide with the Earth, giving it a glancing blow.  The young Earth would absorb much of the offending impactor but some of the vaporized rock and metal from the two bodies was hurled out into space, forming a disc of glowing, superheated matter around the Earth.  Yes, our Earth once had a ring!  Estimates vary but it is thought that within just one hundred years or less, that ring of molten material would have coalesced under the force of gravity, cooled down, and formed our moon.

Earth’s current axial tilt of 23.5 degrees is a result of this collision.  That tilt is responsible for Earth’s seasons as different hemispheres of the globe receive varying amounts of the Sun’s direct heating as one hemisphere is angled towards the Sun and the other away from it at different times of the year, depending on where the Earth is in its annual trek around the Sun.  The moon’s presence is also what keeps the Earth from wobbling like a wildly gyrating top over time.  This keeps our climate fairly stable over long periods of time, which is also what makes life, as it exists now, possible.

But let’s go back to shortly after the moon’s formation, some 4.53 billion years ago.  For a good portion of time, the moon was much closer then than it is today, about half its average distance from Earth (which is about 240,000 miles).  Aside from the moon looking ginormous in our night sky, there would have been other consequences.  Before the moon formed, a day on Earth is thought to have lasted a mere four hours.  Due to the moon’s close proximity, its gravitational braking effect would have slowly lengthened our day to its current value.  Do we have any evidence for these shorter days?  Yes, we do.   Many coral species add thin, fresh layers of calcium carbonate every day to their stony “skeletons” (with a slight slowing during winter), we can calculate how many days growth has occurred over a year by counting these rings.  This applies to modern coral as well as to fossil species.  When we look at the fossil coral species that thrived early on in life’s history we don’t find 365 days for a year, we find around 400.  Granted, these corals existed over a billion years after the moon formed, it was still close enough to wield an influence on Earth’s rotational rate (it still does today), creating longer days.  It wouldn’t be until sometime after the Devonian period, some 400 million years ago, that we would eventually reach our current 24-hour day with 365 days for a year.

So, what else has the moon done for you lately?  More than you might realize.  We don’t know exactly how Earth’s pre-biotic chemistry made the leap to full fledged biology but we have pretty good evidence that primitive microbes first appear in the fossil record some 3.7 billion years ago (no, microbes do not fossilize but their life chemistry does leave tell-tale signatures in the rock record).  It is not inconceivable that the moon played a hand in this.  The moon is the biggest player in raising tides in Earth’s oceans (the Sun and planets do as well but their effects are not as significant).  When the moon was much closer, its tidal effects would have been considerably stronger and it is entirely possible that the constant churning effects on our oceans had a hand in the transition from chemistry to life on Earth.  We may never know for sure but it is certainly food for thought.

So, life, and the evolutionary processes that shape it, came into being when the moon was still a youngster and its presence probably played but a single tune among the myriad others that evolution has always danced to. Both the moon and the Sun have set the pattern of life’s circadian rhythms, all the physical, mental, and behavioral changes that come from out of living in a 24-hour cycle. Almost all life on Earth has its biological clocks set to the cycles of moon and Sun. Today, we can find a wide variety of plant and animal species whose life cycles and behaviors are intimately tied to the moon.  Here are but just a few examples…

With the aid of a moonlight sensitive protein known as CRY2, many coral species from around the world time their mass emission of eggs and sperm to the light of a full moon.

In the Mediterranean, there grows a plant known as Ephedra foeminea, which uses the full moon to cue its production of sugary globs that act as pollinator lures.  Under the bright moonlight, the sweet treats are said to glitter like diamonds.

Hatchling sea turtles depend on moonlight reflecting off of the ocean surface in order to correctly guide them to the water. (Sadly, artificial lighting kills thousands of baby sea turtles each year by confusing them and misdirecting them inland and away from the relative safety of the sea)

In the constant war between predator and prey, bright moonlight can play a major role as to who gets to eat and who gets eaten.  As to who benefits and who does not, it just varies from one species to the next.  African lions seem to be adversely impacted by bright moonlight as their hunting success drops on such nights.  Presumably, their prey stand a better chance of spotting the lions before they can make a kill.   On the other hand, short-eared owls have a much higher success rate at capturing deer mice on bright, moonlit nights.

Around five million years ago, there emerged on the African savannah, a species of upright ape.  By 2.5 million years ago, they had evolved to the point where they were flaking rocks to make crude stone tools.  When curious apes such as ourselves came along, with all of our curiosity and wonder, we began to ask ourselves questions about the moon. What is it? Why is it there? Why is it always changing its face? What is it made of? How far away is it? By asking and trying to answer those questions, we came to create myths. We even drew creative inspiration from the moon, driving us to tell stories, paint pictures, as well as write music and poetry. We also observed and learned. Some of the takeaway knowledge that we gained proved to have practical applications. For example, by noting how many days it always took for the moon to go through a full set of phases, we came up with the idea for something we called a “moonth” or “month”, as all the kids are calling it these days. When we made the big leap from being nomadic hunter/gatherers to that of agrarian farmers we learned how to keep track of long periods of time from our close observations of the cycles and rhythms of Sun, moon and stars. We created things like sundials and calendars so that we could look forward in time in order to know when to plant and harvest crops or to look back in time in order to honor and commemorate important dates in our past. In short, we were on our way towards building a civilization.

As time went on, our curiosity only grew and after about 1,500 years of just looking and wondering, we were finally able to take matters in hand by inventing crude telescopes. At that point the moon became not just an object, but a destination. We have always been wanderers and explorers and nearly 400 years after we began building telescopes we began to build rockets. True, our primitive primate brains initially only wanted to use rockets in order to bring death and destruction to our neighbors and their children, but some of us were looking ahead and thinking how we could use these terrible weapons as a means to reach for something higher and more noble than murder. It wasn’t long before we finally stepped out into space and walked upon the surface of another world, the moon. In doing so, much of the technology we needed to invent in order to carry human beings there and back again, would turn out to have broader applications, applications that would forever change the world around us and how we interact with one another. For example, the need to create light, compact computers for the Apollo spacecraft led NASA to use the then relatively new technology, the integrated circuit, which packed multiple transistors onto a silicon chip, paving the way for its future use in a variety of emergent technologies.  The device you are now reading this on is the descendant of such technology, born out of the fact that we have always been looking up at the moon, for so long, and driven by so many questions we wanted answers to.

And while there is no argument that our first mission to the moon was born out of a Cold War rivalry, there can also be no argument for the good will and sense of global unification the event engendered, if only for a short time.  Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 command module pilot, often stated that while on the global good will tours that followed, people would say things like “WE did it!”, not “You Americans”.  Prior to the Apollo 11 moon landing, on Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 took a photo of the fragile-looking Earth suspended in space.  It was called “Earthrise” and it became one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, sparking the rise of a global environmental movement. That’s why it is so vitally important that we never stop looking up with awe, wonder, and curiosity. These are the things that unite us and that drive us to do great things.

So, the next time you gaze up at the moon, I hope you do so with a newfound sense of appreciation for our closest celestial neighbor.  The world next door has truly played a significant role in shaping the one that you and I live on and, for me, it will always be a continual source of awe and wonder.

The post October 2022 – The Moon: An Appreciation appeared first on University Television - Comcast 61/1095 & UVerse 99.

WHEN AND WHERE TO LOOK

Jupiter has been part of our evening sky for the past month or so, rising about an hour after sunset, but on September 26th it reaches “opposition” and will rise in the east right at sunset and stay up all night.  Opposition simply means that from our point of view, Jupiter is on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun, with Earth in the middle.  Right around the time of opposition, an outer planet is at its closest point in its orbit to Earth and it is also around this time that it will reach maximum brightness.

All throughout the month, you can catch Jupiter in the eastern sky within an hour after sunset.  It is the brightest thing in our summer night sky right now outside of the moon.  On the night of the 26th, it will rise right at sunset and reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight, a great time to observe it with a telescope.  The planet can be found in the constellation of Pisces.  As a bonus, the planet Neptune can be viewed in a telescope just off to the west of Jupiter.

Around midnight on 11 September, you can easily see Jupiter to the left of the waning gibbous moon.  This will make for a fine photo opportunity that you can easily capture on most modern cell phone cameras and then share to social media.   Depending on your cell phone camera, you may or may not capture any surface details on the moon (if you know what you are doing, you will have better results with a Samsung Galaxy smartphone).

OBSERVING JUPITER AND WHAT YOU ARE SEEING

Jupiter is some 484 million miles from the Sun, but it is also about 87,000 miles in diameter (it’s so big that you can easily fit 1,325 Earths inside it).  Being a gas giant, its upper cloud layers are very good at reflecting sunlight, making it appear very bright to us here on Earth.  The upshot of all this is that even with a small telescope, you are going to see surface details more easily with Jupiter than with any other planet in the solar system.  But you don’t even need a telescope to see cool things with Jupiter.  A basic pair of binoculars you have laying around the house won’t show you surface details, but they will show you Jupiter’s four largest moons orbiting around it: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.  These moons are also known as the “Galilean Moons”, so called because around late 1609 or early 1610, Italian scientist Galileo Galilei first observed them in his modest DIY telescope.   Galileo soon recognized them as satellites of the planet Jupiter.  Things in the heavens orbiting other things that were not Earth centered?  Heresy!  Galileo’s observations were the final nail in the coffin of 1,500 years of an Earth centered dogma regarding our place in the cosmos.  Just think, with a pair of binoculars, you too can duplicate Galileo’s revolutionary observations.   But which moons are you seeing?  Some astronomy apps will tell you which moons are visible (remember, some might be out of sight behind the planet when you are observing) at any given time.  Others won’t.  My suggestion is to get a Jupiter dedicated observing app such as Sky & Telescope’s Jupiter’s Moon’s.  Keep watching the moons off and on over the course of a few hours or on multiple nights and you will be able to see that they are always changing their relative positions.

Through a telescope, Jupiter really begins to impress.  Remember, even a small scope can show you lots of details.  If you do not own a telescope, you can check one out from the Central Arkansas Library System for two weeks.  I will be conducting a Moon/Saturn/Jupiter observing session at the Fletcher Branch Library in Little Rock’s Hillcrest area on Friday, 9 September, at 8:00 PM (with the 10th as a rain date).  Also, check with the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society’s website for star party dates and monthly club meetings (both of which are always open to the public for free!):

With a telescope, there is more to see with the Galilean moons.  These four moons orbit around the equatorial belt of the planet and, from our perspective here on Earth, we get to see them move in front of (“transit”) the face of the planet.  At such times we can see the very distinct shadow that each moon casts onto Jupiter’s upper cloud layers.  It’s an incredible sight and one I never tire of observing.  Once again, apps such as Jupiter’s Moons or Sky Safari will help you know when these events are happening.  Also check with web sites such as EarthSky or Sky & Telescope’s Jupiter’s Moons website:

Seen in toto, Jupiter appears placid and serene but that belies the planets true nature.  Jupiter is a planet of extremes.  Lightning is constantly crackling across the sky and is thousands of times more powerful than any lightning bolt on Earth, cloud layers are some 30 miles thick, wind speeds range from 300 to 900 mph, and there are storm systems that have been raging in the atmosphere for as long as we’ve been observing the planet that are capable of swallowing the Earth twice over.

Jupiter’s 10-hour rotation period is what creates those light colored, pastel bands in the atmosphere.  Small telescopes will show two dark brown belts running parallel with the equator and mid-sized scope will reveal light colored stripes known as “zones”.  The zones are cold, high altitude ammonia ice clouds whereas the belts are warm, low level clouds containing sulfur and phosphorus containing gases.  But I suspect what you would really like to see is the Great Red Spot, a giant hurricane that can contain two Earths inside it and that has probably been churning in the Jovian atmosphere since 1665, maybe even longer.

On Earth, our weather is driven by heat from the Sun, but Jupiter is too far away for the Sun to wield much influence there.  Instead of the energy from sunlight, it is heat welling up from the planet’s interior that feeds Jupiter’s storms.  At some 15,000 miles long and 7,400 miles wide, this Godzilla of storms would register as a Category 20 hurricane back here on Earth.  There are plenty of mysteries still surrounding this much observed storm.  For example, over the past 100 years we have seen the storm shrinking in size and changing color over time.  On occasion, it has disappeared altogether, only to reappear later.  We don’t know why.  To observe the Great Red Spot, you will likely need a telescope of at least 6” to 8”.  In my 8’ scope, it only every appears as pinkish speck.  Experiment with colored filters to help add contrast and make the GRS pop out even more.  In order to know when the GRS is going to transit, visit Sky & Telescope’s transit times web page:

Jupiter is likely the first planet to have formed in our solar system.  We believe this to be true because it is made up of the same stuff as the Sun is, hydrogen and helium.  And lots of it.  Not long after a star is born, it generates a fierce wind, blowing away much of these lighter gases.  So, for Jupiter to have acquired these gases and in such quantity, it must have formed very early in the solar system’s history.  Jupiter’s enormous mass prevents the loss of even the light elements of its atmosphere, the gas giant holds clues about the origin of the solar system. As the nearest giant planet, studying Jupiter can also provide insight into planetary systems around other stars.  NASA has been intensely studying Jupiter with its Juno probe and, if you haven’t already, I urge you to seek out some of the images of the planet taken with the probe’s Juno Cam.

Not to be outdone, engineers with the James Webb Space Telescope, in order to test the scope’s tracking capability, aimed the JWST at Jupiter and the results are nothing short of stunning.  Various citizen scientists who are used to working with space-based data, hopped onto the raw image and processed it to great effect.  This image was processed by Judy Schmidt and her image clearly shows Jupiter’s dust ring (first discovered by the Voyager spacecraft back in 1979), amazing details in the Jovian atmosphere, and several of the planet’s moons (including Europa off to the left of the image.

The next NASA mission to Jupiter is one that I am personally excited about.  In October of 2024, the agency is scheduled to launch the Europa Clipper, a spacecraft that will orbit the icy moon to see if it could have conditions suitable for life.  Due to tidal interactions with the planet, we have good evidence that there is a subsurface ocean beneath Europa’s ice coated exterior.  Something to think about as you observe Jupiter in both awe and wonder.

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I can sit here and extol with endless verbiage the beauty and wonder of Saturn’s rings but it’s really something that you must experience for yourself.  This month, Saturn is placed for prime time viewing in our evening skies and I’m here to help make sure that you get an opportunity see Saturn in a telescope, which is the best way to really appreciate it.

WHEN AND WHERE TO LOOK

For several months now, Saturn has been a morning object but this month it has transitioned to our evening sky, rising by around 9:00 PM.  It will remain in our evening sky for the rest of the year, but you will want to try and observe it telescopically this month.  Why?  On August 14th, the Earth glides in between the Sun and Saturn. This alignment places Saturn on the opposite side of the Sun in our sky and it is called, appropriately enough, “opposition”.  Whenever an outer planet is at opposition it will rise right at sunset, stay up all night and is well placed for observing.  The other advantage to this kind of alignment is that Saturn is on the same side of the Sun as the Earth is, placing Saturn closest to Earth in its orbit for the year.  On average, Saturn is some 1,329,454,066 kilometers from Earth.  That’s kind of a bulky number, so let’s put it in terms of light minutes.  Light travels at the incredible speed of 300,000 km/sec.  The average travel time for light to reach Earth from Saturn is 1 hour and 14 minutes.  Around opposition, the travel time for light between Saturn and Earth is about 73 minutes.

As the weeks progress, Saturn gets further and further away so you will want to catch it while it’s still close at hand.   To find Saturn, just step outside after sunset any night this month and face SE, it’s the brightest thing in this part of the sky right now (apart from the moon which sits close to Saturn upon the sky on the night of the 11th and Jupiter which rises an hour or so after Saturn in the east and which comes into opposition late in September this year).   Since ancient times, people have often seen Saturn as a golden colored “star” in our night sky.  It wasn’t until the 17th century that astronomers discovered that it had rings.

You cannot see the rings with binoculars, the planet will only appear as a golden disc that bulges oddly around its equator.  However, any size telescope will reveal the rings in all their splendor.  Just keep in mind that the more aperture your scope has, the more splendor (and more details) you will perceive.

WHAT YOU ARE SEEING

Saturn is of course a gas giant planet, made primarily of hydrogen and helium with some amount of methane and ammonia in its upper, visible atmosphere.  It is the sixth world from the Sun and it spins upon its axis at a rather speedy 10.5 hours.  However, being so far away from the Sun, it takes Saturn 29.5 Earth years to complete one lap around our star.  It’s also big.  Not quite as big as Jupiter but at some 75,000 miles in diameter, it would take you awhile to get from one side to the other using even the fastest means of Earthly transport available.  Yet, despite its size, it’s not very dense.  In fact, it’s less dense than water.  And you’ve probably already heard that if you could find a big enough bathtub, it would float.   Annnnd, yes, it would leave a ring.  Thank you, I will show myself out.

Data from NASA’s dearly departed Cassini spacecraft (after a 13-yearlong mission, the spacecraft was decommissioned and deliberately steered into the planet’s atmosphere where it burned up in Saturn’s skies and became a part of the world it collected data on for so long) suggests Saturn’s rings are a rather youthful 100 million years of age.   We don’t know exactly how the rings formed but our best model indicates that either a couple of ice moons collided and broke into many pieces or an ice moon or two strayed too far into Saturn’s gravity well and got shredded into tiny bits by the giant planet.   Either way, Cassini data and advanced computer modeling tells us that for the rings to look so bright and pristine, they must be fairly young and our most conservative age estimates place it at around 100 million years.

Saturn’s ring system is complex.  NASA spacecraft, from Voyager to Cassini, have revealed them to be made up of many smaller rings.  So many that it’s difficult to even count them.  However, you will only see three.  The A ring is outermost and is some 14,500 km (9,000 miles) wide).  Separating it from the next visible ring, B, is a dark gap called the Cassini Division, which is some 4,200 km wide (2,600 miles).  The B ring is the brightest of Saturn’s rings and is about 26,000 km across (16,000 miles).   On the B rings innermost edge is the rather faint C ring (also called the ”crepe ring”), which is 17,500 km wide (10,500 miles).

You may be surprised to learn that Saturn is not the only object in the solar system that has rings.  During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, we learned from the Voyager missions that Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also sport rings, but they are too faint to see with any backyard telescope.  Over the years, we’ve even learned that some of the minor planets (aka “asteroids”) have rings as well.   So, it’s fair to ask: why do we not see spectacular ring systems around the other giant planets?  Jupiter for example would be a great candidate for some ring eye candy.  Well, on July 21st, researchers at University of California, Riverside, have released a preprint paper to arXiv, claiming that they have an answer to Jupiter’s lack of a gorgeous ring system.  According to the research team, Jupiter’s four large Galilean moons are to blame.  According to Stephen Kane, who led the team:

“We found that the Galilean moons of Jupiter, one of which is the largest moon in our solar system, would very quickly destroy any large rings that might form. Massive planets form massive moons, which prevents them from having substantial rings.” -(From the EarthSky article, “Why Aren’t Jupiter’s Rings Glorious, Like Saturn’s?”, 26 July 2022)

Kane says it’s possible that Jupiter may have had a more substantial ring system in its past, but if it did, it didn’t last long.   All of which brings up an important point: ring systems do not last forever, and we are lucky to be living at a point in the solar system’s history where Saturn still flashes such amazing space bling.  Not only is Saturn’s ring system transitory, its orientation towards Earth changes with time, making them showy for certain periods of time and then practically invisible at others.

Earth is tilted upon its axis by 23.5 degrees with respect to our orbital plane around the Sun.  As a consequence of this, each hemisphere of the globe gets different amounts of direct sunlight throughout the year, it’s what brings about the seasons.  Saturn to has an axial tilt, one that is about 26.73 degrees with respect to its orbital plane around the Sun.  Given the planet’s much slower trip around the Sun, its year is about 29 Earth years long and each season is about 7 Earth years long.  The upshot of all of this is that those rings appear to tilt with respect to our view from Earth with each passing season on Saturn.   At opposition this year, the rings are 14 degrees open, it will be another 5 years before they are this open again.  Next year, they will only be 9 degrees open, and you will have a hard time making out much detail in them.  When the rings appear edge on to our line of sight, as they will in 2025, they are practically invisible (btw, those majestic rings are only meters thick.  You heard me, METERS thick!).

HOW I CAN SEE THESE THINGS FOR MYSELF?

If you do not own a telescope, don’t worry, the NASA Arkansas Space Grant (here at ĚÇĐÄVlog´«Ă˝ Little Rock), in conjunction with the Central Arkansas Library System and the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society, has funded the acquisition of library loaner telescopes.  These small, portable, robust, and easy to use scopes can be found in every branch of the CALS system.  If you have a library card with them, then you can check out a scope just like you can a book for two weeks.   Here is a link to the CALS website:  https://cals.org/telescope-lending

Check out a telescope and begin checking out the universe from your own backyard, it’s that easy!

Not comfortable operating a telescope?  Let me do it for you.  I am scheduled to be at the Fletcher Library Branch on 15 August at around 8:00 PM to set up a telescope or two in order to view Saturn when its rising at around 9:00 PM.  I will have an indoor program at around 8:00 PM and then we will head outside to see what we can see (skies permitting).  If that doesn’t work out, I will invariably be doing other outreach events throughout the year and you can email me about other opportunities at drheath@ualr.edu   Alternatively, you can check with the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society’s calendar of events to see what’s going on in the way of public events at www.caasastro.org   Each monthly club meeting is free and open to the public and, is skies permit, there is telescope observing after each meeting’s indoor programs.   You are always welcome to come up to the River Ridge Observatory and hang out with us.

If you do not get a feeling of awe and wonder at seeing Saturn in a telescope then check your pulse.   It’s amazing to think that this glorious and complex system of ice particles, ranging in size from dust to mountains, and only meters thick is so ephemeral and yet we are alive right now to bear witness to all of its grandeur.

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Within an hour of the Sun having ushered to a close yet another scorching summer’s day, even the least imaginative among us can easily discern the outlines of a giant scorpion crawling up the sky above the southern horizon. Scorpius, the eighth and most southerly constellation of the zodiac, guards two deep sky gems near its deadly stinger. Bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye under a good, rural dark sky, these two celestial beauties are best admired with a simple pair of binoculars that you may already have lying around the house.

SCORPIUS AND ITS MYTHOLOGY

Orion, whose magnificent constellation graces our winter sky, was a mighty hunter according to Greek mythology. He was also said to be a hot hunk of manliness. Well, he said so anyways. So taken with himself, he once boasted that he could kill any living creature upon the Earth. This greatly offended the sensibilities of the Earth Mother goddess, Gaia and, in a classic “hold my beer” moment, she causes a giant scorpion to rise from out of the Earth, to attack Orion. The mighty hunter and the fearsome arachnid engage in a death duel and each opponent succeeds in killing the other. The gods were so impressed with the fight that they decided to honor the combatants by placing them both in the sky. However, so as not to disrupt the celestial harmony, one was placed in the winter sky while the other could only appear in the summer sky. By placing them in the sky at different seasons, the two were less likely to start an unseemly brawl in the heavens.

To find Scorpius, just step outside this month about an hour after sunset and face south. Look for a bright, reddish-orange star, it’s the brightest star in this part of the sky right now and you may even see it within the half hour before the Sun has even set. This star is called Antares and it represents the heart of the Scorpion. The name means “rival of Mars” because its red color sometimes makes people think that they are viewing the Red Planet. Antares is red because it is a Red Supergiant. Red Supergiants are humongous stars (in this case, some 700 times the diameter of the Sun) that have run out of hydrogen, their primary fuel source in their cores, and are currently burning and fusing progressively heavier elements before they meet their ultimate demise in a supernova explosion. As they go through their final stages, their outer layers bloat outwards and turn the star to a red-orange color.

Antares is at the center of a fishhook-shaped pattern of stars. The fishhook pattern of stars is the body of the Scorpion. To find this month’s featured objects, trace out the outline of the Scorpion’s body until you come to the tail. Use the accompanying graphic to locate the two stars that denote the tail tip and stinger of Scorpius: Shaula (pronounced “SHOWL-a”) and Lesath (pronounced “LAY-soth”). The objects we are looking for are both “open star clusters” located near Shaula and Lesath: Messier 7 (also known as Ptolemy’s Cluster) and Messier 6 (also known as the Butterfly Cluster).

LOCATING MESSIER 7 AND MESSIER 6

To find these two star clusters, grab a pair of binoculars (any pair will do but I prefer a pair of 7×50 or 10x50s, preferably the latter type, which will make the members of these star clusters really pop out) and head outside about an hour after sunset. Locate Scorpius with your unaided eye and then locate Shaula and Lesath. Use the accompanying graphic. Locate Shaula and Lesath with your binoculars and then start to scan the region to the left (east) of Shaula. It is here that you will likely find Messier 7 (M7) first, as it is the biggest and brightest of the two star clusters. Once you have M7, look towards the upper part of your FOV and you will likely find M6 in the same view. NOTE: I suggest observing from the darkest, rural sky you can find. I have found both clusters with binoculars under urban light polluted skies, but the best views will be obtained with reduced light pollution. Visit the Arkansas Natural Sky website to find a list of dark sky observing spots around the state: https://darkskyarkansas.org

Why binoculars and not a telescope? Binoculars offer a more generous FOV which brings out the grandeur of open star clusters than does the generally narrower FOV offered by most telescopes. Under a good dark sky (and with good eyesight), these clusters can both be picked out with just the unaided eye.

As I’ve said, any pair of binoculars will do but my personal preference is going to be 10×50’s or larger. I suggest purchasing an L-bracket that will allow you to mount the binoculars onto a tripod. Alternatively, you can use a reclining lawn chair and brace the binoculars on your knees.

WHAT YOU ARE SEEING

Star clusters are groups of stars that share a common origin, having formed from out of the collapse of gigantic clouds of cold, molecular hydrogen gas and dust. They are also all, to some extent, mutually bound together by gravity for some period of time. Because they all share a common origin, star clusters are particularly useful to astronomers who wish to study and model the evolution and aging process of stars over time.

Generally speaking, star clusters come in two basic forms: globular and open star clusters. Globular star clusters are giant, tightly packed, spherical masses of stars that are very old and contain hundreds of thousands of individual stars. Most globular star clusters are to be found within the halo of our galaxy and are best seen in telescopes rather than binoculars. Nearby to M7, and next to the star G Scorpii, is globular star cluster NGC 6441. To the west of Antares is another globular star cluster, Messier 4.

The other type of star cluster, and the type to which M7 and M6 belong, is what is known as an open star cluster. The members of open star clusters all share the same common origin, are all pretty much recently formed (cosmically speaking), but usually number in the dozens or a few hundred individual stars. They are much more loosely bound together than are the stars in globular clusters and will, over time, disperse themselves throughout the galaxy.

M7 has been known since ancient times. The famous Greco-Egyptian mathematician and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy lists it in his masterwork of astronomy, “The Almagest” as far back as 130 AD. He describes it as “a nebula following the sting of Scorpius”. To this day, it is also known among both professional and amateur astronomers as “Ptolemy’s Cluster”. During the 1700’s, French comet hunter Charles Messier cataloged it along with 110 other “comet impostors”, little did he know that he was compiling a catalog of the deep sky’s top choice objects to see in modern day binoculars or a small telescope. To him, they were just objects that he and his comet hunting buddies might mistake for dirty snowballs within our own solar system.

M7 contains about 80 stars that range in magnitude between 6 and 10. Astronomers use a numerical brightness, or magnitude, scale for stars and other celestial objects where the brightest objects are assigned lower numbers and dimmer objects with higher numbers. The theoretical cutoff point for naked eye visibility is around magnitude 6.

On the sky, M7 spans some 80 arc seconds, that’s 3X that of a full moon, which is why you need binoculars or a wide field telescope to appreciate its beauty. It is located nearly a thousand light years away and is estimated to be some 200 million years old. At the time these stars were being born, some of the earliest dinosaurs were evolving and beginning their ascendancy of the Earth.

M6, discovered in 1654 by Italian astronomer Giovanni Hodierna (although it was likely known long before that) is also made up of around 80 stars and spans some 20 light years across. It is located a bit further out than M7 at an estimated 2,000 light years and is also considerably younger at around 50 to 100 million years of age. Being so young it is more compact than M7 and when you look at it through a pair of 10×50 binoculars or a small telescope (say, around 4” of aperture) you can see that the stars are arranged in an X-pattern, lending some people to think that it resembles a butterfly with its wings outspread. Many of the stars comprising M6 are very large, very hot spectral type O and A stars. These massive kinds of stars live fast and die young and a few of the cluster’s largest stars have already begun to show signs of aging by having evolved into yellow, orange, and red giants.

Since you have your binoculars and are already outside looking about, take some time to use the binoculars to scan the length of the summer Milky Way, which sweeps through the tail of the Scorpion and then arches high overhead, through Cygnus the Swan and on to the NE. Even if you cannot readily see the Milky Way with your unaided eye, you will still be rewarded with much starry splendor as you peer inwards to our Galaxy with this edge-on view. It’s a stunning sight and it’s bound to fill you with much awe and wonder.

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WHAT IS A LUNAR ECLIPSE

A lunar eclipse is what happens when the Earth can cast its shadow onto the moon’s surface.  For the Earth to do this it must be in between the moon and the Sun and the only time this kind of alignment can occur is during a full moon.  Likewise, the only time we can see a total solar eclipse is when the moon is in between the Earth and the Sun, and this kind of alignment can only occur during a new moon phase.  Okay, you might be asking: if we have both a new and full moon roughly once a month, why do we not see an eclipse of some sort every month?  The answer is the alignment between all three objects must be very precise and that level of precision obviously does not happen every month.  Why pray tell is that?  Well, it’s all because the moon’s orbit around the Earth is set on an incline of about 5 degrees with respect to our planet’s orbital plane around the Sun.  The upshot of all of that is that, during a new moon, the moon is either below or above our line of sight to the Sun and, so it does not block our view to create a total solar eclipse. During a full moon, the moon is usually positioned somewhere outside of the Earth’s shadow and, so, we do not see a total lunar eclipse every full moon.  An orbital incline of 5 degrees might not sound like a lot but it is just enough to keep all three of the major celestial players in these eclipse games from being in perfect alignment to create an eclipse on any regular basis.  And that might not be such a bad thing because if it were, I’m sure we humans would soon become blasĂ© about monthly eclipses as well.

THROWING SHADE

Before we go into the details for the timing of this month’s eclipse, it would be best if we understood a bit about the Earth’s shadow and just how the spectacular effects of a lunar eclipse are created.

Lunar eclipses occur whenever the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow and, just like your own shadow, the Earth’s has two parts: the “penumbra” and the “umbra”. The darkest part of any shadow is the umbra (think, “umbrella”) while the outer, dimmer region of a shadow, is called the penumbra (think, “almost but not quite full shade”). Because the Earth is a sphere and because the light source, the Sun, is in the apparent form of a large, bright disc in the sky, the shape of Earth’s shadow is a cone. The long, tapering cone-shaped umbra of Earth’s shadow extends for about a million miles out into space.  The moon is, on average, about 239,000 miles away, so we have a lot of shade to potentially cast onto the moon provided that alignment conditions are just right. Depending on just how far the moon penetrates into the Earth’s shadow, you can end up with three different kinds of lunar eclipse.  If the moon just skirts the outer, dimmer shadow, you get a “penumbral eclipse”.  Not much happens in a penumbral eclipse and, to be honest, you can’t really tell that anything of significance is occurring.  But once the moon slides into the umbra, things become much more noticeable. Once inside the umbra, it looks as though a dark stain is slowly creeping across the lunar surface. If the dark stain created by the umbra encompasses the entire illuminated side of the moon facing the Earth, you then have a total lunar eclipse.

Perhaps you have either seen or heard about “blood moons”, where the lunar surface becomes either a copper or deep red color.  What’s up with that? Well to answer that, let’s say that you were on the moon, looking towards the Earth, during a total lunar eclipse.  Consider this, as you stand upon the lunar surface you would see the Earth go through a series of phases over time, just like we see the moon go through phases from our vantage point back here at home.  Except, you would see the exact opposite Earth phase from the moon phase that we are seeing here on our home world.  For example, during a total lunar eclipse, here on Earth, we see the moon at full phase because the alignment in the sky is like this: moon->Earth->Sun. But from your POV on the moon, you would see Earth along your line of sight to the Sun and, to you, the Earth would be at new phase.  As the bulk of the Earth covers up the Sun, you would then see a bright red-orange ring of light encircling the Earth. This is all the sunrises and sunsets that are happening on Earth at this moment in time.  It is the Sun’s light passing through and then becoming refracted as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.   This refracting and filtering of sunlight through the Earth’s atmosphere scatters out the short wavelength blue portions of the light, allowing the longer wavelength redder portions to pass on through, creating the reddish tinged light that is now illuminating the lunar surface.  It’s the same process that creates the red sunrises and sunsets here on Earth and because the Earth’s atmosphere is a very fluid and dynamic medium, the exact tint of red can vary greatly from one lunar eclipse to another.   On very rare occasions, if there are a lot of volcanic particulates in the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, the moon may turn black in color, or disappear altogether.

WHEN AND WHERE TO LOOK

On the evening of Sunday, May 15th, the full moon will rise in the SE.  Here is a breakdown on the timing of events that I’ve lifted from the Time and Date website, a great resource for the timing of celestial events such as eclipses and meteor showers.

A few other things to think about as you view the eclipse…

Each month’s full moon has a name associated with it, often derived from Native American culture.  The names are intended to reflect some aspect of nature that is taking place within each month.  For the month of May, the full moon’s name is “the full flower moon” because it is the time of year when many plants are opening their blossoms.

Earlier, I mentioned that the moon is, on average, about 239,000 miles away from the Earth.  The reason that there is an average is that the shape of the moon’s orbit around the Earth is not a perfect circle with the Earth in the exact center.  Instead, it’s orbit is in the shape of a somewhat squashed circle, an ellipse.  As a consequence, the moon’s distance from the Earth always varies.  When it the moon is at its most distant point in its orbit, we say that it has reached “apogee” and when it is closest to us (and thus appears a bit bigger) it is at “perigee”.  This full moon will occur right around perigee, so the moon will be about as large as it ever gets.

The moon will be at its darkest, and most red, during totality.

You do not need any special equipment to view the eclipse, but you will find that binoculars or a small telescope (which you can obtain from many local public libraries in the central and NW AR areas thanks to funding from the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium) will enhance the view.  I am not a skilled photographer and imaging the moon can always be a tricky proposition, even for the skilled photographer.  The easiest way that I have found to image a lunar eclipse is by using the method of afocal photography.  This simply involves holding the eyepiece of my cell phone camera up to that of a telescope aimed at the moon.  Try it if you have access to a scope.

While the eclipse can be viewed under just about any level of local light pollution, be aware that the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society will be offering a viewing party from their River Ridge Observatory near Wye Mountain.  For details, visit their website at www.caasastro.org. Also, should the event be clouded out locally, be aware that websites such as NASA and Time and Date will provide livestreaming of the eclipse as well.  The main thing I want to get across is that you just get outside, have fun, and to look up in both awe and wonder.

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As the planets of our solar system move around the Sun in their various orbits, and at their own individual speeds, from our vantage point here on Earth (which is also moving around the Sun) we see them appear to wander against the starry background. On not so rare occasions, we will see two or more of them meet up with one another for what appears to be a close grouping. These close pairings or groupings are called “conjunctions” and they can make for interesting naked eye observing. As I said, conjunctions are generally not so rare, there are often one or more each month. But some alignments are rarer than others. For example, close pairings between Jupiter and Saturn, such as the one we saw in December of 2020, only happen once every 20 years or so.

In contrast to conjunctions are parades of the 5 naked eye planets upon a small region of the morning or evening sky. These events are a bit rarer and generally happen every few years. To the best of my knowledge, there is no official designation for such alignments and I just refer to them as “planet parades”. This month we will get to see 4 of the five naked eye planets form a parade across the predawn sky and, when we throw in a waning crescent moon you’ve got yourself a lovely cosmic spectacle.

WHEN AND WHERE TO LOOK

Before we get to the prime dates around mid-month, I urge you to get outside an hour or two before sunrise on April 4th. Face southeast and you will see Mars and Saturn in a very tight conjunction. Make sure that your view is unobstructed towards the horizon. The planets will appear as two bright points with Mars being the one that is redder in terms of color. Bright Venus is off to the left. I want you to pay close attention to where the planets are located and their apparent closeness to one another. This will change as the Earth, and the other planets continue to go about their orbits around the Sun. Notice how different this arrangement will be in the weeks ahead.
You may have noticed that we are missing our 4th bright planet in that April 4th conjunction. Who’s missing? Why it’s Jupiter, King of the Planets. By around the 17th, Jupiter can be seen inching its way up above the eastern horizon and it’s on the 23rd that the planet parade really gets going. On the morning of the 23rd, about an hour or two before sunrise, go outside and face east. Provided that your view to the horizon is unobstructed and the sky is cloud free, you should see Jupiter and Venus shining brightly just above the horizon. Let your eye trace out an arc heading towards the west, and you will see Mars and Saturn as well. Just to the west of Saturn, you will find the waning crescent moon. Wow, what a beautiful sight! As an added bonus, but a challenge object to see, will be the planet Neptune, just to the right of Jupiter. You will need binoculars or a telescope to see it. Conspicuous in its absence is fleet footed Mercury, whose presence is only to be found in the evening sky later this month.

After the 23rd, watch closely as, each morning, the moon appears to pair up with different planets as it heads lower and lower in the sky over the following mornings. It appears to move more quickly compared to the more distant planets because it is closer to Earth and orbiting at a faster rate (it completes one orbit around the Earth once every 27.3 days). The path across the sky in which the planets, moon, and Sun all appear to traverse is known as the “ecliptic”. It’s largely an imaginary line but it does represent the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun, and the moon and other planets also all orbit in roughly this same plane as well.
But what if you miss this particular alignment? Don’t fret, the moon will continue to glide amongst the planets up until month’s end while the planets themselves will remain around in their alignment for several weeks in May, albeit with a bit of a switcheroo. On the morning of May 1st, Venus and Jupiter will be so close together upon the sky, you may need binoculars to separate them. Over the coming days thereafter, it will appear as though Jupiter has overtaken Venus and left it behind as it continues to rise higher and higher in the early morning sky. Later in the month, on May 21st, the moon again appears among the morning planet parade. But the parade becomes even more spectacular in June. On the 24th of that month you will see the five naked eye planets spread out across the sky: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Adding even more grandeur to all this eye candy will be the crescent moon on this date. Holy planetpalooza, Batman! The downside is that they are all spread out across such a large area of sky that you will not be able to get them all in a single photo like you can with the four planets and moon this month.

WHAT YOU ARE SEEING

As you gaze upon spectacles like this you are doing so in two dimensions and it’s easy to forget that the reality before you is actually taking place in three dimensional space. What you are seeing is not like the image depicted in the graphic below.

Ever since grade school, we’ve all seen graphics like this that show the planets all lined up in a row. This is poetic license on the part of the artist and is done merely for the sake of convenience. The odds of you living long enough to see anything even remotely like this illustration are, well, astronomically low. Yes, all the planets orbit more or less within the same plane around the Sun. But there is a very important factor that undermines the idea you might come away with after looking at an image like this. Namely, because of the way the orbits are oriented and tilted the eight major planets of our solar system can never come together in such a perfect alignment. During one close approximation of such a configuration, during the 1970’s when the outer planets were in a once-every-175-year alignment, NASA decided to take advantage of it when sending the twin Voyager probes out to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. This so-called “Grand Tour” allowed the spacecraft to use the gravity of each planet as an assist to send them on to their next destination. Kind of like a gravitational stepping stone assist in order to hop to the next planet without the need to use fuel to propel them on.

In the case we now have before us, keep in mind that the planets are not aligned like they are in the graphic, they are all staggered out at different distances and in different positions relative to one another and to the Earth. Bottom line: you are just seeing a line of sight perspective that gives the illusion that the planets are all arranged in some kind of unique, straight line configuration. The main thing I want to impart to you is to just get outside and enjoy this snapshot in time as the planets and moon go through their minuet around the Sun. I’m sure that just the pure aesthetics of such a sight are enough to leave you in both awe and wonder.

The post April 2022 Feature – A PARADE OF PLANETS appeared first on University Television - Comcast 61/1095 & UVerse 99.

Today, all we need to do in order to know when winter officially ends and spring begins is to consult a calendar or the internet.  But what did folks in ancient times use before the invention of things like calendars, smart devices, or the internet?  Sure, your average Joe or Jane prior to 1500 BC (about the time the first sundials were invented in Egypt) probably didn’t need precision time keeping devices in order to regiment their lives, but when it came to inventing agriculture and building the civilizations that would ultimately thrive from such endeavors, it did become practical, if not vital, for them to be able measure time beyond the day and night cycle.

At some point, our distant ancestors realized that it was possible to measure the progression of time by visualizing it as having a cyclical, as well as a linear quantity.  In other words, from the perspective of birth to the grave, time seems linear, but, if you are an observer of Nature, there is also a definite circular aspect to time as well.  The motion of the stars across the night sky, the series of lunar phases, the rising and setting of the Sun, and the progression of the four seasons are all obvious examples of Nature’s repeated cycles.  By carefully and constantly observing what was happening in their world, our ancestors were able to devise various types of calendars that would allow them to reckon both past and future time.   In doing so, they could establish dates to record their history, commemorate important events, celebrate religious festivals, to know when rains or droughts may come, and to know when to plant and harvest crops.  The arrival of Spring, especially after the long deprivations of winter, must surely have been an important time for our ancestors across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

If you ask most people why we even have seasons, you will usually get some kind of vague answer about it being related to the Earth-Sun distance. If it’s the dog days of sultry summer, they might say that the heat is a result of the Earth being at its closest point in its orbit to the Sun. If it’s the bleak midwinter, then the freezing temperatures are often thought to be the result of the Earth being far away from the Sun. This is all incorrect.  While it is true that the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is shaped like an ellipse, resulting in an ever-varying distance from the Sun, it has nothing to do with the seasons.  For example, in January, the Earth is actually at its closest point to the Sun, while in July, it is at its most distant.  The real reason for the seasons has to do with the fact that the Earth is tilted upon its axis by 23.5 degrees.   But before I get into how that brings about the seasons, let’s find out why the Earth is tilted in the first place.

To answer that question, we must journey back in time to around 5 billion years ago to a time when there was no Earth, no Sun, no solar system.  Somewhere out in space, there was a huge, amorphous cloud of cold hydrogen gas and dust.  In some areas of this vast cloud, the gas and dust tended to bunch up into dense knots. These knots would attain more mass than surrounding sections of the cloud and before long, gravity began to work its magic.  For one particular knot, gravity began to pull more and more material together, making it even more dense.  As material fell towards the center of the knot, the temperature and pressure at the core became so extreme that the natural tendency for hydrogen atoms to repel one another was overcome and they began to fuse together, creating the heavier element helium and also liberating a great deal of energy in the form of heat and light.  At this point, our Sun was born.

Surrounding the infant Sun was a giant disc of leftover gas and dust.  From out of this material would condense the planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and comets that make up our solar system family.   But the Sun’s powerful gravitational influence created instability in the disc and this turmoil allowed for the shifting orbits of planets and the collisions of young planetismals and protoplanets (objects that were theoretically on their way to becoming full fledged planets).  This was a violent time in our solar system’s history and around 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized object that astronomers have named Theia, collided with the infant Earth. This collision resulted in Theia and the Earth melding together, with the exception of some material that got flung out into space and which would eventually come together to form our moon.  As a result of this collision, the Earth got knocked off its perpendicular rotational axis by about 23.5 degrees.  The stabilizing effect of the moon’s gravity has held it mostly that way ever since.

In a roughly 24-hour span of time, the Earth spins once upon its tilted axis.  It spins from west to east but the visual illusion this creates is that the Sun, stars, moon, and planets appear to rise in the east and set in the west.  As the Sun traces its daily path across the sky we see it increase its altitude from sunrise before reaching its highest point at local noon, and then decreasing in altitude as it heads into afternoon and evening.  But there is also an apparent seasonal change in the Sun’s altitude over the course of the year as well, with the Sun appearing higher up in the sky during summer and then becoming lower in the sky during winter.  This change in altitude is all due to the Earth’s tilted axis and its ever-changing orientation to the Sun as we make our annual trek around it.  The seasonal change in altitude also means that, for most of the year, the Sun does not rise due east or set due west. More on that in just a minute.  It is this varying altitude of the Sun and its rise and set points along the horizon in relation to the cardinal points on the compass, that people in the ancient world paid so much attention to in order to create calendars and forecast the seasons.

To visualize all this, consult the graphic I’ve included that shows the Earth at four different points in its orbit around the Sun over the course of a year.  Over the course of one complete lap around the Sun, you will note in the graphic, that the angle of axial tilt does not change, it’s always at 23.5 degrees.  The north and south axis, extended outwards from the poles, always point in the same direction in space (NOTE: over spans of geologic time, the tilt does vary but that’s another story altogether).  At this point in time in our planet’s history, the north axis points pretty close to the star Polaris, the “North Star” (this does, has, and will change over time).  What does change over the course of a year is the orientations of the globe’s hemisphere’s with respect to the Sun.   Take a look at the Earth depicted in the graphic for the month of June.  Note how the Northern Hemisphere is pointing towards the Sun while the Southern Hemisphere is pointing away from it.  It is at this time that the Sun is highest in our sky here in the Northern Hemisphere and lowest in the Southern.  Here in the north, we receive more of the energy that the Sun is radiating out into space from all of that nuclear fusion taking place within its core, and we experience summer.  Down south, they are tilted away from the Sun, receiving less solar energy and, so, they experience their winter.

Look back at the graphic again to the dates in March and September.  Notice how on these two dates that neither hemisphere is either angled towards or away from the Sun and its rays are now shining down upon the equator, giving both hemispheres roughly equal amounts of both day and night.  Here in the Northern Hemisphere, our temperatures tend to become milder compared to the extremes of winter and summer.

Now, let’s go back and pull some of this information together.  If you were to ask most folks in which direction the Sun rises and sets, they will tell you that it’s east and west (dummy!).  But they would be wrong. Sorta.  Yes, the Sun rises in an easterly direction and sets westwards, but there are actually only two days out of the year where the Sun actually rises due east and sets due west.  For other times of the year, the Sun rises and sets south of east/west or north of east/west.  Once again, let’s go back to the graphic that shows the Earth at four different points in its orbit around the Sun.  On December 21st, if you were outside observing (and you really should if you’ve never done this before) you will notice the Sun rising the furthest south of east and then, later, setting furthest south of west.  This is the shortest day of the year and it marks the beginning of winter.   December 21st is called the winter solstice (“solstice” is a combination of two Latin words: “sol” = “Sun” and “sistere”, meaning, “stand still”).  The Sun remains low in the sky throughout the winter months but it appears to alter its migration southwards on December 21st and slowly begins to head northwards.   Six months later, the Sun reaches its most northern point along the eastern horizon at sunrise and then again when it sets north of west later that day.  This is the longest day of the year and we call it the summer solstice, the first day of summer.  On this day, it appears to stop in its north bound track, turn around, and slowly head southwards until it once again does an about face on December 21st.  Throughout the summer months, the Sun rises north of east and then sets north of west.

Now, look at the Earth for March and September.  Remember, neither of Earth’s hemispheres is now angled towards or away from the Sun, its rays fall directly onto the Earth’s equator and we have roughly equal lengths of both day and night. We call these two days of the year equinoxes (from the Latin meaning “equal night”).  The one in March occurs roughly on March 21st, although this year it falls on March 20th.  The March equinox is also called the “vernal equinox” (from a Latin word referring to “spring”).  The other equinox occurs around September 23rd and it marks the first day of fall.  It is sometimes called the “autumnal equinox”.  On, or around March 21st, the Sun crosses over the celestial equator (an imaginary line in the sky which is simply the projection of Earth’s equator out into space) as it goes through its apparent migration from its wintertime sojourn in the southern sky towards its northern occupation of the summer sky (for those of us here in the northern hemisphere).  It again crosses over the celestial equator in September but headed in the opposite direction.  The thing to know here is that as the Sun appears to cross over the celestial equator on these two days of the year, it will appear to rise and set due east and west.  Once again, I encourage you to get outside and check this all out for yourself and then track the Sun’s altitude and rise and set points over the course of the year.   It’s a rewarding experience, especially if you combine it with regular observations of things such as lunar phases and the nightly motions of the stars across the sky (learn a few star names and constellations each month as well).  By doing so, you will gain not only a practical sense of the motion of the sky but how to navigate it as well (a useful thing if you ever decide to own a telescope).  Another benefit from such sky watching activities is that, with practice and repetition, you will begin to gain a certain mindfulness, or awareness of both you and the universe around you.  In other words, you can regain a connection with Nature on the grandest of scales, something our ancestors were far more in tune with than we are today.

Consider this when you are observing the sky over the course of the four seasons (or if you are just out and enjoying a nice walk on a temperate spring day): while every planet in our solar system experiences some kind of seasonal change, there are several for which that change is negligible.  I mentioned earlier that the Earth’s varying distance from the Sun does not play a role in determining our seasons and that’s true enough but it’s not necessarily true for the other planets in our solar system.   The size of a planet’s orbit, the size of the planet itself, its atmosphere (if it has one), and its degree of axial tilt are all contributing factors to a planet’s seasons.  Take for instance Venus.  Venus, with its runaway greenhouse effect, 900-degree Fahrenheit surface temperature, and sulfuric acid laced clouds is not a very pleasant place to visit.  Venus tilts upon its axis by only about 3 degrees and while it has seasons, there is little to distinguish them apart from one another.  Neptune, the 8th and outermost planet in the solar system, tilts upon its axis by 28.5 degrees, not too different from our own.  The gas giant planet does have distinct seasons but there are some notable factors that influence them.  For one, Neptune is placed so far away from the Sun that any energy it receives from is going to be rather paltry.  However, Neptune’s core generates a lot of heat and it is this that drives most of the planet’s weather.  Since it takes Neptune almost 165 of our years to complete just one trip around the Sun, each season lasts for about 41 Earth years.  Life on Earth has evolved on a world with a 23.5-degree tilt, which is held fairly constant by the gravitational interaction with its only natural satellite (itself the product of a chance collision with the infant Earth 4.5 billion years ago), at a Goldilocks distance from its parent star where temperatures are just right to contain liquid water and moderate temperatures.  Who can say how, or if, life might have evolved if conditions were otherwise.  Food for thought as you gaze up into the skies of blue-green planet Earth in both awe and wonder.

The post March 2022 Feature – MARCH EQUINOX: SPRING BEGINS! appeared first on University Television - Comcast 61/1095 & UVerse 99.

Cupid is up to his usual shenanigans on the 14th but I’m going to share with you some of my love for observing the moon and the planets with several dates in February. Don’t fret about needing a telescope to enjoy most of these sights, but a pair of regular old binoculars that you have lying about the house may be a useful supplement to your bare-naked eyeballs.

DATES TO REMEMBER

FEB 2 – A young crescent moon meets Jupiter in the early evening

Feb 7 – The crescent moon hangs out with the ice giant, Uranus

Feb 9 – Venus is at its brightest

Feb 25 & 26 – Bright Venus is near the waning crescent moon. BONUS: the moon also appears near the deep sky star forming factory, Messier 8 on the morning of the 25th.

Feb 27 – The thin waning crescent moon forms a lovely conjunction with Venus and Mars

WHAT YOU ARE SEEING

Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, has been a familiar presence in our evening sky since August of 2021 but by the month’s end it leaves the scene, becomes a morning object, and reappears to the evening sky in September of this year. On February 2nd, step outside around 30 minutes after sunset and face westwards to see it very low in the sky. With a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, see how many of the planet’s four largest moons (Jupiter has a total of 79 known moons) are visible: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (I’ve listed them in their order of distance from the planet, innermost to outermost). Sky & Telescope offers an app called, appropriately enough, “Jupiters Moons” that will show you where they are within their orbit around the planet at any given time, but there are some generalized stargazing apps that have that feature as well.

If you do use binoculars this evening, be sure and scan the sky to Jupiter’s lower left at this time as you may see a 2-day old moon, around 5% illuminated. This can be a challenge to pull out of the murk when looking so low in the sky. If you are a member of an astronomy club, chances are that they are affiliated with the Astronomical League, an umbrella organization for amateur astronomy clubs that helps promote the hobby and hone observing skills by having participants complete various observing programs. One of these programs involves lunar observing with binoculars and seeing the 2-day old waxing crescent moon is on the checklist of observing challenges. If you are affiliated with the League, then upon successful completion of any of their observing programs, you get a certificate, a lovely pin, and the satisfaction of knowing that you have sharpened your observing skills as an astronomer. You can still complete any of their programs, but you cannot submit your observing logs and collect either pin or certificate unless you are affiliated with the League via membership within a participating astronomy club. Visit the League’s website here: https://www.astroleague.org Alternatively, check with your local astronomy club to see if they are affiliated with the League.

On the evening of the 7th, go outside and find the crescent moon while facing the SW. With a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, look just to the moon’s lower right to see a blue-green point. This is the planet Uranus. Uranus is the third largest planet in the solar system, with a diameter four times that of Earth’s. But it’s also some 1.8 billion miles away and, so, most people have not seen it. This pairing of the moon and Uranus will help you locate the ice giant world. Being so far away from the Sun, Uranus and Neptune are very much colder than the other planets and their atmospheres are laden with water ice and other icy compounds such as frozen ammonia. Therefore, we call them “ice giants”. Why are they so blue? Well, the ammonia in their atmospheres is very good at absorbing the redder portions of the Sun’s light while reflecting back the bluer portions and, so, Uranus and Neptune appear blue-green to our eyes.

Venus, named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty, second planet from the Sun and our closest planetary neighbor (coming as close as 27 million miles to Earth but is, on average, about 31 million miles away) dropped out of our evening sky early last month and has now become our “Morning Star”. It will remain a morning planet until December of this year, when it will once again shine bright in the evening sky. On February 12th, Venus reaches its greatest illuminated extent, meaning that, seen through a telescope, the apparent size of its disc is at its largest. But here’s the kicker, Venus will only appear as a crescent. Whaaa? First off, yes, Venus goes through phases, just like the moon does. Mercury, the innermost planet, does to. Why? Well, as these two planets orbit inside Earth’s orbit, we see that their orbital positions, relative to the Sun and Earth, are constantly changing and, so, we see different areas of their surface becoming illuminated and then passing into shadow as they complete their laps around the Sun. If you have access to a small telescope (the NASA Arkansas Space Grant Consortium, based at ĚÇĐÄVlog´«Ă˝ Little Rock, has funded a number of libraries across the state, including the Central Arkansas Library System, with telescopes that patrons can check out just like a book), then be sure and train it on Venus in order to see its phase.

But, if it’s just a crescent, why is it so darn bright? There are a couple of reasons for this. You would think that it would be brightest at full phase, right? But that full phase (or, near full) only occurs when Venus is on the far side of the Sun, placing it very far away from Earth. At such a great distance, it doesn’t appear very bright. But, during a crescent phase, it is getting much closer to Earth and that makes the brightness factor really crank up. The other thing to remember about Venus’s brightness is the fact that the planet is entirely blanketed in clouds that are laced with liquid droplets and tiny crystals of sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid droplets and crystals are very efficient when it comes to reflecting sunlight and that’s what makes Venus so dang bright. On the morning of the 9th, step outside and face east to see Venus shining at a magnitude of -4.6, it will not be this bright again in our sky until July of 2023. As a side note, when Venus is this bright, it is often reported as a UFO sighting.

About an hour before sunrise on the mornings of February 25th and 26th, look towards the SE to see Venus, low in the sky, with a beautiful waning crescent moon off to the lower right. Once again, a pair of binoculars may prove useful for this particular observing opportunity. On the morning of the 25th, look to the left of the moon, using binoculars or a small telescope (and as dark a sky as you can find) and you just might see place where stars are being born. Known as Messier 8, or the Lagoon Nebula, this stellar nursery is located over 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. In binoculars, you can see the nebula as a faintly glowing, fuzzy cloud; with a small telescope, you can begin to appreciate more of its intricate structure. The glow is created by the newborn stars energizing the gas in the cloud. The ultraviolet radiation the young stars emit gives an energy kick to the atoms of hydrogen that makes up the gas cloud. As the atoms return to their normal energy state, they emit a faint glow and that is what you are seeing in your binoculars or telescope. Our morning sky is a sneak preview of what we are going to see in our evening sky a few months hence. In summer, Sagittarius and Messier 8 are prominent in the evening sky and, on moonless nights, you can just barely see the nebula as a faint, glowing patch upon the sky (provided you are observing from a dark sky locale).

Finally, on the morning of February 27th, check out a beautiful waning crescent moon just to the lower right of bright Venus. Mars, the fourth rock from the Sun, is fainter but can be found in between the two. Many of the newer smartphone models are equipped with cameras sensitive to image many of the things we’ve talked about here, including this one. If you own one, try it out, it can only help enhance your awe and wonder with the universe in which you live.

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