Astronomy Events, Meteor showers, occultations, eclipses |
Astronomy Events, Meteor showers, occultations, eclipses |
Sep 3 2005, 06:02 PM
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#1
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 48 Joined: 11-August 05 Member No.: 463 |
*Am establishing a thread for events as listed in the Topic Description (and more). Currently have nothing to "report." That'll change, of course.
Please post upcoming events and times, geographical locations (including major cities) favored for said event, etc. --Cindy |
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Dec 21 2005, 06:05 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Mike Salway posted these images of the planets that he made for Universe Today:
http://www.universetoday.com/am/uploads/mike_planets.jpg -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Dec 21 2005, 06:19 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
And as for upcoming astronomical events:
THE CHRISTMAS OCCULTATION OF SPICA On Christmas morning, the waning crescent Moon will pass across and cover up the 1st-magnitude star Spica as seen from most of North America. This event offers a special and memorable way to start Christmas Day. Both the disappearance of the star behind the Moon's bright edge, and its reappearance later from behind the Moon's dark edge, happen in broad daylight for much of the continent, so you'll need a telescope. Make this holiday one that will stand out in memory! Our article and maps tell all you need to watch this unusual event from your location: http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objec...icle_1620_1.asp Saturn occults an 8th magnitude star on January 25, 2006: http://www.iota-es.de/satocc_2006.html -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
Dec 21 2005, 06:29 PM
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#4
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Guests |
Yes this will not be visible in Europe. Again the political prejudice of Americans against our continent.
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Dec 21 2005, 08:47 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
QUOTE (Richard Trigaux @ Dec 21 2005, 01:29 PM) Yes this will not be visible in Europe. Again the political prejudice of Americans against our continent. Hey, you guys got a total solar eclipse in 1999. The USA won't get its next one until 2017. Asia and Africa get them all the time. And every time a space probe flies by Earth, they always take images of South America, Africa, and Australia, but rarely North America. Some kind of cosmic bias, I think. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 4 2006, 08:16 PM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
WANTED: AMATEUR STARGAZERS TO HELP SOLVE MYSTERY
------------------------------------------------ Ohio State University scientists have thought of a new way to solve an astronomical mystery, and their plan relies on a well-connected network of amateur stargazers and one very elusive subatomic particle. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0601/04mystery/ -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 7 2006, 03:44 AM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Universe Today is offering a 407-page document describing the celestial events of 2006.
Details, links, and their introduction text are here: What's Up 2006 - 365 Days of Skywatching (13.5 MB) http://www.universetoday.com/365days.pdf This is a FREE 407-page downloadable book containing What's Up material for every day in 2006. You can download the book to your local computer, go to the day you like and print off the page to take outside with you nicely formatted. It's also got tons of other material including general skywatching advice, equipment selection, and hundreds of beautiful photographs. We've been working pretty hard on this. :-) The entire book is 13.5 MB, so be patient. It's an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, so you'll need to download the Adobe Acrobat reader if you don't have it already. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 8 2006, 05:25 PM
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#8
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
==================================================================
This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Occultations ================================================================== Please help us observe two good events this week in Maryland/DC/northern Virginia (and many other parts of the Mid- Atlantic Region) are a passage of the Moon through the southern part of the Pleiades cluster Monday evening, January 9, and the occultation of a 9th-mag. star by the small asteroid 1707 Chantal Thursday evening, January 12. For the Chantal event, occurring at high altitude above the horizon and at a convenient time, I hope that many observers across the region can try to observe it so that 2 or 3 of us might actually time the occultation. More details are on my Web site - see the note below. For the Pleiades passage, see mainly the total occultation section below for the bright events you can see from your location. That passage will also be visible from essentially all of North and South America. For long-range planning, keep in mind the spectacular passage of the thin crescent Moon over the Pleiades on Sat. evening, April 1, with a dark-limb grazing occultation of 4th-mag. Maia over the northern and eastern suburbs of Washington, DC. ___________________ Asteroidal Occultations dur. Ap. Date Day EST Star Mag Asteroid dmag s in. Location Jan 7 Sat 17:06 12 Aquarii 5.5 Hannibal 10.6 1 1 sQC,nME,nNB,NL Jan 12 Thu 20:23 SAO 76774 9.5 Chantal 5.5 5 3 ePA,cMD,DC,VA Jan 17 Tue 18:25 TYC12981005 10.6 Echo 0.7 18 6 NYC,nNJ,sPA,OH Jan 25 Wed 23:41 TYC18720305 11.4 Sarema 4.0 5 7 nNJ,e&nwPenn. Jan 27 Fri 19:49 TYC07360356 10.0 Veritas 3.3 12 4 s.N.Carolina Jan 27 Fri 21:00 2UC31310997 11.3 Genua 0.8 8 7 sNJ,se-nwPenn. Feb 3 Fri 18:35 2UC29027376 11.6 Tokio 2.2 2 7 cNC,seVirginia Notes: Jan. 7: Oops, too late for this bright event, but it was too far from the Mid-Atlantic region, anyway (twilight too bright even to monitor the appulse here). The part of s.e. Canada crossed by the path has no known occultation observers. Jan. 12: The 7-mile-wide path roughly parallels I-95 between Baltimore and Washington, but is nominally farther west, passing over Reisterstown, western Howard County, Brookeville, Rockville, and Potomac in Maryland, and Great Falls, Fairfax, and Manassas in Virginia, as well as parts of eastern Penn. (note the time is earlier there - see Steve Preston's Web site for details, link given below), central Va., and western N. Carolina. But the uncertainty is so large that the actual path could pass as far west as Frederick or as far east as Annapolis, MD, so observers throughout the Washington-Baltimore region, across central Maryland, DC, and northern Virginia, have a chance for an occultation - please try to monitor it if you can. Let me know if you will try to observe it so that mobile observers can be targeted to fill in gaps in the coverage provided by fixed-site observers, if it is clear enough. Bad weather is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, but Accuweather is forecasting partly to mostly cloudy Thursday evening. It's too early for a good forecast, but if it holds up, we'll just observe from convenient home locations rather than travel to other locations and risk being clouded out there. The target star should be fairly easy to find, near a couple of 7th-mag. stars in northern Taurus a few deg. south of 3rd-mag. iota Aurigae, at J2000 RA 4h 49m 26.5s, Dec +29 deg. 53' 19". Path maps, finder charts, and other information can be found at the links given below, but for this event, I've consolodated the maps and charts into a Power Point file that you can get near the top of my Web site at http://iota.jhuapl.edu or, directly, at http://iota.jhuapl.edu/exped107.ppt . We now have astrometric updates for all of these events. Stars with designations starting "2UC" are UCAC2 stars; their magnitudes are not as accurate as the other catalogs so they might be half a magnitude or more fainter than the listed magnitude; if near the limit of your telescope, checking the star's some night before the event is recommended. Especially for the fainter stars and events of shorter duration, we will plan no observations unless an astrometric update indicates a reasonable chance for an occultation in the Mid-Atlantic states. The asteroidal occultation section of the IOTA Web site at http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota has finder charts for many of these events while updated paths, and often detailed finder charts, can be found at Steve Preston's Web site at http://www.asteroidoccultation.com . Very detailed maps for these events can be found on Charlie Ridgway's interactive Web page at http://digitalmagic.i8.com/Astronomy/Occultations/ that links to the very detailed maps and satellite imagery of maps.google.com with overlays of the occultation paths. _______________________________________________________________ Grazing Occultations DATE Day EST Star Mag % alt CA Location Jan 9 Mon 21:38 Alcyone 2.9 82+ 71-11N Asheville,NC;Williamsburg,VA Jan 9 Mon 10:38 ZC 564 6.2 82+ 61 7S Fredricksbrg,VA; Hollywood,MD Feb 9 Thu 1:59 ZC 996 6.8 86+ 32 6N Woodbine,Columbia,&Hanover,MD Notes: The graze of Alcyone won't be observable due to its being on the bright side of the highly gibbous Moon; no expedition is planned for it. The other two grazes will be rather difficult because they will occur very close, within a few arc seconds, of sunlit features along the Moon's terminator. The earlier part of the grazes will be easier since the star will approach the Moon from the dark side. The Jan. 9th graze, a Pleiades star, will be a little easier to obsrve than the Feb. 9th graze. For ZC 564, the first Astro Meteo (Clear Sky Clock) forecast shows that it will be mostly cloudy across the Mid-Atlantic region, especially along the graze path, so we will not undertake an expedition for the graze [unless later forecasts show improved conditions; ONLY if that's the case, I'll send another message with more information about this graze], concentrating instead on trying to record and time the bright total occultations (see list below) from convenient home locations (or, if the weather satellite loop shows clear skies in some nearby location, possibly going there). Some grazes will not be attempted if expeditions are undertaken for asteroidal occultations within 36 hours of the graze. * in the Notes column means that no DC-area expedition is planned. For some of these grazes, I'll ask Charlie Ridgway to put the paths on his google maps Web site so you can see exactly where the northern or southern limit line passes, and then need to offset from it by an amount that can ge determined from the predicted profile to define the graze zone. _________________________________________________________________________ Total Lunar Occultations The better total lunar occultations through early February 2006 visible from throughout the Washington-Baltimore greater metropolitan area are listed below. Some can be accurately timed by aiming a camcorder into a low-power eyepiece of your telescope and recording WWV with the audio. Unfortunately, for the Pleiades passage with many events Monday evening, the forecast is for mostly cloudy skies, possibly thin enough to time some of the brighter events, for the Mid-Atlantic region from Virginia to Pennsylvania. Better conditions are expected, with perhaps scattered cloudcover and relatively poor transparency, in the Carolinas, New Jersey, and s.e. Penn. DATE Day EST Ph Star Mag % alt CA Sp. Notes Jan 8 Sun 17:31 D SAO 93126 7.9 73+ 55 40S G5 Sun alt. -6 deg. Jan 8 Sun 18:28 D ZC 421 6.6 73+ 64 89S F8 Jan 9 Mon 0:08 D ZC 439 7.3 74+ 32 57S F0 mag.2 9.8 0.1",PA276 Jan 9 Mon 19:56 D SAO 76175 8.2 82+ 72 88S A0 spectroscopic binary Jan 9 Mon 20:26 D SAO 76189 7.0 82+ 75 87N F8 Jan 9 Mon 20:33 D SAO 76198 7.8 82+ 75 79S A3 D 3sec before next Jan 9 Mon 20:33 D ZC 550 7.0 82+ 75 73N A1 Jan 9 Mon 20:34 D Merope 4.1 82+ 75 8N B6 23 Tauri = ZC 545 Jan 9 Mon 20:42 D SAO 76202 7.8 82+ 75 58S K0 Jan 9 Mon 20:46 D ZC 551 7.3 82+ 75 51N B9 mag.2 9.1 6.6",PA265 Jan 9 Mon 20:55 D SAO 76185 8.4 82+ 74 20N A2 Jan 9 Mon 21:34 D ZC 559 6.5 82+ 71 87S F0 mag.2 9.3 .01" Jan 9 Mon 21:38 M Alcyone 2.9 82+ 71 -11N B7 MISS; see grazes Jan 9 Mon 21:45 D SAO 76231 8.1 82+ 69 89S A2 Jan 9 Mon 21:56 D Atlas 3.6 82+ 68 55N B8 27Tau=ZC560;spec.bin. Jan 9 Mon 22:10 D Pleione 5.1 82+ 65 34N B7 28Tau=ZC561;closeDbl? Jan 9 Mon 22:16 D ZC 567 6.8 82+ 64 67S A0 mag.3 8.9 10",PA235 Jan 9 Mon 22:25 D ZC 564 6.2 82+ 63 24S B8 Graze s.MD, see above Jan 9 Mon 22:50 D ZC 570 7.0 83+ 50 78S A2 Jan 10 Tue 2:35 D ZC 587 6.2 84+ 17 44N K0 Jan 10 Tue 2:57 D SAO 76358 7.2 84+ 13 33S B9 Azimuth 291 Jan 11 Wed 2:21 D ZC 732 7.5 90+ 31 72S K3 mag.2 10.2 .04",PA69 Jan 11 Wed 18:08 D ZC 840 6.3 94+ 38 64S K0 spectroscopic binary Jan 12 Thu 2:57 D ZC 885 5.6 95+ 35 88N G7 Jan 12 Thu 19:25 D 49 Aurigae 5.3 98+ 42 49N A0 ZC 1008 Jan 13 Fri 1:57 D ZC 1035 6.7 99+ 56 90S K3 Maybe close double Jan 14 Sat 19:07 R lambda Cnc 5.9 99- 18 30N B9 ZC1251; term.dist.3" Jan 19 Thu 4:36 R SAO 118942 7.2 79- 53 76N G5 Jan 24 Tue 6:41 R SAO 183537 7.3 31- 27 42N K0 Sun alt. -8 deg. Jan 31 Tue 17:45 D ZC 3391 6.7 8+ 25 32N A0 Sun alt. -4 deg. Jan 31 Tue 18:31 D ZC 3394 7.4 8+ 17 30N A0 Feb 2 Thu 20:42 D SAO 109533 7.4 26+ 21 47N K0 Feb 2 Thu 21:56 D ZC 132 6.7 26+ 8 50S G5 Azimuth 273 deg. Feb 4 Sat 21:46 D ZC 397 7.5 48+ 35 87N B9 mag.2 7.4 3.3",PA119 D following the time denotes a disappearance, while R indicates that the event is a reappearance. When a power (x; actually, zoom factor) is given in the Notes, the event can probably be recorded directly with a camcorder of that power with no telescope needed. The times are for Greenbelt, MD, and will be good to within +/-1 min. for other locations in the Washington- Baltimore metropolitan areas unless the cusp angle (CA) is less than 30 deg., in which case, it might be as much as 5 minutes different for other locations across the region. Some stars in Flamsteed's catalog are in the wrong constellation, according to the official IAU constellation boundaries that were established well after Flamsteed's catalog was published. In these cases, Flamsteed's constellation is in parentheses and the actual constellation is given in the notes following a /. Mag is the star's magnitude. % is the percent of the Moon's visible disk that is sunlit, followed by a + indicating that the Moon is waxing and - showing that it is waning. So 0 is new moon, 50+ is first quarter, 100+ or - is full moon, and 50- is last quarter. The Moon is crescent if % is less than 50 and is gibbous if it is more than 50. Cusp Angle is described more fully at the main IOTA Web site - see above. Sp. is the star's spectral type (color), O,B,blue; A,F,white; G,yellow; K,orange; M,N,S,C red. Also in the notes, information about double stars is often given. "Close double" with no other information usually means nearly equal components with a separation less than 0.2". "mg2" or "m2" means the magnitude of the secondary component, followed by its separation in arc seconds ("), and sometimes its PA from the primary. If there is a 3rd component (for a triple star), it might be indicated with "mg3" or "m3". Double is sometime abbreviated "dbl". Sometimes the Watts angle (WA) is given; it is aligned with the Moon's rotation axis and can be used to estimate where a star will reappear relative to lunar features. The selenographic latitude is WA -270. For example, WA 305 - 310 is near Mare Crisium. Currently, the IOTA occultation line, 301-474-4945, is not working. Some additional information, including sometimes expedition updates, especially over the weekend, can be found at the main IOTA Web site at http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota . Also, see my Web site at http://iota.jhuapl.edu . Timing equipment and even telescopes can be loaned for most expeditions that we actually undertake; we are always shortest of observers who can fit these events in their schedule, so we hope that you might be able to. Good luck with your observations. _____________________________________ David Dunham, 2006 January 8 phones home 301-474-4722; office 240-228-5609; cell 301-526-5590 ================================================================== AstroAlert is a free service of SKY & TELESCOPE, the Essential Magazine of Astronomy (http://SkyandTelescope.com/). This e-mail was sent to AstroAlert subscribers. If you feel you received it in error, or to unsubscribe from AstroAlert, please send a plain- text e-mail to majordomo@SkyandTelescope.com with the following line -- and nothing else -- in the body of the message: unsubscribe occultation e-mail@address.com replacing "e-mail@address.com" with your actual e-mail address. ================================================================== -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 25 2006, 03:29 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Dec 21 2005, 01:19 PM) SATURN OCCULTS A FAINT STAR For observers in Europe, Africa, and Asia, an 8.2-magnitude star (SAO 98054) will be occulted by (passes behind) Saturn's ring system starting at about 18:45 Universal Time January 25th. The star reappears out from behind the planet itself around 20:55 UT. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 25 2006, 05:36 PM
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#10
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
==================================================================
This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Occultations ================================================================== Events are listed in INVERSE chronological order; go to the bottom of this message for the first event, then go up for later ones, which are mostly better (which is why they are given first). We need your help to map the profiles of the mountains of the polar areas of the Moon, and measure the sizes and shapes of three asteroids this week. Let us know your plans so that we can better plan coverage of these events, so that mobile observers don't duplicate your observation. 1. Good passage of the 61% sunlit Moon through the Pleiades Feb. 5/6 for observers throughout western North America. Detailed predictions for total occultations for hundreds of cities, and interactive detailed maps of many graze paths are now posted. One of these is the spectacular grazing occultation of 3.7-mag. Electra across Los Angeles and surrounding areas of southern California. I plan to lead an expedition for that event; let me know if you might be interested in joining it. 2. Occultation of an 11.3-mag. star by 485 Genua Friday evening, Jan. 27, New Jersey to Calgary. 3. Occultation of a 10.0-mag. star by the relatively large asteroid 490 Veritas early Friday evening, Jan. 27, Carolinas to Kansas. We especially need observers for this good event with a wide path with good statistics. Let me know if you might be interested in joining an expedition from the DC region to the Fayetteville, NC area to try to observe it from a few separate locations. 4. Occultation of an 11.4-mag. star by the small asteroid 1012 Sarema tomorrow (Wed.) night, Jan. 25/26, New Jersey to Washington State. For the asteroidal occultations, small path maps, detailed finder charts, and detailed updated path information is on Steve Preston's Web site at http://www.asteroidoccultation.com . Very detailed maps for these events can be found on Charlie Ridgway's interactive Web page at http://digitalmagic.i8.com/Astronomy/Occultations/ that links to the very detailed maps and satellite imagery of maps.google.com with overlays of the occultation paths. To see when the occultation will occur at your (or a nearby) location, the probability for an occultation, and the altitudes of the star and the Sun, and to help plan coverage, see the detailed station lists on Derek Breit's Web site at http://www.poyntsource.com/BREIT_IDEAS/index.htm . Please let Derek know if you plan to observe so that he can indicate this on his station list; his e-mail address is breit_ideas@hotmail.com . Please copy to me for the Veritas occultation on Fri. evening. The Web addresses here are general; specific ones for each event are given below. For saving and printing the maps on Charlie Ridgway's Web site, for both asteroidal occultations and grazes, I've found (as advised by James Thompson) that an effective way to do it is, once you have maneuvered and zoomed in to the map area you want, hit the "prt sc" (print screen) key. That saves your screen into memory that you can then paste into a Word or Power Point file. But first you might want to paste it into a utility like Microsoft Paint where you can crop the image to include only the map area, and then paste that into the Word or Power Point file. __________________________________________________ 1. The Moon, just a day past first quarter, will occult dozens of stars in the Pleiades for observers throughout western North America late Sunday night, February 5/6. The UT date is Feb. 6 for all events, but it is late Sunday evening, or just after midnight, local time. Extensive predictions of the total occultations are on the main IOTA Web site at http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota or, specifically for the occultations of the seven brightest Pleaides stars predicted for hundreds of cities, including maps showing the region of visibility of each occultation, see http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/200...am/pleiadna.htm and click on "view" for each event in the "predictions" column of the table. If you can locate yourself within a mile or two of the northern or southern limits of the region of visibility of these occultations, you can see a spectacular grazing occultation, with the star disappearing and reappearing amoung mountains and craters in the lunar polar regions. The northern limits of 4 3rd and 4th- mag. stars during the Feb. 6 (UT) passage are shown on my map on p. 71 of this month's issue of Sky and Telescope. You can see these and 4 other graze paths on Charlie Ridgway's Web site at http://digitalmagic.i8.com/Astronomy/Occul...060206_M45.html which is an interactive map that you can zoom in for much more details, like the ones he has for asteroidal occultations. I have captured and posted that map on my Web site in a Word file at http://iota.jhuapl.edu/pld6fbna.doc (beware, the first page is blank; the 2nd has the color code key; and the third page has the map) and have some more detailed maps of the Electra graze path across southern California in another Word file at http://iota.jhuapl.edu/6fbelect.doc . For the individual grazes, it's better to go to Charlie's general Pleiades graze page at http://digitalmagic.i8.com/Astronomy/Occul...Grazes/M45.html and click on the link for the graze for which you want more details. Then you can see the plot with an offset distance in km that you can specify. Also on the page for each event, below the map, is the table of WinOccult predictions (in a zipped Word file) for the event; you can use it to tell the U.T. of central graze at your longitude, as well as the altitude and azimuth of the Moon, and other information. Later I will give some advice for some of these events about where the best area will be relative to the limit lines shown, and to correct them for height above sea level (they shift south as your height increases). If you are planning an expedition to observe one of these, let me know at dunham@starpower.net and I'll include an estimate of the best offset for your area. The graze of 9 Tauri, visible along a path from northern Baja California to Louisiana and the only southern-limit graze, actually occurs a few hours before the Pleiades passage but is included since it occurs the same night. The grazes are listed below; there are some other grazes of 8th-mag. stars that won't be as easy, but predictions can be made available for them, too. R west Approximate ZC# mag. # Lim U.T. path location Star name 521 6.7 30 S 2:36 n. Baja Calif. - Louisiana 9 Tauri 537 3.7 31 N 8:01 s. Calif. - n. Mexico Electra = 17 Tauri 545 4.1 32 N 8:21 Brit. Columbia - S. Dakota Merope = 23 Tauri 549 6.3 33 N 9:03 n. Calif. - Arizona 24 Tauri 551 7.4 -- N 8:46 Alberta - Saskatchewan 552 2.9 34 N 9:06 s.w. Oregon - Arizona Alcyone = eta Tauri 560 3.6 35 N 9:37 Brit. Columbia - Montana Atlas = 27 Tauri 561 5.0 36 N 9:47 Oregon - Nevada Pleione = 28 Tauri The first column gives the star's Zodiacal Catalog number. The 3rd column, "R#", is the number of the graze line on the lower map on p. 164 of the 2006 RASC Observer's Handbook. "Lim" tells whether the graze is a northern-limit or southern-limit graze (all except the first one, ZC 521, are northern limits). "west U.T." gives the Universal Time of 2006 Feb. 6 at the western end of the path, usually near the Pacific coast; the time is always later farther east. Note that the times are of central graze; the graze will last 2 - 4 minutes, so observers should start watching 2 to 3 minutes before the central graze time for their area. __________________________________________________ 2. Occultation of 11.3-mag. UCAC2 31310997 by 64-km 485 Genua Friday evening, Jan. 27. Note that the UT date is Jan. 28 for all observers, but the local date is Jan. 27 across North America. The path crosses central New Jersey, and from Philadelphia to Erie, Penn. at 2:00 UT (9:00 pm EST); at 2:01 UT, over s. Ont. (just n. of London), central lower Mich., and Door Peninsula, Wisconsin; at 2:02 UT (8:02 am CST), over n.w. Wisc., n. Minn. (Duluth in path), and n.e. N. Dakota (Grand Forks); at 2:03 UT (7:03 am MST), over s. Sask. (Regina just n. of path but could have an occultation) and southern Alberta (Calgary just s. of path but could have an event). Accuweather forecasts less than 40% cirrus for New Jersey; I haven't checked other areas. The star is at J2000 R.A. 7h 27m 18.4s, Dec. -01 deg. 26' 05", in Monoceros about 7 deg. s.s.w. of Procyon, 4 deg. s. of delta 1 Canis Minoris, and 0.6 deg. northwest of a 6th-mag. star. Steve Preston's link for this event is http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2006_01/0128_485_4863.htm while Charlie Ridgway's interactive maps site is http://digitalmagic.i8.com/Astronomy/Occul...0128_Genua.html and Derek Breit's station list is at http://www.poyntsource.com/BREIT_IDEAS/Genua.htm . __________________________________________________ 3. Occultation of 10.0-mag. TYC 0736-00356-1 by the 116-km asteroid 490 Veritas early Friday evening, Jan. 27. Note that the UT date is Jan. 28 for all observers, but the local date is Jan. 27 across North America. The path crosses southern North Carolina (Fayetteville and Charlotte are near the center) at 0:49 UT (7:49 pm EST), Tennessee (Nashville at center) and southern Missouri at 0:50 UT (6:50 pm CST), and southern Kansas (Wichita near center) at 0:51 UT. Accuweather is forecasting dry conditions with only about 20% cirrus in s.e. North Carolina; I haven't checked other areas yet. If that good forecast holds, I'll try to observe this event myself, and want to coordinate my plans with others. I hope to leave the DC region by 10 am EST Friday. The star is at J2000 R.A. 6h 23m 55.5s, Dec. +11 deg. 02' 05", in Orion about 8 deg. e.n.e. of Betelgeuse, and near where the Orion - Gemini - Monoceros borders meet. The target star should be fairly easy to find, being 2 deg. s.e. of 5th-mag. 73 and 74 Orionis, about 25' w.s.w. of a distinctive group of 7th-mag. stars, and only 7' n.n.e. of an 8th-mag. star. Steve Preston's link for this event is http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2006_01/0128_490_4862.htm while Charlie Ridgway's interactive maps site is http://digitalmagic.i8.com/Astronomy/Occul...28_Veritas.html and Derek Breit's station list is at http://www.poyntsource.com/BREIT_IDEAS/Veritas.htm . Two mobile observers and one fixed-site one (John Graves in Nashville) have said they will try this event and are indicated by by color-code in Derek's list at the above Web site. I'll distribute a list of planned sites to better plan for this event in a couple of days, certainly by Thursday evening. __________________________________________________ 4. Occultation of an 11.4-mag. star by the 21-km asteroid 1012 Sarema tomorrow (Wed.) night, Jan. 25/26, New Jersey to Washington State. Note that the UT date is Jan. 26 for all observers, but the local date is Jan. 25 across North America. The path crosses central New Jersey at 4:41 UT (11:41 pm EST), then over Pennsylvania to just s. of Erie at 4:43 UT, over Detroit at 4:44 UT, across southern Wisconsin (just north of Milwaukee, which could have an occultation) at 4:46 UT (10:46 pm CST), over southern Minnesota (s. of Minneapolis) at 4:47 UT, northern South Dakota at 4:49, Montana from 4:51 to 4:54 (9:51 to 9:54 MST), and over Washington State, near Yakima and Olympia, around 4:56 UT (8:56 pm PST). Astro Meteo (Clear Sky Clock) forecasts mosty clear in New Jersey, then partly to mostly cloudy across eastern Penn., and overcast in n.w. Penn., mostly cloudy in s. Ont., clear in the Detroit area (?), but mostly cloudy across the rest of Michigan; then clear from Wisconsin to S. Dakota, partly cloudy across Montana, and mostly cloudy over Washington. The star, TYC 1872-00305-1, is at J2000 R.A. 6h 03m 07.4s, Dec. +27 deg. 08' 21", in Gemini near the Taurus border about 3 deg. north and a little west of M35. Steve Preston's link for this event is http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2006_01...6_1012_7079.htm while Charlie Ridgway's interactive maps site is http://digitalmagic.i8.com/Astronomy/Occul...126_Sarema.html and Derek Breit's station list is at http://www.poyntsource.com/BREIT_IDEAS/Sarema.htm . __________________________________________________ David Dunham, IOTA home dunham@starpower.net 301-474-4722 cell 301-526-5590 office david.dunham@jhuapl.edu 240-228-5609 ================================================================== AstroAlert is a free service of SKY & TELESCOPE, the Essential Magazine of Astronomy (http://SkyandTelescope.com/). This e-mail was sent to AstroAlert subscribers. If you feel you received it in error, or to unsubscribe from AstroAlert, please send a plain- text e-mail to majordomo@SkyandTelescope.com with the following line -- and nothing else -- in the body of the message: unsubscribe occultation e-mail@address.com replacing "e-mail@address.com" with your actual e-mail address. ================================================================== -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 26 2006, 06:04 PM
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#11
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 40 Joined: 24-January 06 From: USA Member No.: 659 |
QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Jan 25 2006, 08:29 AM) SATURN OCCULTS A FAINT STAR For observers in Europe, Africa, and Asia, an 8.2-magnitude star (SAO 98054) will be occulted by (passes behind) Saturn's ring system starting at about 18:45 Universal Time January 25th. The star reappears out from behind the planet itself around 20:55 UT. I've yet to have any luck observing an occultation. If it's not the weather then it's not visible in this location, or it occurs at some ungodly hour like 1:13 a.m... The moon occulting Venus or Jupiter would be a great "first." |
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Feb 4 2006, 05:21 PM
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#12
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
LAUNCH ALERT
Brian Webb Ventura County, California E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net Web Site: http://www.spacearchive.info 2006 February 3 (Friday) 19:15 PST ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEIADES OCCULTATIONS Chances are you have noticed the faint, close grouping of stars known as the Pleiades glittering in the winter sky. This Sunday night-Monday morning (February 5-6), the first quarter Moon passes through the Pleiades for observers on the West Coast and Hawaii. Using a small telescope or binoculars, skywatchers can watch the Moon eclipse (or, as astronomers call it, "occult" from Latin "to hide") members of the star cluster. Whether the Moon occults a given star, as well as the disappearance and reappearance times, varies depending on location. >From downtown Los Angeles, the stars Merope, Alcyone, Atlas, and Pleione disappear at 00:16, 00:56, 01:30, and 01:36 PST (08:16, 08:56, 09:30, and 09:36 UTC), respectively. The reappearances of Merope and Alcyone will be difficult to see due to the Moon's low elevation and because they emerge on the Moon's daylight side. Pleione and Atlas reappear after moonset. For the disappearance and reappearance times of the brightest Pleiades for other cities, use the following links: www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/2006plnam/0206zc537.htm www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/2006plnam/0206zc552.htm www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/2006plnam/0206zc560.htm www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/2006plnam/0206zc561.htm Of particular interest is the gazing occultation of Electra. The Moon will barely occult or graze the star within an extremely narrow zone that runs through southern California. Suitably equipped observers within the path may be able to alternately see the star disappear behind mountains and shine through valleys on the Moon's north pole. Occultation enthusiasts have identified northern Somis, California as a prime location for observing the graze. The narrow path also passes over Thousand Oaks, part of Los Angeles, and northern Orange County, as well as other locations from south of Santa Maria to the southern Imperial Valley. Detailed maps, information about a planned expedition to northeastern Orange County, and other information is available at http://iota.jhuapl.edu/plds6feb.htm. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2006 Brian Webb. All rights reserved. This newsletter may be distributed in its entirety without restriction. Excerpts may be not be reprinted or posted elsewhere without prior permission. _______________________________________________ To subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter, go to: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/launch-alert Questions and comments regarding this newsletter and editorial contributions should be directed to kd6nrp@earthlink.net -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Feb 4 2006, 05:46 PM
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#13
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY
* First-quarter Moon on February 5th. * The Moon, just past first quarter, occults several of the Pleiades stars on Sunday night, February 5-6, for Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast. * Venus (magnitude -4.4, in northern Sagittarius) is rapidly climbing into good view during dawn; look for it low in the east-southeast. A telescope shows that it's a thickening crescent. http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/atagl...ticle_110_1.asp -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Feb 10 2006, 07:44 PM
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#14
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Science/Astronomy:
* Moon Mugging: Bright Star Blocked by Lunar Lout http://www.space.com/spacewatch/060210_moon_spica.html For many locales, the Moon will either be below the horizon when Spica vanishes behind the Moon's bright limb, or will lie very close to the east-southeast horizon, and likely dimmed by horizon haze. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Feb 16 2006, 02:36 PM
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#15
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Australians will get to see the Moon occult Antares on February 22.
==== IN THE SKY THIS WEEK === The Last Quarter Moon is Tuesday February 21. In the early evening, ruddy Mars is in the north-west sky, very close to the beautiful Pleiades cluster, easily visible together in binoculars. In the late evening, Saturn is easily spotted as a pale gold object, brighter than any nearby stars in the middle region of the northern sky. Jupiter rises just before midnight and can be seen high in the eastern morning sky, close to the brightest star in Libra. On Monday February 20 Jupiter is close to the waning Moon. On the morning of Wednesday February 22 people in WA, NT and SA will see the Moon pass in front of the bright red star Antares. Venus is brilliant in the dawn sky. Comet A1 Pojmanski is now visible in binoculars, close to Sagittarius, if you get up around 4-5 am. See Southern Sky Watch for details. http://home.mira.net/~reynella/skywatch/ssky.htm -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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