What’s Up This Second Week of February

The forecast  is somewhat promising, pointing towards clear skies near the middle of the week and partially clear skies near next weekend. The temperature once the sun has set will be dropping through the freezing point, so make sure you’re still dressing really warm, despite some of the warm days Ohio has had recently. Sunset is right around 5:50 PM, be ready for dark skies around one hour later. Be on the lookout this week for the moon passing some outer planets, as well as the Pleiades, and a cosmic heart, the Heart Nebula. I will also include a brief section on the expanding universe and the Hubble Constant. 

This past Friday, February 9, was the new moon, so you may likely see a razor-thin crescent in the western skies early this week. Passing through its waxing crescent phase, the moon squeaked past Saturn on Saturday. If you missed that, don’t worry, you can still see the gas giant right above the western horizon after sunset with a good pair of binoculars. 

On Wednesday, February 14, the moon will pass by Jupiter, the other easily spotted outer planet. The moon will be a bit bright, even while in its crescent phase but luckily Jupiter is shining at magnitude -2.25 which can easily pierce through the lunar halo. A set of binoculars is also a great choice for viewing Jupiter and may even resolve some of the brightest moons.

The moon and Jupiter will appear near to one another in the sky on the evening of the 14th. They are, however, at vastly different distances.

Two days later, on Friday, February 16, the moon will be merely 5 degrees away from the Pleiades star cluster. Normally the Pleiades is easily spotted as the “Seven Sisters” of stars, but the first quarter moon will be too bright to see most of the brightest stars in the cluster. [Image: The top image displays what the Pleiades cluster and the surrounding nebulosity would look like without the moon’s halo. The bottom image is a more realistic representation of what a stargazer can expect to see with just 5 degrees of separation from the moon.]

The moon is so bright, the normally easy-to-see Pleaides are quite challenging when the half moon is near.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day this Wednesday, try looking for the “largest heart in the universe” – the Heart Nebula (IC 1805). This emission region is located just “above” Cassiopeia. With a telescope and long exposure camera, you can reveal a large two-degree wide red heart. The red color is the result of (primarily) hydrogen gas being energized and ionized from the hot star cluster in the central region of the nebula. Using specialized filters to isolate the oxygen emission and the sulfur emission will give a more colorful final image. The inside of the heart is colored a gentle blue by the O-III ionization and the perimeter of the heart is highlighted in red/yellow from the Sulfur-II ionization.

The heart is, alas, not visible to our not-very-red-sensitive human eyes.

Most stargazers and telescopes only have the resolving power to see things in the “local universe”, like the planets, stars, and nebulae. Most of these objects are stuck in orbits around the sun or circle around the core of the Milky Way. But more advanced telescopes and imaging techniques unlock the ability to view distant galaxies that are over millions of lightyears away. Measurements have revealed that the further away a galaxy is, the faster it is receding away from us. This is the result of an expanding universe. The expansion rate is described by the Hubble parameter, which is around 70 km/s/Mpc. This value means that for every megaparsec (3.26 million lightyears) away, H0, space is expanding at an additional 70 km/s. This implies something very grim about the universe. In the very very distant future, all galaxies will appear to be speeding away from us so fast that they will vanish. And as the universe increases in size, it will continue to cool down – all leading to the heat death of the universe. A very dark and cold future awaits (in several trillions of years).

Get outside and enjoy the cold but hopefully clear skies later this week. Grab your warmest coat and a lawn chair to lean back and comfortably stair up into the infinite cosmos. Try spotting the moon night-to-night as it passes by some outer planets and the famous Pleiades star cluster, or perhaps show your Valentine a cosmic heart by looking at IC 1805 all while having an existential dilemma and a new appreciation for the expanding universe. Clear Skies!

The forecast this week looks rather cloudy, but there might be some hope for clear nights closer to next weekend. Sunset is around 5:30 PM so be ready for dark skies and stargazing by 6:30 PM. During the sunset hours the temperature will be in the mid-30s and the windchill about ten degrees colder – so make sure to wear your warmest coats and protect your skin from potential frostbite.

This week be on the lookout for an early-morning planetary meetup, the waning gibbous moon, and the brightest star in the sky.

In the moments before sunrise, between 6:45 AM and 7:30 AM, look low in the eastern sky. The first object you’ll likely notice is Venus, the brightest object in the sky (behind the moon and sun). “Below” Venus will be Mercury and Mars separated by only a few degrees. As the week progresses the two planets will slowly appear to drift further apart. A pair of binoculars is perfect for viewing Venus, but a telescope is more suited for viewing Mercury and Mars.

The Morning Sky this week

In related news, the tiny helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, that was attached to the Perseverance rover that landed on Mars in 2020, had its final flight this week. This tiny 4 lb autonomous helicopter completed 72 flights with a cumulative in-air time of over two hours. It covered a total distance of nearly 11 miles. Ingenuity has paved the way for future powered-flight vehicles on Mars and other bodies in the solar system. In addition to being a technology demonstration platform, the helicopter was equipped with two cameras that helped with terrain mapping for current and future rover and sample-return missions to Mars. [GIF credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS.]

A short video showing Ingenuity’s first test flight in the thin air of Mars as seen from the nearby Perseverance rover.

An hour or more following sunset, the eastern skies will begin to glow from the light of the waning gibbous moon. Luckily sunset and dark skies occur early in the evenings, so there will still be several hours of darkness before the lunar glow washes out some of the stars. A set of binoculars or a telescope are great options for viewing the moon, especially when equipped with a lunar filter, which is basically a set of sunglasses for your telescope/binoculars (the moon is surprisingly bright when magnified).

Sirius is easy to find.

In the southeast sky, somewhat “below” the famous Orion constellation, try spotting Sirius, the brightest star in the sky (excluding the sun). Sirius shines at magnitude -1.5, or about 25 times brighter than the stars that comprise the Big Dipper. The magnitude scale is a bit odd in that lower numbers are brighter, hence the negative number. The 0.0 magnitude is referenced to Vega, another bright and easily recognizable star. The equation, for those who are interested, for the apparent magnitude and brightness of a star (or planet) goes as

The magnitude equation

Where m2 and m1 are the apparent magnitudes of object one and two respectively and B2 and B1 are the brightnesses of object 2 and 1 respectively. If you know the apparent magnitude and absolute magnitude of a star, there is a different equation you can use to calculate how far away the object is!

Despite a pessimistic forecast, there is some chance for partially clear skies through the week, especially heading into next weekend. Hopefully, the experience of sitting out under a crystal-clear night sky full of celestial wonders outweighs the nipping cold. Stay warm and be on the lookout for Venus, a Mercury-Mars meetup (while thinking about the Martian helicopter, Ingenuity), a glowing gibbous moon, and the brightest star, Sirius.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Second Week of January

Happy New Year!

The year is unfortunately greeting us with mostly cold and cloudy nights. There might be some gaps in the clouds later in the week with any luck. During the potentially partially clear nights, the temperature will be in the low 30s and upper 20s so be sure to dress very warm including gloves, a hat, and something to protect any exposed skin to prevent frostbite. Now that we have passed the winter solstice, the sunset will be getting later and later every day, but for now, sunset is still occurring around 5:10 PM so be ready for stargazing by 6:10 PM at the earliest.

This week be on the lookout for a razor-thin waning crescent moon, an early-morning planetary meetup, outer planets high in the night sky, and the famous Crab Nebula.

The first new moon of 2024 will occur on Thursday, January 11. So early this week if you are looking in the eastern sky before sunrise, you will likely catch a glimpse of a razor-thin waning crescent moon. The conditions are ideal for Earthshine during the early waxing phase and the late waning phase. Most modern smartphone cameras will be perfect for imaging the moon (perhaps with Earthshine) with the orange sky from the pending sunrise.

The sky as it was on Tuesday morning. The moon will slide into the evening sky by Thursday, but the planets will remain roughly in the same place.

Again, during the early morning hours, if you are out looking for the waning crescent, you may also notice some bright celestial neighbors to the moon. If you are outside around 7:15 AM, you will be able to see three planets: Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Venus will be the brightest of the bunch, followed by Mercury and then Mars (since it will be very low and difficult to spot, its brightness will also be attenuated by the Earth’s atmosphere). Unfortunately, a smartphone camera won’t do these objects justice, but a telescope certainly will!

The crescent moon as seen on Friday January 12.

After the sun has set, turn your head high in the southern and southwestern sky to spot Jupiter and Saturn respectively. These two planets are bright enough that they should stand out from the background of stars. Dobsonian or Newtonian telescopes with longer focal lengths are ideal for viewing planets. They are basically photon buckets and are great for making out the finer details of the planets. A Cassegrain telescope or even some longer focal-length refractors can work as well, but they might be a bit “slower” at gathering light (depending on the exact setup).

The planets in the evening.

Lastly, look just above where Orion’s head is with a telescope and try looking for the Crab Nebula. It is a relatively small nebula (both in actual size and apparent size) that resembles a tangled spider web, in my opinion. At the heart of this bright nebula is something  called a pulsar, a highly dense and collapsed core of an exploded star that is spinning rapidly. These pulsars channel energy through their incredibly strong magnetic fields and produce a “lighthouse” effect. The original star exploded in 1054 AD and was recorded by Chinese and Native American astronomers.

IMAGE: This is an image of the Crab Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The intricate structures can be easily seen. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-1/

This is a short video that is compiled from individual images taken of the core region of the Crab. The shockwaves are the result of the pulsar’s emitted energy with the surrounding gas. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-1/

What’s Up This First Week of December

It looks like the forecast is calling for some rainy and snowy nights ahead – perhaps some partially clear skies heading into the weekend. Sunset this week is right around 5 PM so be ready for dark skies suitable for stargazing by around 5:30 PM. The temperatures, once the sun has dipped below the horizon, will fall into the 30s and even into the 20s on some nights. If there are any gaps in the clouds, be on the lookout for a fleeting glimpse of Mercury, the third-quarter moon, a rising icon of the winter sky: Orion, and a Venus-moon meetup.

Since Christmas and several cloudy nights are coming up, you can spend some time browsing the internet for stargazing gifts. I will include a short section of sites with good options for beginner/intermediate stargazing gifts.

On Monday, December 4th, the innermost planet, Mercury will be at its greatest eastern elongation. In other words, Mercury will be at its highest point in the sky trailing the sun. This makes it an the best time to observe this elusive solar system object. Since Mercury orbits relatively close to the sun, the only opportunities to see it are very shortly after the sun sets, or right before the sun rises (if Mercury is leading the sun, for example).  You’ll be able to catch the planet very low in the southwest skies between about 5:30 PM and 6 PM. A telescope is the best option for viewing, and a very clear southwest horizon is critical, but be very careful not to point your scope at the sun if you set it up before the sun has completely set!

Mercury will appear to the left of the point of sunset.

The day after, Tuesday, December 5th, will be the third quarter moon. If you are more of a “deep-space” stargazer or astrophotographer, this is always a good time of the month since the illuminated side of the moon, and its consequential light pollution appears smaller and smaller heading into the new moon. If you do wish to observe the moon, you’ll have to wait until around midnight to see it start rising in the east. 

The third quarter moon.

Around 8 PM any time this week, look low in the eastern skies to spot the Orion constellation poking up above the southeast horizon. This constellation and all of its nebulae and other deep-sky treasures are icons of the winter nighttime skies. Some of the most photographed deep-sky objects can be found within the Orion region, including the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, and the supernova candidate star, Betelgeuse. This region of the sky is perfect for stargazers of all levels, it includes easily spotted objects by eye (again the Orion Nebula, the belt stars of Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, and contains parts of the Milky Way arms) all the way to advanced astrophotography objects (Witch Head Nebula, Barnard’s Loop, and Messier Object 78).

Orion as it will appear at around 8:30 PM this week.

M78, also known as Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula, contains mostly dusty dark nebula regions, but also some faint blue reflection nebula components.

Next Saturday, December 9th, try catching a Venus-moon meetup in the eastern skies between 3 AM and 8 AM. These two objects will appear to be separated by only around 3 degrees. A pair of binoculars or even the naked eye is perfect for viewing this event.

The moon meets up with Venus before dawn on December 9.

A great “starter” scope: The Orion SkyScanner.

With all the rainy nights coming up, instead of trying to peek through the clouds, try browsing around for stargazing/astronomy Christmas gifts for friends and family who might enjoy them! Among the most popular and affordable brands for telescopes are Celestron (https://www.celestron.com/) and Orion (https://www.telescope.com/). These sites have great and simple-to-use telescopes for anyone just getting into exploring the night sky. Orion also offers magazine subscriptions that are very informative about what’s up in the sky, new telescopes, and techniques for observing and imaging the night sky. Or perhaps the ideal gift is offering your friends and family a ride to the John Glenn Astronomy Park for views of the skyscape under some of the darkest skies in the state of Ohio 😉.[Image: This is just one of many varieties of telescopes that Orion offers. This one in particular is a simple tabletop reflector that is perfect for someone just getting into stargazing.
https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Orion-SkyScanner-100mm-TableTop-Reflector-Telescope/rc/2160/p/102007.uts

Get outside and enjoy the potentially few clear nights coming up later this week. Be sure to dress very warm to have the most comfortable stargazing experience. With sunset so early this time of year, the night sky is very accessible – one can come home from work, have dinner, then head straight outside to spend time under the stars…no need to wait until 10 PM for dark skies like in the summer months. Get some astronomy gift shopping done then head outside to look for Mercury “high” in the east, the waning moon, the Orion region of the sky, and Venus and the moon hanging out in the early mornings.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Third Week of November

The forecast is looking promising for clear skies the first few days of the week with increasing cloud coverage heading into next weekend. This time of year seems to bring mostly cloudy skies, so be sure to capitalize on the optimal stargazing weather when you can. Sunset this week is just after 5 PM so be ready for some astronomically dark skies by 6 PM. This time of year, stargazers have access to about 12 hours of darkness (excluding twilight hours) so despite the 40- and 30-degree weather that follows the sunset, the reward is long hours of stargazing possibilities. This week be on the lookout for Taurids and Leonid meteors, a new moon, a double star cluster, and during the cloudy nights check out the brand new images coming from the Euclid space telescope. 

The Taurid meteor shower runs from October 20th to about December 10th and this past Saturday (November 11th) was the peak. While the meteors can appear all over the sky, they appear to radiate from a region in the sky northwest of the easily-spotted Orion constellation. 

Meteors can be photographed by taking multiple exposures over a long period of time.

Granted, this meteor shower only produces a few fireballs per hour, but they should be easier to spot than normal meteors. This is because the particles that form the meteors are slightly larger than average. As the particles slam into Earth’s atmosphere at a staggering 65,000mph, they reach temperatures exceeding 3,000°F causing them to vaporize. This heating is not dominated by frictional forces of the sand grain-sized particle ripping through the upper atmosphere but is instead dominated by something called ram pressure where the air is compressed in front of the speeding meteor causing a rapid increase in temperature. Ram pressure is the same phenomenon that makes the sides of a bicycle pump warm when you compress air with it.

The Taurids seem to radiate from the constellation Taurus. Taurus is in the evening hours, making this meteor shower a good one to watch for those who don’t like to stay up late (or get up early).

If the Taurids aren’t impressive enough, the Leonid meteor shower, which runs from November 6th to November 30th, will peak this Friday, November 17th. This shower will produce a more impressive 15 fireballs per hour. Try looking for these shooting stars coming from the area 45° east of the base of the Big Dipper. 

The Leonids seem to radiate from the constellation Leo, which gives them their name. Leo rises in the early morning hours in November.

There’s an old joke amongst amateur astronomers that says when there is an interesting astronomical event, be it a meteor shower or an eclipse, the weather is either cloudy or the moon is full. Well, we have a rarity early this week because there will clear skies and the new moon. The new moon occurs on Monday, November 13th, and this will will provide ideally dark skies for stargazing and meteor spotting. The thin waxing crescent that follows will be a great telescope or binocular target. 

Around 10 PM, look 20° north of the zenith (directly overhead) with binoculars or a telescope to spot two densely packed regions of stars. This is Caldwell 14, otherwise known as the Double Cluster. Quite often when two objects appear next to each other they are only seemingly so. One object is often much further away. In the case of the Double Cluster, however, both collections of stars are neighbors and sit around 7,500 light years away and are actually quite close to one other in space. These clusters have the vague appearance of globular clusters but are in fact young open clusters just 14 million years old (compared to the Pleiades which is estimated to be 100 million years old.). [Image: https://science.nasa.gov/image-detail/double-cluster-in-perseus/]

The double cluster, a true pair.

Once the clouds roll in later this week, check out the European Space Agency’s website to view the brand-new images produced by the Euclid space telescope. Launched in July of 2023, this telescope’s mission includes surveying huge areas of the sky to make a 3D map of galaxy distributions to better understand dark energy, among many other things. Similar to the James Webb Space Telescope, Euclid is also located at Lagrange point 2 and is observing the cosmos in near-IR. [Image: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/Euclid_s_view_of_the_Horsehead_Nebula

This detailed image of the famous Horsehead Nebula is one of the first images published from the Euclid collaboration.

Get outside and enjoy the clear night skies before the clouds slowly roll in. Make sure to grab some warm winter-weather gear to ensure your stargazing sessions are as comfortable as possible on the near-freezing nights. Gaze upwards into the vast cosmos and enjoy the wonderful displays put on by meteors streaking across the incredibly dark new-moon sky, a double cluster of stars directly overhead, and enjoy the images from Euclid that reveal the night sky invisible to the human eye.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This First Week of November

It looks like the forecast is not looking too nice for stargazers this weekend (October 28-29). As the week goes on, however, there may be several clear nights. During these upcoming clear nights, the temperature will drop into the upper thirties so be sure to bring your winter weather gear to keep warm. (It’s always colder than you think at night!) Sunset this week is right around 6:30 PM so be ready for true darkness by around 7:30 PM. Look these cold and clear nights for the full moon, a Pleiades-moon meetup, the spooky Witch Head Nebula, and some evening planets.

This Saturday, October 28th, marks the full moon of the month. Stargazers over in Europe and Africa will get a nice show – there will be a partial lunar eclipse where the moon passes into Earth’s shadow. It is quite coincidental that just two weeks ago there was a solar eclipse, and now there is a lunar eclipse! The moon will rise in the east almost exactly at sunset. This unfortunately means that any deep-sky objects in the east will likely be washed out by the moon’s glow.

The glare of the nearly full moon makes it hard to see the Pleiades, but photographers, and users of binoculars, can sometimes catch the two appearing next to one another in the sky.

Between Sunday and Monday (Oct 29th and 30th) the moon will pass very near the Pleiades star cluster. On Monday, try spotting the Pleiades up in the eastern sky around 8 PM with the moon trailing (or “below”) the cluster by about 5 degrees. The moon will be deeper into its waning gibbous phase and a little dimmer than the night before. This will make it much easier on the eyes if you decide to observe our natural satellite using a telescope or binoculars. The moon will also wash out less of the faint stars and details of the Pleiades cluster, which is an ideal object for viewing through a low-power telescope or binoculars. [Moon-Pleiades Photo]

On Halloween night, around midnight (even spookier), look low in the eastern sky to spot the famous Orion constellation. Near the bright star of Rigel, which makes up Orion’s “leading” foot, there is a faint and ghostly reflection nebula. This eerie white glowing nebula has an uncanny resemblance to that of a witch’s head turned to the side.

Where to point an astro-camera to see the Witch’s Head Nebula

 The Witch Head is a faint nebula that shines at magnitude 13 so you will need a long-exposure camera and dark skies to see it, as well as a wide-angle lens since this object spans 3 degrees across (about the same as 6 side-to-side full moons). The color of the nebula comes from large clouds of dust that reflect light from the nearby star of Rigel.

A closeup of the Wtich’s Head Nebula . [WitchHead Nasa Photo: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/witch-head-nebula/]

In case you’re in the mood for planets this week, both Saturn and Jupiter will be easy to spot and observe. Jupiter will be very high in the eastern sky, almost perfectly overhead by midnight. Saturn will be in the western sky on its way to setting below the horizon around 2 AM. There is a decent opening angle on Saturn’s rings this year, so now is a great time to view them. Because the rings don’t rotate on the same angle as the solar system ecliptic, the rings will appear very thin or very wide, depending on where Saturn is in its orbit. In 2009, Saturn was positioned such that we viewed the rings completely edge-on from Earth and so they appeared razor thin.

Saturn is always a great object. See if you can spot some of its many moons in a small scope.

Be sure to take advantage of the several clear nights coming up – these don’t happen very often this time of year! Pack some warm clothes and a chair so you can kick back and enjoy the cosmic displays of our universe. One stargazing benefit of the autumn and incoming winter season is that sunset will get earlier and earlier until the winter solstice. This means you don’t have to stay up so late to enjoy the dark skies, unlike in the summer months. Enjoy the bright and full moon, the gibbous moon crossing paths with the Pleiades cluster, a spooky cosmic Witch Head Nebula, and some gas giants hanging out high in the sky.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Third Week of September

The forecast is showing the possibility of partially clear skies near the middle and end of this week. Hopefully, those turn into cloudless nights as the weather models get updated. The temperature drops into the low-70s and upper-60s in the few hours following sunset, which occurs around 7:30 PM this week. Be on the lookout for a razor-thin crescent moon, Neptune at opposition, early-morning Mercury, and the Helix Nebula.

The new moon was the past Friday, September 15th, so expect the waxing crescent to grow brighter and brighter over the next week. Look low in the western sky shortly after sunset these next few days to spot the thin crescent moon with a chance to see some earthshine. This is an ideal time to view the moon through a telescope or binoculars since it is shining at magnitude -5.5 (as opposed to a full moon which shines at magnitude -12.6, or over 100x brighter) and won’t hurt your eyes.

The moon on the evening of September 16 (simulated)

On Tuesday, September 19, Neptune will reach opposition, or in other words, be in the opposite location of the sun. This outer planet which currently shines at magnitude 7.8 (combined with its small apparent size) requires a decently powerful telescope and dark skies to view it. Once you have pointed your telescope in the correct direction, you’ll want to look for a noticeably blue-colored star – this is Neptune. In 1999, the Bridge Creek Oklahoma tornado had one of the fastest windspeeds recorded on Earth at 302mph. Neptune crushes this record with windspeeds hitting 1,200mph in its methane atmosphere! [Image: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/discovering-neptune]

Neptune from the only spacecraft that ever paid it a visit: Voyager 2.

Neptune is challenging to spot, and too faint to be seen without optical aid, but it’s striking blue color makes it a worthwhile object to hunt down in a small telescope.

The innermost planet, Mercury, will reach its greatest western elongation this Friday, September 22nd. Greatest western elongation occurs when a planet appears to be at the “top” of its orbital path extending westward from the eastern horizon. Since Mercury’s orbit is inclined by 7 degrees relative to Earth’s, Mercury’s mostly-circular orbit appears highly elliptical. To see this event, look low in the eastern sky between 6 AM and 7 AM to spot Mercury leading the sun and extending “high” in the sky.

Mercury will be a sight for early risers when it reaches its greatest western elongation.

Any time this week, look in the southern sky with some binoculars about 10° below Saturn and 5° to the right. In this region of the sky, you’ll find NGC 7293, more commonly known as the Helix Nebula. This deep-sky object emits its vibrant colors (unfortunately only visible in a camera, not our eyes) at magnitude 7.6, so dark skies will certainly help. It is a relatively large object, spanning about half a degree across, or the same as a full moon. Detailed images have revealed a single star at the “pupil” of this eye-shaped nebula. This single star has been shedding its outer layers producing this beautiful cosmic display as part of the dying stages of stellar evolution. [image: https://esahubble.org/images/opo0432b/]

The helix nebula, one of the brightest and closest of the planetary nebulae, seen in this deep image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Get outside and enjoy the potentially clear skies throughout the middle and end of this week. Make sure to bring a blanket and a jacket to stay warm – the cooler temperatures are hinting at the upcoming autumn season. Kickback and enjoy the beauty of the cosmos overhead. Try spotting the waxing crescent moon, distant Neptune with ripping winds, Mercury at the “top” of its orbital hill, and a bright and vibrant Helix Nebula from a dying star.

Clear Skies! 

It looks like there may be a few clear nights at the beginning and the end of this week, according to the forecast. We are now officially in meteorological fall (not to be confused with astronomical fall which starts September 23rd). The temperatures shortly after sunset will be quite toasty in the upper 70s. Sunset occurs around 7:55 PM this week so have your telescopes set up and ready to look at the sky by 9 PM. Be on the lookout for the third-quarter moon, the Andromeda Galaxy, a brightening comet, and the Eastern Veil Nebula.

Wednesday, September 6th, is the official third-quarter moon. The moon in this phase doesn’t rise until around midnight, so you’ll need to be out stargazing for a while if you have a hope of seeing or photographing it. 

The Third Quarter Moon (Simulation made using Stellarium).

On Tuesday, the day before the third quarter, try to catch the waning-gibbous moon sitting directly between Jupiter and a ghost of the winter skies, the Pleiades cluster. The moon will only be 2° above Uranus, but the bright halo of reflected sunlight might make seeing this faint outer planet difficult. A set of binoculars will reveal more than just the “seven sisters” of stars within the Pleiades cluster – how many can you count?

The moon will be halfway between Jupiter and the bright star cluster, The Pleiades, on Tuesday evening.

If you turn your attention to the northern skies, you will spot the constellations of Cassiopeia and Andromeda. Between these two is our galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. Most galaxies are difficult to spot since they are small and not very bright. Luckily, Andromeda spans the same length as six full moons and is naked-eye visible in most dark locations. Of course, our eyes cannot see the intricate structure of the spiral arms, which requires a long-exposure camera.

Where to find the Andromeda Galaxy.

A deep photograph of the Andromeda Galaxy. This is not what you’d see with your unaided eye or a telescope. (Stellarium)

A new comet was discovered on August 11, and it is rapidly brightening. Designated as C/2023 P1 Nishimura, the ice ball is closing in on the sun causing the tails to brighten day-by-day. This week between 5 AM and 6:30 AM, look 15° left of Venus to spot the comet, currently shining at magnitude 6. With any luck, this comet will become naked-eye visible within the next few weeks.  [photo: https://science.nasa.gov/introducing-comet-nishimura]

Comet C/2023 P3 Nishimura

Last week’s blog mentioned some of the deep-sky objects that can be found within the Cygnus the Swan constellation, including the Veil Nebulae. Taking a bit more of a deep dive, these emission regions can be found in one of the swan’s wings and is broadly called the Cygnus Loop. One of the subregions is called the Eastern Veil Nebula which shines at magnitude 6 but is spread across the same area as two full moons, which decreases its overall surface brightness. This nebula, along with the Western Veil Nebula and other parts of the Cygnus Loop, are all the result of the supernova that happened over 10,000 years ago. The odd shape is caused by the fine features of the supernova’s shockwave that is still expanding outwards at around 930,000mph. The vivid red and blue colors are from ionized hydrogen and oxygen respectively. An oxygen-III narrowband filter can let you see this nebula through a telescope easily. [photo taken from a bortle-4 site using a narrowband filter specific to the hydrogen and oxygen emission to bring out the red and blue colors]

The Eastern Veil nebula, the so-called “network nebula”. [photo taken from a bortle-4 site using a narrowband filter specific to the hydrogen and oxygen emission to bring out the red and blue colors]

Get outside this first week of meteorological fall and enjoy the rather warm twilight and nighttime temperatures. Hopefully, the clear skies will stay in the forecast for later in the week. Bring a comfortable chair or blanket to lie down on for stargazing. It is always humbling to peer up into a sky filled with planets, thousands of nebulae, millions of stars, and billions of galaxies. Perhaps this week you can have that experience by looking for the third-quarter moon passing by the Pleiades and Jupiter, the Andromeda Galaxy, an all-new comet, or the Eastern Veil Nebula.

Clear Skies!

I hope you have all your stargazing equipment ready because the forecast is showing multiple clear nights this week – a rare event! The temperatures will be in the low-70s and upper-60s in the hours following sunset which occurs around 8:05 PM. The twilight sky should fade to astronomical dark by around 9 PM. During the clear nights this week be on the lookout for the blue supermoon (a two-for-one deal), all the outer planets, and Cygnus the Swan directly overhead.

The Full Moon- a blue moon, but not blue in color

On Wednesday, August 30th at exactly 9:36 PM, the moon will be full. This will make the second full moon of August and the second full moon of any month is referred to as a “blue moon”. Blue moons typically occur around once every two to three years. So now you know for when someone uses the age-old saying “once in a blue moon”, they precisely mean “once every two or three years”. The supermoon title gets added because the moon is near its perigee, or closest point to Earth in its orbit. An average supermoon will actually only be about 14% larger in diameter but up to 30% brighter than when at apogee (its furthest point from Earth).

Any time this week, if you are still out stargazing around midnight, you will be able to see all of our solar system’s outer planets; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Jupiter and Saturn will be easy to spot with the naked eye, but Uranus and especially Neptune will require a higher-power telescope (focal length >700mm).

The outer planets march across the evening sky. Saturn and Jupiter can be seen with the naked eye. Uranus and Neptune cannot.

Uranus and Jupiter will be right next to each other. A telescope will reveal the red stripes of Jupiter and four of its largest moons. Uranus is a little less exciting through a telescope, you will only be able to see this planet as a blue-colored point of light. Fun fact about Uranus, it is the only planet in the solar system that rotates on its side (its northern hemisphere gets half a year (42 earth years) of daylight, then its southern hemisphere gets half a year of daylight).

Uranus, the Sideways planet. photo: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/images/first-x-rays-from-uranus-discovered.html an x-ray image of Uranus taken using the Chandra X-ray space telescope (purple tint) and superimposed on a visible light image. It is easy to see the planet is rotating on its side.

Neptune will be floating close to Saturn as seen from Earth (though they are quite far away in reality.) A telescope will reveal Saturn’s grand rings that may even look a bit brighter than usual. When viewed when the sun is backlighting the earth (around midnight), something called the Seeliger effect will make the rings appear slightly brighter. Neptune, very similar to Uranus, will only appear as a blue-colored point source.

If you look directly overhead anytime this week, you will see the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. This is an easy-to-spot constellation since it is comprised of brighter stars and it is home to many fantastic deep-sky nebulae. Some of these include the Veil Nebula, Crescent Nebula, Pelican Nebula, the North America Nebula, and many more. A telescope and adequate dark skies will reveal a hazy light for the brighter nebulae. While this is not a good week for observing the veil nebula with your eye (using a telescope) a camera capable of taking long-exposure images is perfect for soaking up all the light and making these emission regions pop out against the black of space.

Cygnus is high overhead once it is fully dark this week.

The bright moonlight this week will wash out the veil, but astro-cameras can still capture good images of it if skies are clear. This is a close up image of a small part of the veil.

The image above is Hubble’s take on a very small region of the Veil Nebula (most amateur telescope focal lengths are between 500 and 1000mm, Hubble has a focal length of 57,600mm – now that’s a lot of zoom!). The color is a result of various optical filters producing a false-color image.

Make sure to get outside this week and take full advantage of the multiple clear skies. If you can’t get out to stargaze for all the nights, at least there are multiple options. Bring a jacket and a reclining chair or a towel to comfortably gaze upwards into the heavens. The universe, our galaxy, and our local solar system are all teeming with amazing displays. Be on the lookout for the rare blue supermoon, all the outer gas giants, and just one of many regions of the sky filled with deep-sky nebulae. Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Third Week Of August

It looks like the forecast is calling for some cloudy and rainy nights early this week, however, some clear skies might come this way starting Wednesday night. Sunset occurs right around 8:40 PM, so be ready with all your stargazing friends and equipment by 9:40 PM to find yourself under truly dark skies. The temperature on the upcoming clear nights will be in the upper 60s in the hours following sunset, so bring some bug spray and a light jacket.

Be on the lookout this week for fireballs from the famous Perseid meteor shower, a razor-thin waning crescent moon heading into the new moon, the Milky Way dust lanes across the entire sky, and some evening planets.

Every year around the second and third week of August, the Perseid meteor shower makes astronomy news headlines, and for good reason. This annual shower produces up to 100 fireballs per hour under dark skies. A single meteor is only about as big as a grain of sand but heats up into a bright flash of light when ripping through Earth’s atmosphere at 130,000 mph. The Perseids are an annual spectacle since it is actually the Earth ramming through a field of debris left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle. The ideal time to watch for meteors is around 2 AM when the Earth’s western hemisphere is pointing “into” the dust field. While this shower peaks on August 12th/13th, you can still see meteors up through late August, so don’t let the cloudy skies get your hopes down. [IMAGE: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/2332/new-nasa-map-details-2023-and-2024-solar-eclipses-in-the-us/]

A composite image of an all-sky camera view of the Perseid meteor shower.

Luckily, the moon is in its waning crescent phase heading into a new moon. This is great for stargazers hoping to get a glimpse of shooting stars since the moon’s glow will not be washing out the fainter meteors streaking through the sky. The new moon officially occurs on Wednesday, August 16. 

There has been lots of hype behind “The Great American Eclipse” which will take place on April 8, 2024 that will pass over most of the eastern United States. Ohio is even in the path of totality where the moon will perfectly block the sun and turn day into night. Did you know there is an annular eclipse happening on October 14, 2023? This eclipse will pass through most of the western United States and will give the sun a “ring of fire” look, due to the characteristics of an annular eclipse. If you happen to be in a city like San Antonio TX, you will be in a perfect place to see BOTH eclipses (cloud coverage pending)! [IMAGE: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/2332/new-nasa-map-details-2023-and-2024-solar-eclipses-in-the-us/]

An annular eclipse, while not as spectacular as a total eclipse, is nonetheless very cool.

The summer is “Milky Way season” since the core of our galaxy is high in the southern sky and the dusty arms stretch through the northern sky. In a dark-sky location, you will notice a dense collection of stars and cloudy-like features in the sky. This is a culmination of billions of stars (although our eyes can only see a few thousand) and complex structure created by dust and gas that resides between the stars. A long-exposure image will reveal more detail and more stars within the overhead Milky Way core and arms.

The Milky way is seen high overhead in mid August in the late evening. This view is facing directly upwards, while oriented towards the west.

On Friday, August 18th, around 8:45 PM, look low in the western sky to see the thin waxing crescent moon approaching Mars. You may also notice the innermost planet, Mercury, hanging out just a few degrees below the Mars-Moon matchup. A pair of binoculars or a telescope will reveal more surface detail of the moon, but Mars and Mercury appear so small that even a high-power telescope (focal length >700mm) is required to begin to see the details of Mars.

The thin crescent moon will point out Mars and Mercury in the twilight on August 16.

After the cloudy nights clear, make sure to get outside and stare up into the vastness of the cosmos. Be on the lookout for a thin crescent moon, the Milky Way stars stretched across the entire sky, and a Mars-Mercury-Moon meetup. Bring a blanket or reclining chair to comfortably stare up at the sky for minutes on end. Patience will be rewarded with impressive Perseid fireballs streaking across the sky every few minutes.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This First Week of August

Despite some rain over the weekend, Sunday night through most of this week will have mostly clear skies! The temperature will be in the 70s in the hours following sunset. This is quite comfortable, just don’t forget your bug spray. Sunset is around 8:50 PM so be ready to observe the night sky by 9:50 PM. During the clear nights this week, be on the lookout for the bright full moon, some stray Perseid meteors, a crescent Venus, and late-night Saturn.

This Monday, August 1st, marks the full moon. While this isn’t an ideal time to be stargazing for faint deep-sky objects, it can be a great time to bust out some binoculars or a high-power telescope and test yourself on lunar geography. Around the time of the full moon is great for nighttime landscape photos or even long-exposure images of people. The bright moon (shining at magnitude -12.6) will surely light up your subject.

The moon, with helpful annotation.

The famous Perseid meteor shower is right around the corner! This year the shower will peak on the morning of August 13th. Since we are in the week leading up to the peak, there will likely be some “premature” meteors that streak across the sky. These shooting stars are traveling at 133,000 mph on average through the atmosphere causing them to heat up to thousands of degrees and leave a fleeting tail. You might need to stare at the sky for several minutes continuously if you want a chance at seeing them. Don’t look at your phone or other bright lights while you wait to spot a shooting star since this will temporarily desensitize your low-light vision. [image: https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/tag/perseids/]

The radiant of a meteor shower is the place in the sky from which meteors appear to emanate.

In addition to streaking meteors, another fleeting astronomical event this week is the razor-thin crescent of Venus. Between sunset and the 15 minutes that follow, look just a few degrees above the western horizon to spot Venus. Use a pair of binoculars or a telescope to view this inner planet. The current phase of Venus relative to the Earth makes the side facing us only 5% illuminated and appear as a thin crescent – similar to the moon’s waxing crescent.

Venus will be challenging this week, but, if you can find it near the western horizon just after sunset, it will reward you with its largest apparent diameter and a thin crescent.

Around 10 PM, look low in the eastern sky to find Saturn rising for the night. You may need to wait closer to 11 PM to observe this gas giant when it will be higher in the sky so you’ll be observing through less of the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. Saturn has a whopping 145 recognized moons, but most of them are far too small to see without a fancy space telescope or space probe. A careful eye and a powerful telescope can reveal the largest of Saturn’s moons (and the second-largest moon in the solar system), Titan. Did you know that if humans visited Titan, they could fly just by flapping their arms? That is because Titan has 1/7th the gravity of Earth, but an atmosphere four times as dense.

A simulated view of Saturn with some of its innermost moons annotated. Saturn is a “late evening” object at this time of year and will be higher in the sky as the evening grows long.

Several clear nights in a single week seem to be a rarity in Ohio, so make sure to get outside some of those evenings and peer up into the sky. From the comfort of a reclining chair or blanket on the ground, be sure to look for the full moon, premature Perseid fireballs, a fleeting glimpse at a crescent Venus, and Saturn showing off its glamorous rings.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Second Week of July in the Morning Skies

Before the rainy weekend gets you too down, the rest of this week’s forecast looks rather promising for clear nights. The temperatures will be in the 70s during the hour or two following sunset. Make sure you pack bug spray when going stargazing – the mosquitoes are making themselves known this time of year. During the upcoming clear nights, be on the lookout for the third quarter moon, a moon-Jupiter meetup, the early-morning Pleiades, and distorted distant galaxies.

The third quarter moon is often visible in the morning after sunrise.

Sunday, July 9th, will mark the third quarter moon of July. When the moon is in this phase it usually rises quite late, around 1 AM. So, the best time to see it without losing sleep is early morning or during the middle of the day. It can be a fun scavenger hunt to find the moon hidden within the bright blue daytime sky.

On Tuesday, July 11th, look at the eastern skies shortly before sunrise to be greeted by a celestial meetup of the waning crescent moon and Jupiter. Both objects are very bright, so they will be hard to miss. A set of binoculars will do both of these objects justice. You will be able to see the craters on the moon as well as four of the largest moons orbiting Jupiter.

Jupiter peeks up in the morning near the moon.

If you see this event a day later, the moon will be on the opposite side of Jupiter. The people on the other side of the world will get to see Jupiter reach its closest apparent distance to the moon of about 3°. Sometimes the moon’s path overlaps with that of another planet leading to occultation, or the “eclipsing” of a background planet, like Jupiter, by the moon.

Anytime this week between 2:30 AM and 6 AM look in the eastern skies for a twinkling reminder of the winter skies – the Pleiades cluster. Since we are on the opposite side of the sun for the summer months, all the winter night-sky objects are just hidden by the sun’s glow and a bright blue daytime sky. The early morning hours, when the sun is still hidden, is an ideal time to try spying on some fall and winter celestial objects. Although, winter will be here before we know it and so will all those deep-sky objects. 

The Pleiades rise before dawn.

Technically Spring is the ideal “galaxy season”, however, we are surrounded by distant galaxies at all times. Unfortunately, galaxies (apart from the Andromeda Galaxy and Triangulum Galaxy) are incredibly far away and consequently are very faint and appear very small. Viewing them requires dark skies and a long focal-length telescope (> 800mm). We can only see the luminous matter in these galaxies and galaxy clusters (i.e. stars, nebulae, etc.) which account for only a small percent of the total galaxy/cluster mass. The rest of the mass is found in dark matter which, as far as we know, only interacts through gravity. These massive collections of luminous matter and dark matter can actually stretch space enough to make a gravitational lens. This lensing can only be seen with very powerful telescopes, but NASA has a very informative page with pictures and videos on the strange effects of gravitational lensing - https://www.nasa.gov/content/discoveries-highlights-shining-a-light-on-dark-matter [IMAGE: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/multimedia/ero/ero_abell370.html – This image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of galaxy cluster Abell 370. The weird, stretched shapes are caused by intense gravitational lensing by the massive foreground galaxies.]

Make sure to get all your stargazing equipment ready this weekend for the very clear week ahead. Lean back and gaze up into a sky filled with planets, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and more. I always find it incredible to think about how the light coming from these distant objects makes it all the way through millions of miles or light years of space only to get absorbed by my eye. Try having your eyes absorb the light from the moon, Jupiter, the Pleiades, and distant galaxies this week.

Clear Skies! 

What’s Up This First Week of July

It looks like the forecast this week will disappoint most stargazers and astrophotographers – almost nothing but rainy partially cloudy nights. It’s possible there are stretches of time with low cloud coverage overhead after the sun has set. The temperature will swing through the 70s in the few hours following sunset. While these temperatures are very comfortable, warm temperatures may lead to turbulence in the air which can have negative effects on telescope viewing. During the sparse times of no overhead clouds be on the lookout for the full moon, Saturn, and a very bright Venus. You can’t necessarily observe this, but there was a big gravitational wave announcement last week!

The full moon will occur this Monday, July 3rd, so if you see the eastern sky starting to light up during sunset, that’s why. The full moon is bad news for people trying to observe a night sky full of faint starlight and deep-sky objects. 

Most people know that the moon causes the tides, but did you know that the moon is tidally locked with the Earth? That is why we always see the same side of the moon. Only space probes and the Apollo astronauts have seen the far side of the moon. Pictures of the far side show a surface peppered with craters – far more than the side facing us. That is because the moon acts as a gravitational shield for the Earth and pulls asteroids into it. The Earth also has a protective atmosphere that causes asteroids and meteors to burn up and break apart (this causes the classic “shooting star” appearance). Since the moon has effectively no atmosphere, nothing is stopping these asteroids from slamming right into the lunar surface at full speed.

The near (front) side of the moon at left, and the far (back) side at right. Notice the difference in the number of dark lunar “seas” between the two sides. (The seas are ancient lava fields).

If you hang around stargazing for long enough, you will see Saturn poke out above the eastern horizon at midnight. If you have an unobstructed eastern horizon, try viewing Saturn when it is really low to see the distortions of Earth’s atmosphere. The planet may appear redder, slightly misshaped, and may even appear to wobble around (this is due to turbulence in the atmosphere). The image on the left is how Saturn may appear far above the horizon and the image on the right shows how Saturn may appear low to the horizon.

Those with small telescopes can spot between five and eight of Saturn’s moons on good nights. Saturn rises after midnight at this time of the year

On Friday, July 7th, the waning gibbous moon will pass near this gas giant. A set of binoculars will be perfect for observing this meetup. A steady hand and careful eyes when observing Saturn through binoculars will reveal an elliptical shape which is the result of the massive ring system surrounding the planet. 

Also on Friday, July 7th, spot Venus setting in the western sky shortly after sunset. It may appear particularly bright and that’s because Venus (already the brightest object in the night sky beside the moon) will be at its greatest illuminated extent. While this inner planet will only be 25% illuminated (like a waxing crescent moon), it is at a point in its orbit that makes its face appear 37 arcseconds across which together make it appear slightly brighter than usual. 

Venus will be at its brightest this week.

In 2015 an experiment called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detected the “sound” of colliding supermassive black holes from a distant galaxy. Since then, it has heard many other black hole collisions. But it can “hear” these events because these very massive objects, as they move through space, emit gravitational waves. This is much like the ripples caused by throwing a rock into a pond. A more recent experiment called NANOGrav used a collection of radio telescopes to carefully measure pulsars, which are the collapsed cores of massive stars spinning faster than your kitchen blender. Pulsars spin at incredibly regular rates and so any distortion to the gravitational field around them causes their spin rate to slightly change. These tiny changes can be detected and by looking at several pulsars, astronomers and physicists successfully measured the gravitational wave background caused by orbiting blackholes throughout the universe. These groundbreaking results were announced last Thursday, June 29th and their publication can be found publicly here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.16213 .

Computer visualization of two black holes merging. These events can be detected by the LIGO instruments on Earth. The green represent invisible (but for their effect) waves of space itself.

Hopefully, the clouds are forgiving this week and part for at least a few hours after sunset to reveal a sky full of stars. When the night sky is revealed, lean back and enjoy the twinkling display of constellations, planets, and maybe a shooting star or two. During the breaks in the cloudy nights, be on the lookout for the full moon, Saturn low in the sky, and a brightness-boosted Venus. Don’t worry too much about gravitational waves – you won’t be able to feel them since they only distort space by much less than a trillionth of an inch.

As the astronomers say,

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Fourth Week of June

Unfortunately, it looks like a rainy and cloudy week ahead. There is hope that by Thursday the storms clear up giving way to clear night skies over the weekend of July 1st. The temperature during these clear nights will be in the 60s, so be sure to bring a jacket.

After waiting out the cloudy week, or perhaps during some breaks in the clouds, be on the lookout this week for the first quarter moon, Venus and Mars continuing to inch closer together, and a nearly full moon passing through Rho Ophiuchus. During the cloudy nights, spend some time classifying galaxies, or watching the real-time positions of several space probes.

Monday, June 26th, marks the first quarter moon. After Monday the moon will be passing through its gibbous phase during which more and more of the lunar surface gets revealed. During a full moon, it is quite easy to distinguish the lava seas and craters. Are you able to identify some of the famous craters when half the moon is hidden? On Tuesday, the day after the first quarter moon, most of the Tycho crater will be out from the shadow and visible. More realistically, however, you may just see the moon’s glow backlighting some overhead clouds.

The moon will be “First Quarter” on Monday, June 26.

Despite the planets orbiting the sun at tens of thousands of miles per hour, they appear to move very slowly in the sky. Similarly, a car moving at 60 mph close to you appears to move much faster than a car moving 60 mph that is far away – it is just an optical illusion. All week Venus and Mars (while zipping around the sun at 78,000 mph and 54,000 mph respectively) will be inching closer to each other. Separated by about three degrees in the sky, these two objects make great binocular or telescope targets. 

Mars and Venus will inch closer this week. In reality, they are very far away from one another. Venus is on this side of the sun, while Mars is over on the other side. They are merely along the same line of sight.

On Friday, June 30th, the nearly full moon will have made its way into the constellation of Ophiuchus, which is home to the easily identifiable star, Antares (this star looks similar to Mars with its red/orange glow). Within this region is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex which hosts dark nebulae, emission nebulae, reflection nebulae, and even a tiny globular cluster right next to Antares. The bright moon will certainly wash all these features out, but it can point you to this region of the sky for the week ahead when the moon has moved on.

This image is what you would normally see in the Rho Ophiuchi region using a wide-angle camera lens, a DSLR camera, and several stacked two-minute exposures. The Moon will be in this region by the end of the week, washing out the view.

This is a more realistic approximation of what you will see when the moon passes through the Rho Ophiucus region.

During the inevitable multi-night event of cloudy skies this week, spend some time on the Galaxy Zoo website (https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zookeeper/galaxy-zoo/) or track where Voyager and other space probes are in real-time (https://eyes.nasa.gov/). The Galaxy Zoo site shows you distant galaxies pulled from sky surveys that need to be classified. With just a few clicks you can specify if the galaxy you see is irregular, a spiral galaxy, face-on, interacting with a neighboring galaxy, and more! NASA’s real-time deep-space probe tracking site is great for visualizing the incredible distances at which some spacecraft, like Voyager and New Horizons, are by showing exactly what the probes see. You can even reverse time to see famous events, like when New Horizons passed by Pluto in 2015. 

“Armchair Astronomy” is the practice of enjoying astronomy at home instead of out under the stars. Jared offers a couple of outlets for this above, including the “NASA Eyes” program, which tracks the positions of the planets and interplanetary spacecraft.

The forecast this week is not in stargazers’ favor, unfortunately. We can hope for some gaps in the clouds but ultimately the clouds will pass leading to some clear skies nearing next weekend. On those clear and warm nights, get outside and gaze upwards into the vastness of the cosmos. Let your imagination wander as you enjoy the first quarter moon, the meeting of planetary bodies, the nebulae in Rho Ophiuchi, classifying distant galaxies, and seeing what the most-distant manmade objects are seeing.

Clear Skies! (Hopefully?)

What’s Up This Third Week of June

The forecast this week looks quite promising for some clear or partially clear nights. The temperature in the hours following sunset will be quite comfortable, hovering in the low 70s. The sun sets this week around 9 PM so be ready with your stargazing gear by 10 PM. Haze from Canadian forest fire smoke might be a factor. If skies are milky white or slightly brown near the horizon, then conditions will be less favorable for pristine views of the stars.

Be on the lookout for the new moon, Saturn in retrograde, a Mars-Venus-Moon meetup, overhead satellites, and the summer solstice. 

This Sunday, June 18th, marks the new moon. This is great news for stargazers and astrophotographers alike since the sky will be free of the moon’s glow that washes out faint deep-sky objects. The moon will be “above” the sun by nearly 10 degrees. When this apparent separation between the new moon and the sun closes to zero degrees, that is a solar eclipse. There are four types of solar eclipses: total, annular, partial, and hybrid. There will be an annular solar eclipse in October (2023) and a total solar eclipse in April (2024), both of which cross large areas of the United States. 

You can’t see the “new moon” but it’s there, in the sky, near the blazing light of the sun.

Sunday also marks the day that Saturn shifts from its “forward” motion to its backward motion, or “retrograde” path in the sky. This odd behavior is because the Earth is closer to the sun by tens of millions of miles and so we rotate around the sun quicker. When the Earth passes a special point in its orbit relative to any of the outer planets (that all orbit the sun slower) the apparent velocity of that planet relative to background stars is zero and hence the planet appears to be stationary before starting its retrograde motion. The same illusion also applies to the inner planets, Mercury and Venus.

Saturn is visible in the morning sky right now and will be best seen in the evening in the fall.

Why the planets appear to move backwards, or retrograde, from time to time.

Starting Tuesday, June 20th, look in the western sky about an hour after sunset to spot Mars and Venus nearing each other. Throughout the week the thin waxing crescent moon will be passing through this planetary duo. On Wednesday, June 21st, the moon will be above Venus by only 3 degrees. 

The brilliant Venus points the way to the fainter Mars, to its upper left, this week. They be at their closest on the 20th and 21st.

Look up in the night sky for a few minutes and you are extremely likely to see something that looks like an airplane but is silent and has no blinking lights – this is a satellite (likely in low Earth orbit). Some of these satellites are over 1,000 miles overhead and are visible because sunlight is reflecting off their large solar panel arrays or their reflective mylar covers. Common satellite tracking websites have something like 7,700 satellites in their database. About 4,200 of those are the SpaceX Starlink satellites. A careful eye may spot multiple satellites visible overhead at the same time. [IMAGE: https://www.satflare.com/home.asp]

A image illustration the astonishing number of satellites now in orbit.

Wednesday, June 21st, marks the 2023 summer solstice. This is when the sun reaches its highest apparent point in the northern hemisphere and hence gives us the day with the most amount of daylight. Past June 21st, the days will get shorter and shorter until the winter solstice on December 21st.

Get outside and enjoy the multiple clear nights (fingers crossed!) this week. The temperature will be comfortable and hopefully won’t lead to dew buildup on your binoculars or telescopes. Point out to your stargazing friends the new moon, Saturn appearing to move backward, a planetary meetup, satellites passing overhead, and enjoy the longest day of the year.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Second Week of June

This week’s forecast seems to oscillate between rainy nights and clear nights. The best outlook for clear nights is this Saturday, Monday, and Thursday. The temperature will be in the low-60s and mid-50s in the hours following sunset so be sure to bring a jacket to keep warm and keep an eye out for dew forming on your binoculars or telescope lenses.

Be on the lookout this week for the third quarter moon, Venus passing through the Beehive Cluster, a moon-Jupiter conjunction, and the moon passing near the Pleiades. 

Most avid stargazers and astrophotographers are acutely aware of where the moon is in the sky, and what phase it is in. And most of those folks are starting to get excited because the moon hits its third quarter phase this Saturday. That means the moon is waning, or getting “smaller”, and rising later every night. This clears the night sky of the moon’s glow that would otherwise wash out the faint dust lanes of the Milky Way or deep-sky nebulae and star clusters. 

For those who stay up very late, or get up very early, the 3rd Quarter moon will be visible this week.

Tuesday, June 13th, about 45 minutes after sunset, locate Venus in the west (it will be the brightest object in the sky) and peer at our planetary neighbor with a pair of binoculars or a widefield telescope. Within the field of view, you will see Venus, which shines at an apparent magnitude of -4.1 (very bright!), and a large field of densely packed stars. This is known as Messier Object 44 (M44), or the Beehive Cluster. If you read last week’s blog, you’ll recall that Mars just passed through this same region of the sky. 

A binocular view of Venus crossing in front of the Beehive cluster. (Tuesday, June 13)

If you are up before sunrise on Wednesday, June 14th, peer into the eastern sky to spot Jupiter hanging out right next to the thin crescent moon. They will be separated by a mere two degrees in the sky. This alone is impressive to see with the naked eye, but a pair of binoculars will reveal four of the brightest Jovian moons as well as some details of the craters and ancient volcanic seas on the lunar surface. A telescope with a longer focal length will reveal Jupiter’s stripy atmosphere and shadows cast by the craters and mountains on the moon.

The thin crescent moon passes by Jupiter in the morning sky on June 14

If you are an early-riser and witness the moon-Jupiter conjunction, you will also be rewarded on Friday, June 16th, with the nearly new moon just below a ghost of the winter night sky, the Pleiades star cluster. Once again, binoculars will make for a great observing option for this celestial matchup. You will see a razor-thin crescent moon and a cluster of several bright blue stars a few degrees above. The Pleiades consists of several bright blue stars, indicating that the stars in this cluster are cosmically very young and burning very hot – much hotter than our sun. 

In the pre-dawn sky on July 16, he Moon will be near the Pleiades.

During the gaps between the cloudy and rainy days, get outside to enjoy the cool and clear nights. Let your stargazing equipment thermally equilibrate with the outdoor temperature to prevent dew buildup, which may obscure your view if it forms on your binocular/telescope lens. Be on the lookout this week for the third quarter moon, Venus passing through the cosmic Beehive, Jupiter and the moon hanging out in the sky, and a thin crescent passing near the Pleiades. While you are out stargazing and staring at the night sky, odds are that you will see several passing satellites and maybe even a shooting star or two.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This First Week of June

This week will have sporadic clear nights – It looks like Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights are looking promising. There might be a few straggler clouds, but don’t let those ruin an entire night of stargazing or astrophotography. The temperature on these nights will be rather comfortable, hovering in the 60s and 70s. During the upcoming nights, be on the lookout for Venus and the bright full moon, Mars nestled in the Beehive Cluster, the still-shining M101 supernova, and early-morning Jupiter.

This weekend will host the full moon and Venus at its greatest eastern elongation. Shortly after sunset, the western sky will grab your attention with Venus, which is bright enough it almost looks like an airplane flying overhead – except Venus won’t be blinking. Since this planetary sister will be at its greatest eastern elongation, it appears to be at its furthest point from the sun. You’ll recall last week was Mercury’s greatest western elongation. The eastern sky will glow with the full moon (officially on Sunday night). A fully lit moon will let stargazers see all of the significant craters: Tycho, Copernicus, Byrgius, etc.

This weekend, after finding Venus at its greatest eastern elongation, turn your attention 10 degrees (about the distance of one fist held at arms-length) northeast to spot Mars peaking out of the darkening skies after sunset. With the naked eye, Mars will appear to be a vibrantly red “star”. Using a pair of binoculars or a wide-field telescope to view Mars this weekend will show it passing through the famous Beehive Cluster. This cluster is home to about 1,000 stars that shine bright blue. Their color is indicative of their very hot surface temperatures and relatively young stellar ages.

The planet Mars will pass in front of the “Beehive” cluster this week. This can bee (?) seen in binoculars.

Venus is at Greatest Eastern Elongation (separation from the sun) this week.

If you haven’t heard yet of M101’s type II supernova, read last week’s post to get up to speed! A star exploded in the nearby galaxy M101 that has grabbed the attention of most astrophotographers. A supernova nearly outshines its host galaxy just after it explodes and the M101 supernova is no exception. These events are very short-lived on cosmic scales, but long enough for most people to take a look. Type II supernovae usually shine brightly for the first few weeks or months. The graph shows the two main supernovae types and their brightness (relative to our sun in absolute magnitude) as a function of time. [https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/discover/projects/supernovae/typeI]

A light curve is a graph of the brightness of a an object over time. Supernovae start very bright and then taper off in brightness over hundreds of days.

If you are an early-morning person, step outside and gaze up at the eastern skies before sunrise to be greeted by Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn. All three of these planetary bodies make great binocular or telescope targets. A telescope with a long focal length (>750 mm) will be able to reveal the red and white stripes of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Telescopes with even longer focal lengths (>1000 mm) will be able to see the shadows cast by the Galilean moons when they eclipse the sun over Jupiter. Although currently the moons only cast a shadow after the sun has risen and washed out Jupiter or after the planet has set below the horizon. In a few weeks, this will be visible from America.

Jupiter’s moons can be seen, in the morning sky, in binoculars and small telescopes.

Get outside and bring a pair of binoculars, a telescope, or even just your eyes to view what the cosmos has to offer. The weather will be great this week and the sky will be hosting several interesting astronomical events. Be on the lookout for Venus in the west near the setting sun, the full moon brightening the eastern sky, Mars passing through the Beehive Cluster, M101’s supernova still shining bright, and an early-morning planetary show.

Clear Skies!

What’s up this fourth week of May

The forecast is pointing to a poor weekend of stargazing – unless want to risk getting rain in your telescope. First up, however, on Friday night things look gloriously clear. Saturday and Sunday look cloudy and, perhaps, rainy. If you have patience, by Monday night or Tuesday night things should be clearing up again. The upcoming clear nights will be in the mid-60s in the hours following sunset.

This week be on the lookout for the First Quarter Moon, Mercury high in the sky, a Moon-Mars-Venus trio, the M101 supernova, and we might see some deep-sky photos from the balloon-borne telescope, SuperBIT.

Over the past several days you may have been noticing the moon creeping higher and higher in the sky as it is transitioning between its New Moon and First Quarter phase. This Saturday, May 27th, marks the First Quarter Moon. The “early” phases, when the moon isn’t too bright, are an ideal time to do some stargazing. Around these phases is also a great time to look for Earthshine, an effect where the dark side of the moon is slightly visible shortly after sunset from all the light bouncing off the earth and then hitting the moon. This gets harder to do as the moon gets more full.

simulated view of the first quarter moon, as seen on Saturday evening.

Mercury will reach its greatest western elongation this upcoming week meaning it will be at its highest point in the sky (or its apparent farthest distance from the sun as viewed from the Earth). Unfortunately, you can only see Mercury if you’re a morning person. This inner planet is currently leading the sun, so it sets below the horizon before the sun does. In the early morning hours between 5:15 and 5:50 AM, you can see Mercury as a faint star-looking object in the eastern sky several degrees “below” Jupiter.

Mercury and Jupiter as seen in the morning sky just before dawn.

In the evening skies, in addition to the moon, you will see a bright star-like object in the western sky. This object is Venus. Once the sun sets a little more, a careful eye will see a red-colored star-like object nestled between the Moon and Venus. This is Mars. A pair of binoculars will do these planetary neighbors of ours some justice, although a telescope will reveal more details of the planets. You may be able to see what phase Venus is in, or perhaps, if you crank up the telescope to high power, the polar ice caps on Mars.

The locations of Mars, Venus and the moon as seen on Friday

M101 is a face-on spiral galaxy that is among the most popular deep-sky objects for astrophotographers. It is so popular since it is relatively bright and large (although not as much as the Andromeda Galaxy) and because it is face-on. This means that telescopes from Earth can see all of the photogenic spiral arms. Some galaxies are edge-on meaning we are looking into their frisbee-like shape and can only see the central “galactic bulge” and the spiral arm dust cutting through this bulge.

M101 with supernova SN 2023ixf taken at JGAP by Andy Downey

M101 has become even more popular very recently since it has a flaring supernova. Look at a photo of M101 from the past week or two and compare it to a photo from a few months or years ago – notice a difference? There is a huge bright spot in one of the galaxy’s spiral arms now. This is the result of a Type II supernova where a massive star has collapsed under its own gravity and consequently exploded from this collapse. A famous Type II supernova was observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud (only seen from the southern hemisphere) in 1987. [photo: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/images/supernova-1987a.html]

If you pay attention to NASA’s APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html), about two weeks ago you would have seen an incredible photo of the Tarantula Nebula (visible from the southern hemisphere) from the telescope SuperBIT. This balloon-borne optical telescope has been floating around 120,000ft above the ground (above ~99% of the atmosphere) for the past 39 days. During this time SuperBIT has been imaging both pretty deep-sky objects and has been taking data on the large-scale structure of the universe to study something called “dark matter”. SuperBIT recently landed in South America and is awaiting recovery. Keep an eye out for photos they have taken on NASA’s social media pages or the APOD page. [photo: https://science.nasa.gov/tarantula-nebula-superbit]

Hopefully, the clouds work in favor of stargazers this week and hold off for Friday night. Regardless, early next week looks promising for a few clear-night opportunities. During these warm and clear nights, be on the lookout for the First Quarter Moon, the inner-most planet Mercury, a planetary trio, and M101’s supernova. During the cloudy nights browse around on NASA’s APOD site and take a look at SuperBIT’s incredible photos.

Clear Skies!

This week will bring us officially into Autumn, although, the weather doesn’t necessarily reflect that. Be expecting a handful of clear nights that will be on the cooler side, starting at around 70°F at sunset and slowly dropping into the low 60s and even 50s on some nights.

Sunset this week is around 7:30 PM, so have your telescopes and stargazing partners ready by 8:30 PM. For the upcoming clear skies, be on the lookout for the waning crescent moon, the equal day and night of the autumnal equinox, the faint zodiacal light, and evening gas giants.

The moon will be finishing off its waning crescent phase this week as it hits new moon Sunday, September 25th. If you enjoy observing the moon through a telescope or binoculars, it is better to wait until morning just before sunrise rather than staying up past 3 AM to get a glimpse. The amount of sunlight reflected back to the earth off the lunar surface decreases during these phases of the moon. The less light is reflected back, the darker the skies are. This is ideal for stargazers and astrophotographers who want a chance to see the fainter and more difficult-to-spot deep-sky objects.

The waning (getting smaller) crescent moon.

On Thursday, September 22nd, you can officially say “hello” to autumn as that is the date of the autumnal equinox and official start to the fall season. This event is marked by the sun cutting its path across the sky at exactly along the celestial equator, which is just a projection of earth’s equator onto the sky.

Past Thursday, the nights will be longer than the days. This is more great news for stargazers since more darkness, more time under the stars, is better!

Anytime over the next few months when the moon is not bright try spotting something called the “zodiacal light”. Just before sunrise, peer over into the eastern skies and try looking for a faint band of white light stretching upward from the eastern horizon. You will likely need to visit a dark-sky park away from light pollution (like JGAP!) to see this phenomenon.

If you are ambitious and want to spot the zodiacal light this week, it will be best to wait a few days until we are closer to a new moon. This white glow is caused by sunlight scattering off of leftover dust in our solar system, most of which has been around since before the planets were even fully formed. Don’t confuse it for another band of light stretching across the sky from southeast to northwest – that is the Milky Way.

The zodiacal light as seen a few hours before dawn. Look east in a dark location.

Shortly after the sun sets, the first two objects to pop out from the darkening skies will be Jupiter and Saturn. If you wait another few hours, Uranus will appear rising in the east. Of Jupiter’s 79 moons (only 53 currently have names), four are easy to spot through a set of binoculars: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Can you spot all four? The inner-most of these moon, Io, has an orbital period of only 42 hours, so there is a chance it is hiding behind the gas giant temporarily.

Jupiter and Saturn are the planetary highlights of the evening.

Watching Jupiter’s brightest four moons as they orbit the planet is fascinating.

Get outside and enjoy the welcoming fall night skies this week. Set up a lawn chair or lay out a blanket to gaze up into vastness of space. As a reward for your dedicated stargazing, a careful eye will see four to eight meteors every hour. In addition to these sporadic meteors, be on the lookout this week for the waning crescent moon, the sun traveling over the equator, the faint and diffuse zodiacal light, and three gas giants hanging out after sunset.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This First Week of September

As we enter September, Ohio will be greeting us stargazers and amateur astronomers with partially clear nights and temperatures near 70°F.  Make sure to take advantage of these stargazing opportunities before it gets too cold at night, the weather becomes predominately overcast or the moon washes out the night sky.

Sunset this week is around 8 PM and the first stars will start peeking out shortly thereafter. Just two months ago sunset was at 9 PM – time sure does fly! Get out under the stars this week and try spotting a growing crescent moon, Saturn rising in the east, a teaser to the Fall sky – the Andromeda Galaxy, and the International Space Station (ISS).

It will be difficult to miss the crescent moon this week. It will be hanging out in the western and southern skies over the next several days as it progresses from waxing crescent to first quarter to waxing gibbous. Now is the best time to use your telescopes and binoculars to observe the moon. You will be rewarded with high-contrast surface features, like craters and mountains, all while keeping your eyes protected (sometimes viewing a full moon with binoculars is so bright it is painful). Are you able to identify the Sea of Tranquility, the Apennine mountains, or Tycho crater?

The crescent moon as seen on September 1.

After you have spotted the crescent moon in the west, turn your focus to the southeast and spot one of the evening’s first “stars” – Saturn. This gas giant reflects sunlight and appears to shine at magnitude 0.4, which is nearly 2.5 magnitudes brighter than most of the stars surrounding it in the sky. This translates to Saturn appearing to be 10x brighter than those nearby stars. Binoculars are a great tool to spot the massive ring system while a more powerful telescope can begin to resolve details hidden within the rings, like the different ring groups. Did you know that Saturn has 7 distinct ring groups? (https://caps.gsfc.nasa.gov/simpson/kingswood/rings/)

Saturn’s rings in a view that is impossible from Earth: with the sun on the other side of the planet. This image is a mosaic of several images taken by the Cassini space probe. It shows the visible (A, B, C, and D rings) and those invisible from Earth- only viewed when backlit.

Next, shift your focus a little more north to right between the constellations of Andromeda and Cassiopeia. Did one of the constellation names give away what this object is? You probably guessed it – the famous Andromeda Galaxy. This galaxy is similar to our own Milky Way galaxy in its composition and history. Use binoculars or a telescope to get a better view of this object. In about 4 billion years, Andromeda will collide with our galaxy causing quite the mess in the night sky. Despite over 1.25 trillion stars between the two colliding galaxies, there is almost zero chance any will actually collide with each other because there is so much empty space between stars on average!

How to find the Andromeda galaxy (best seen early in the week when the moon is not yet bright). Wait until late when these constellations are high in the sky.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and its two fuzzy smaller companions (M32, below right and M110, top middle).

Lastly, into next week be on the lookout for the ISS passing overhead. The best times to see the ISS are Monday, September 5th at 5:42 AM (visible for four minutes, appears in the NNW sky and disappears in the NE sky) and on Tuesday, September 6th at 4:54 AM (visible for three minutes, appears in the NNW sky and disappears in the NE sky) – yes, you have to be an early-riser for these particular sightings but there are several shorter passes of the ISS to choose from so you can pick your preferred morning hour.

Download an app on your phone like “ISS Detector Satellite Tracker” to find when the ISS and other satellites will be overhead.

Skywatchers gaze at the ISS, seen earlier this summer. If you are a morning person, you have a chance to see a few passes this week.

Hopefully, the partially clear skies in the forecast work out to stargazer’s advantage this week. It won’t be too much longer before you will need blankets, a hat, and a winter coat to go stargazing. Enjoy getting lost in the night sky and realize that the distances and sizes of these objects you lay your eyes on are unfathomable to the human mind. While having this humbling experience, try spotting the crescent moon, Saturn, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the ISS.

Clear Skies!