Jared May: What's Up, May 20-27, 2022

We are about one month away from the start of astronomical summer, and the weather is reflecting that. The daytime temperatures this week will be between 90°F and the upper 60s. The nighttime temperatures follow closely, fluctuating between 70°F and 50°F. The forecast calls for some clear nights near Friday, May 20th, and partially clear skies for the remainder of the week. Hopefully, these partially clear skies have enough gaps between the clouds for stargazing.

Sunset this week is around 8:45 PM so be ready with your stargazing eyes, binoculars, and telescopes by 9:45 PM to begin peering into the cosmos. During these partially clear skies, be on the lookout this week for the rising Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, Cygnus the Swan, a chain of solar-system bodies, and some sunspots.

Around 10 PM, look low in the southeastern sky and try spotting the visibly orange star, Antares. If you use binoculars to peer deeper into this region of the sky (and if you are under darker skies), you will see a more interesting structure than just a collection of stars around Antares. At just 460 light-years away and holding the title of “nearest star nursery”, this is the Rho Ophiuchi region. It is arguably an astrophotographer’s dream since most types of deep-sky objects can be found here. With binoculars or a 50mm camera lens on a DSLR capable of taking long exposures try identifying the emission nebulae, reflection nebulae, dark nebulae, globular clusters, and colorful young stars near Antares.

With a camera, you can photograph the faint, but colorful, nebulae around the bright orange star Antares. This is the Rho Ophiuchi complex

Shortly after sunset look near the eastern horizon to spot most of the Cygnus the Swan constellation. The entirety of this constellation will be above the horizon around 11:45 PM. It can be enjoyable trying to identify all the stars that form this constellation, but with a telescope you will be able to spot numerous deep-sky objects in this region. Since this constellation runs parallel with the plane of the Milky Way you are looking through lots of stars and gas (and deep-sky objects) along your line of sight. Some of these deep-sky objects include numerous star clusters, the North America Nebula, the Veil Nebulae, and the famous Dumbbell Nebula.

Cygnus rises above the eastern horizon in the hour before midnight. After midnight, it rises higher in the sky.

A map of some of the more well known “deep sky” objects in Cygnus- best viewed this week after midnight.

If you are a morning riser, check out the eastern sky between 5 AM and 6 AM. You will be greeted with a chain of five solar-system objects. From east to west there will be Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. The fifth object, the moon, will be drifting through this belt as the week goes on. Try spotting the moon neighboring Saturn on May 22nd and then neighboring both Jupiter and Mars on May 25th. These objects can all be spotted with the naked eye, but binoculars will certainly help bring out some details.

The visible planets continue to be mostly in the pre-dawn sky this week.

The sun undergoes 11-year cycles where it has a period of relative dormancy followed by a period of lots of activity and sunspots. Currently, the sun is ramping up to the solar cycle 25 peak in 2025. During the peak periods, there are around 120 sunspots seen per month. During May and June, we should be seeing around 50 sunspots. These spots will appear as dark features on the solar surface due to some complicated physics involving the sun’s strong magnetic field and the charged plasma of the sun’s photosphere.

Check to see if there are any visible spots on the space weather website:(https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/sunspot-regions.html) then use a solar filter on your binoculars or telescope (these are relatively cheap to buy!) to safely view the sun. A solar filter MUST be used when observing the sun since it only allows 1/100,000th of the light to pass through leaving your eyes undamaged. (image from : https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/sunspotssolar-cycle)

The number of sunspots is ramping up as the solar cycle progresses towards the peak of its 11 year cycle.

The daytime temperatures may be on the warmer side but that leads to comfortable stargazing temperatures at night. Lay out on a blanket or lawn chair and gaze upwards into the infinite night sky filled with stars, planets, galaxies, gas, and more. Try hunting for the Rho Ophiuchi complex, Cygnus the Swan and all its deep-sky objects, a belt of solar-system objects, and sunspots this week under the partially clear Ohio skies.

Clear Skies!