December is finally here and we are being greeted with some warmer temperatures and clear skies! Ohio is no stranger to whiplash weather and that’s what we stargazers will be getting. Friday night it will be 25° and Saturday night it will be 55°, so dress appropriately and let your stargazing gear thermally equilibrate. Sunset this week is right around 5 PM so be ready to stargaze by 6 PM.

This week be on the lookout for a bright Venus, a total solar eclipse livestream, the moon passing three planets, an early-morning comet, and black holes.

Friday, December 3, will mark the greatest illumination extent of Venus. This is just a fancy way of saying “the brightest Venus will get”. Friday evening this inner planet will shine at magnitude -4.66 making it an easy-to-spot target in the southwestern skies after sunset. This extra brightness is caused by a combination of the phase of Venus as well as the apparent size of Venus (as it gets closer to Earth). A pair of binoculars or a telescope will be able to reveal more details about what phase Venus is actually in (hint: it should look like a tiny waxing crescent).

The current phase of Venus, as simulated in the free software Stellarium.

On Saturday, December 4th, there will be a total solar eclipse. The only catch is that you have to be in Antarctica to enjoy it. If you can’t make it all the way down to Antarctica, don’t worry. There will be a total eclipse that passes over Ohio in April of 2024 (hopefully it isn’t cloudy!).

Tune in to the Antarctic event around 1:30 AM – 3:30 AM at https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive to watch live or find a recording posted to YouTube afterwards.

Shortly after sunset, you may notice three particularly bright objects that form a line in the southwest sky. These objects (from west to east) are Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter. A telescope or binoculars will reveal impressive details for all three of these planets. For three consecutive days, the moon will be neighboring one of these planets. Monday December 6th, the moon will be beside Venus. Tuesday it will be beside Saturn. Finally, Wednesday December 8th, the moon will be adjacent to Jupiter. This might make for an interesting astrophotography opportunity.

The three bright planets, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter are joined by the Moon on December 8.

Comets are a somewhat common thing but many of them are too faint for us to see or are too “boring” so we don’t hear about them in the news. Every now and then one unlucky comet will swing very close to the sun and brighten up enough for us to see it here on earth. This time it is comet Leonard (C/2021 A1). This ice ball comes from the furthest reaches of the solar system – the Kuiper Belt (roughly 325 billion miles away for this comet specifically). The best time to view comet Leonard will be this week and next week. A few hours before sunrise on December 6th, use a pair of binoculars to spot the bright star, Arcturus. From there point your binoculars a few degrees further north and try spotting the comet’s tail. It will be shining at magnitude 5.5, which should make it stand out from the background stars.

Comet Leonard, as seen in the morning skies this week. You have until about December 11 to catch it before it is lost in the morning twilight.

Last on the list for this week are black holes. They cannot be directly observed since not even light can escape their gravitational pull. But we can indirectly view black holes through the effects they have on their surroundings. Use a telescope or binoculars to spot the Andromeda Galaxy (a popular winter object found near Cassiopeia). You may notice a brighter patch near the center. This is just a large density of stars crammed near the center of the galaxy (the “galactic bulge”). This bulge is caused by galactic dynamics but is also driven by the supermassive black hole at the center of Andromeda (there is a supermassive black hole at the center of almost every galaxy, not just Andromeda). So by observing the bright patch of stars near the very center of Andromeda, you are directly observing the effects of an 80-million-solar-mass black hole. (IMAGE FROM NASA HUBBLE - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-31-the-andromeda-galaxy)

Get outside and enjoy the clear and warm nights this week. There soon won’t be any warm nights at all for a few months. The cooler temperatures will result in a very “stable” atmosphere that will ultimately aid in stargazing. Bring some lawn chairs and friends and pack your binoculars and telescopes to go stargazing and lose yourself among the stars. During the next few clear nights be on the lookout for a bright Venus, a solar eclipse livestream, a three-night conjunction between the moon and some planets, a brightening comet, and try observing the effects of one of the most incredible objects in the universe – a black hole.

Clear Skies!

This week will be pretty cloudy, but there is a chance for some surprise clear nights towards the end of the week.

If there are some clear nights, you’ll want to wear a warm winter coat. With the windchill, the nighttime temperatures will drop into the upper teens. This also means you should leave your telescopes and binoculars outside around sunset so they can begin to thermally equilibrate with the outside temperature. This prevents dew from forming on the lens which will obstruct your astro-viewing. Sunset this week will approach 5:00 PM so optimal stargazing time begins around 6:00 PM. This week be on the lookout for the third-quarter moon, the distant planet Neptune, a Mars-moon meetup, some International Space Station fly-overs, and some dusty stellar nurseries.

The moon and mars will meet up in the morning sky on December 2

Saturday, November 27 is the third-quarter moon. It is more difficult to see the moon in this phase than the first-quarter, new moon, or full moon. This is simply because the moon rises late into the night, roughly around 12:30 AM. If you wake up early for work, you will likely see the washed-out moon high in the sky or setting in the west. Speaking of the moon, last week was the lunar eclipse. Do not worry if you missed it, there will be another lunar eclipse next May.

Jared May’s sequence of lunar eclipse images. Taken last week.

The third quarter moon rises after midnight, which makes it a less common sight for most folks.

After the sun has set any time this week, some of the brightest objects that shine in the night sky are Saturn and Jupiter. Grab your binoculars or telescope and hop from Saturn, then to Jupiter, then hop again the same distance and direction and try spotting Neptune. This outer-most planet (sorry Pluto) shines at magnitude 7.7 so it is not visible to the naked eye. Even with a telescope or binoculars, Neptune will only appear as a faint blue dot since it is a whopping 2,800,000,000 miles away from the earth.

Finding Neptune will likely require a good finder scope or an astronomy app.

Thursday, December 2nd, peer low in the eastern skies around 6:30 AM. You will see the sky slowly brightening from the rising sun and the old waning crescent nearing Mars. A pair of binoculars will be able to show the intense details of the 5% illuminated lunar surface.

The International Space Station (ISS) is an orbiting science laboratory that is as large as a football field! The ISS has huge solar panels that provide power for the astronauts and experiments on board. These solar panels (and the white-colored body of the ISS) act as a large sunlight reflector and can reflect sunlight down to the surface of the earth. To a stargazer, this reflected sunlight will cause the ISS to appear as a bright flying dot, almost as bright as Jupiter or Saturn. Here are some opportunities to see the ISS this week: Sunday November 29 6:56 PM northern sky, Tuesday November 30, 6:09 PM northern sky, and Thursday December 2 6:12 PM northern sky.

The winter skies have some great deep-sky objects. Some of the most colorful and most interesting deep-sky objects are nebulae. Some of these nebulae are very dusty and filled with gas. The hydrogen gas in these nebulae provides unlimited fuel for the baby stars and creates some interesting imaging opportunities for astrophotographers. Some of the most famous deep-sky nebulae for the winter include the Orion Nebula, Horsehead Nebula, Flame Nebula, M78, and NGC 2264. For many of these objects the surrounding gas acts as a curtain and hides the newly forming stars from view. The 10-billion-dollar James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that will launch in December is one such tool that we will use to see through these “gas curtains”. Using infrared cameras (like the JWST) instead of visible-wavelength cameras will permit us to see through the cold gas and look at the heart of these stellar nurseries.

The weather will not be very welcoming to stargazers and astrophotographers as we move into December. Remember to dress very warm and let your astro-gear thermally equilibrate for the optimal stargazing experience. In the event of clear skies later this week, be on the lookout for the third-quarter moon, the outer-most planet Neptune, an early-morning meetup between the moon and Mars, ISS flyovers, and some deep-sky stellar nurseries.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Third Week of November

Ohio may have some clear night towards the middle of the week, but they will be cold ones. The nighttime temperatures are dropping down into the low 30s within a few hours after sunset. The cold air will give very clear skies, but at the cost of discomfort. Sunset this week is right around 5:15 PM so the best time for stargazing will start around 6:15 PM.

Once it gets dark, be on the lookout this week for more meteors, a lunar eclipse, the moon passing by Uranus, and celebrate William Herschel’s birthday.

Last week I mentioned the peak of the Southern Taurids meteor shower. Friday November 12 was the peak of the Northern Taurids meteor shower. This meteor shower, similar to the Southern Taurids, only produces around five or six meteors per hour. But again, these meteors are slightly larger than average and will produce brighter and easier-to-spot fireballs. This meteor shower will run into the start of December, so there is a long window for viewing. The meteors will appear to be originating from the constellation of Taurus.

The radiants (the spot in the sky from which meteors seem to emanate, are very close together for the northern and southern Taurids.

There is another meteor shower this week too. On Thursday, November 18, the Leonids meteor shower will peak. This shower usually lasts from early November all the way to the first few days of December, so you also have a long viewing window for this meteor shower. The Leonids are predicted to drop 15 meteors per hour – but it will be near the full moon, so watch all this week for meteors before the moon becomes too bright. This meteor rate is put to shame by the 1833 Leonids which produced an incredible 50,000 to 150,000 meteors per hour.

The Leonid shower, while much less strong than its 33-year peaks, still gives a moderately good show.

Friday, November 19, will mark the full moon. This full moon is a special one, however, because it will also be the longest partial lunar eclipse in 600 years! Note that it’s the longest partial eclipse because it will be just shy of total- and, for the most part, just about as good. Lunar eclipses don’t get as much attention as solar eclipses because they are more subtle and occur a little more frequently – but you won’t want to miss it. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon falls into the shadow of the earth which causes an orange/red hue to be cast over the moon. The best time to watch this eclipse is unfortunately pretty early in the morning. It begins at 1:02 AM, peaks at 4:02 AM when the moon will be 97% covered by the earth’s shadow, and it will end at 7:03 AM. You might be able to capture a few amazing images!

The partial (almost total) lunar eclipse occurs on Friday morning before sunrise (after Thursday night).

On Wednesday, November 17, turn your binoculars towards the bright waxing gibbous and observe the bright and dark patches on the lunar surface. These dark patches are the remains of ancient lava seas that once were abundant across the moon’s surface. While you are observing the moon, turn your binoculars or telescope about a degree to the west and hunt for the faint blue-ish planet of Uranus. It will appear as no more than a faint twinkling star, especially being so close to the bright moon.

The evening before the eclipse, the nearly full moon passes by Uranus.

Monday, November 15, will mark the 283rd birthday of the famous astronomer William Herschel. He was a pioneering astronomer who live from 1738 to 1822 and made numerous astronomical discoveries. Some of his most notable discoveries include Uranus, numerous binary star systems, and many deep-sky objects. He and his sister cataloged 2,500 objects in total. Many of these objects were added to the NGC catalog that was created in 1888.

The English Astronomer William Herschel, who was the first person since antiquity to discover a new planet. That planet came to be called Uranus.

The temperatures this week will be dropping fast so make sure to bring a winter coat to your next star gazing session. It will also be important that you leave your telescope or binoculars outside for a while before you use them. This is so they can thermally equilibrate with the outside temperature which will prevent dew from forming on the lens and obstructing your view. Sit back and enjoy all that the sky has to offer from planets, to nebulae, to colorful stars.  This week be on the lookout for meteors, the moon passing by faint Uranus, a long lunar eclipse, and try hunting for the same objects that Herschel laid eyes on in the early 1800s.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Second Week of November

This week will be starting on a strong note – there will be many clear nights over the next several days. On top of that, there will be a spike in the temperature so the next few nights will be around 50° during prime stargazing hours. Sunset this week occurs around 5:25 PM (due to the time change on Sunday). This clear week be on the lookout for stray meteors, the moon nearing Venus and Saturn, an inner-planet conjunction, a bright helix in the sky, and lots of clusters.

Friday was, technically, the peak of the Southern Taurids meteor shower, but this meteor shower will continue for another two weeks. This is a smaller meteor shower producing only about five meteors per hour (compare that with the Perseid’s 60 per hour) at its best. There is a catch though – these meteors are slightly larger than average (the typical meteor you see is likely no larger than a grain of sand). This leads to more and larger fireballs in the sky. So, while there may be very few meteors, they may, every once in a while, be much brighter!

The moon is just leaving its new moon phase. As it creeps through its early waxing crescent phase, the moon will meet with Venus low in the western skies just after sunset. The best time to see this will be Sunday, November 7th. A pair of binoculars will easily be able to resolve Venus (the brightest object in the sky after the sun and moon) and the thin 13% illuminated moon. Later in the week as the moon creeps further west it will meet with Saturn. Thursday and Friday (November 9th and 10th) will be the best days to see the moon in this region of the sky. Binoculars will once again be fine for seeing these two objects.

The moon will meet Venus early this week.

On Friday November 10th, during the narrow window between 6:30 AM and 7 AM, turn your binoculars east and spot a pair of bright dots just a few degrees above the horizon. This pair is actually the conjunction of Mercury and Mars. The window for this event is so small since these two planets are located so relatively close to the sun and as the sun rises it will wash out the sky rendering Mars and Mercury invisible.

Mercury and Mars will be in the morning twilight this week.

Anytime this week, grab a telescope and look south around 7 PM and locate the Helix Nebula. It will make the third point on a triangle with Jupiter and Saturn as the other corners. This nebula shines at magnitude 7.6, so it is too faint (and small) to see with the naked eye. Since this nebula is small but is relatively bright, it has “high surface brightness”. This makes it a contrasty object that can stand out against the black background. Through a telescope, this nebula will likely only appear as a faint smudge, but just know that the “faint smudge” is in fact light coming from ionized gases being blown off of a star 650 light-years away that was much like our sun a few thousand years ago.

The Helix Nebula is one of the largest and closest of the so-called “Planetary Nebulae”. Its ghostly ring shape can be discerned in a small scope under very clear, dark, skies.

There is no particular “season” for observing star clusters (unlike “galaxy season” which tends to be in the spring months). There are always tons of star clusters in the sky at any given time – and lots of different types too: open clusters, globular clusters, clusters with surrounding emission nebulae, and clusters with surrounding reflection nebulae (like the Pleiades). Look in the eastern sky with a telescope or hop around with binoculars and you will find a field of clusters. Most of these shine at magnitude 6-8.5 and some are very large (like the Pleiades) and some are very small (like any distant globular cluster).

A map showing a sampling of some of the star clusters visible in the northeastern evening sky this motnh.

Get outside and enjoy the warmer night temperatures. These next few nights will likely be the last “warm” nights for the next several months. Lose yourself among the stars or bring some friends along stargazing and share your excitement of the cosmos with them. Staring at the stars is a sure way to humble oneself – realizing how small and insignificant we all are. This week try spotting the young moon and Venus or the older moon with Saturn, some sparse but bright meteors, a Mercury-Mars conjunction, the Helix Nebula, and the massive field of clusters right above our heads.

Clear Skies!

We are finally knocking on November’s door and it will be greeting us with cold temperatures and long nights. This upcoming week will be fairly cloudy with some chance of clearer skies later in the week and nighttime temperatures dropping down into the low 40’s and even the low 30’s some nights. Sunset occurs around 6:30 PM, so be ready to stargaze by 7:30 PM.

If you wake up early for work you have noticed that sunrise is around 8:00 AM, and you may be able to do a quick stargazing session in the morning too. In the event of gaps in the clouds, be on the lookout for an early-morning crescent, the return of the Pleiades, late-night Orion, a bright Aldebaran, the Summer Triangle effect, and in the spirit of Halloween, be on the lookout for the Witch’s Broom Nebula.

If you wake up early and find yourself outside before or just after sunrise this week, you will be greeted by the waning crescent moon which, through Thursday, will be creeping towards its new moon phase. If you catch it at the right time, you will notice earthshine, an effect where the side of the moon facing the earth is faintly illuminated. Tuesday and Wednesday, when the moon is only a few percent illuminated, may give some interesting photos because only a tiny white sliver will hang in the sky.

The thin crescent as seen before dawn on November 2.

Around 7:30 PM, look to the east to see the Pleiades cluster rising. If you look at this cluster when it is near the horizon you may notice the stars twinkle a lot and may appear fainter than normal. This is because when you look at something close to the horizon, you are looking through more air (astronomers call the amount of air that light must pass through to reach our eye “airmass’) than when the object is directly overhead. The stars will twinkle more due to all the turbulent air close to the ground. When light passes through a lot of airmass, the particles scatter light which ultimately dims the starlight and makes the colors appear redder. Once high in the sky, the Pleiades will provide a fun sight through a wide-field telescope or binoculars. How many stars can you count in this open cluster?

Five, six, seven or more stars? How many can you see with the unaided eye?

If you are out stargazing past 11 PM, look east to find a familiar winter constellation – Orion. You will first be greeted by the “shoulder” stars, Bellatrix and Betelgeuse. Shortly after, the three “belt” stars will be visible. This region of the sky is filled with deep-sky objects ranging from clusters, broadband nebulae, dark nebulae, and supernova candidates.

Orion as it peeks up over the eastern horizon after 7:30 PM.

One of the first few stars you will see after sunset will be found low in the east – Aldebaran. This bright star will take on a red color as the sky blackens. This is because Aldebaran is a red giant star meaning it is a cooler temperature star (6,500°F as compared to our sun’s 9,800°F surface temperature) with a huge diameter. This red giant has a diameter that is 44 times larger than that of the sun, or 40 million miles across!

Aldberan is the “Eye” of Taurus the Bull.

Also among the first few stars that will be up after sunset is the persisting Summer Triangle consisting of Altair, Deneb, and Vega. Around this time of year, this constellation appears almost fixed in the sky when observed just after sunset. There is a competing effect – the earlier and earlier sunset along with the sky oriented more west day-by-day. The combination of these gives the illusion that the Summer Triangle (and other familiar celestial objects) is in the same location every day.

The summer triangle is now starting to set in the west in the evening.

Since Halloween is this weekend, I should mention a “spooky” nebula – the Witch’s Broom Nebula. This is more commonly known as the West Veil Nebula to astrophotographers. This deep-sky object can be found almost directly overhead just after sunset and is neighbors with a somewhat bright star, 52 Cyg. You will likely need a telescope with a camera attached and really dark skies to see this nebula clearly, but if you can see it, the red and blue supernova remnants resemble a long and curved stick much like one a witch might fly on.

The “Witches Broom” nebula is part of the much larger “Veil Nebula” complex on the eastern wing of Cygnus the swan.

Ohio might be delivering some disappointing cloudy nights the next several days. And while the nighttime temperatures will be falling, the autumn and early-winter skies will be rising. Find your telescopes, binoculars, a winter coat, and a star gazing partner and head outside at sunset to begin exploring the cosmos one planet, one star, or one nebula at a time. Be on the lookout this week in particular for the thin-crescent moon, some rising winter objects, Aldebaran, the Witch’s Broom Nebula, and try observing the Summer Triangle effect.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Fourth Week of October

The week ahead is, unfortunately, looking pretty gloomy and cloudy. But of course the forecast is always uncertain when predicting the weather a week in advance – so maybe we will get lucky with some clear nights towards the end of the upcoming week. The average temperature of the Ohio fall nights is slowly dropping. This week the temperatures will be in the mid-50s shortly after sunset. Sunset this week is around 6:40 PM and quickly getting earlier and earlier. The amount of lost sunlight will be slowing down as we approach the winter solstice in December.

If clear skies prevail, be on the lookout this week for the waning moon, Mercury and Venus, a ghost in the sky, and some outer planets overhead. I will also include a brief section on “weekly astrophysics” – gravitational tidal forces and a Jovian moon on the cusp of destruction.

The full moon was just this past Wednesday. So, if you are familiar with the lunar cycles, you know that it will take one week from the full moon to reach the third-quarter phase and another week to reach the new moon. This week you may notice the waning moon rising late at night or setting in the early morning after sunrise. Because the moon is rising so late into the night, this is not an ideal time to try observing the moon. It is much more “timely” and easy to observe when the moon is in its first-quarter phase, which will occur in roughly three weeks.

The Moon’s less familiar “Third Quarter” phase.

On Monday October 25, the innermost planet, Mercury, will be at its greatest western elongation. In several “What’s Up” posts before, I have mentioned “greatest eastern elongation” - so what’s the difference? Well during the greatest eastern elongation, the object appears highest in the sky, or at its farthest point east, around sunset. The greatest western elongation is just the opposite. The object will appear at its highest point, or farthest western point during sunrise times. Despite Mercury being at its farthest western position, it will still reach 12° above the eastern horizon before the sun rises and becomes too bright.

Mercury, as seen in the morning twilight early this week.

Following suit is Venus. Next Friday, October 29, Venus will be at its greatest eastern elongation. So look westwards just after sunset to see Venus at 17(degrees) about the SSW horizon. This is a great time to use binoculars or a telescope to observe this other inner planet. With strong enough magnification and careful observation, you may even make out the phase Venus is in – much like the moon!

Venus is the most prominent “star” in the evening sky until the end of the year.

Around this time of year, specifically around Halloween, there is a ghost in the night sky. This “ghost” is not very scary, but it is a reminder of the warmer summer months. Shortly after sunset, look west and try spotting the bright star, Arcturus. It will be between 10° and 15° above the western horizon just off the “arc” of the handle on the Big Dipper. Well, Arcturus is a ghost of the summer sun. Arcturus roughly marks the spot that the sun was in the sky at the time you are looking at back in June. So if you spot Arcturus at 7 PM, that is where the sun stood in June at 7 PM.

Arcturus marks the spot near where the sun was back on June 7.

Any time this week, peer south to find the bright outer planets of Saturn and Jupiter. They will both be crossing the meridian, or the line from south to north relative to your observing site, at 7:30 PM and 8:30 PM respectively. This will mark the highest points in the sky this time of year, so grab your binoculars or telescope and do some observing! Try to spot all four Galilean moons around Jupiter and the Cassini division in Saturn’s rings.

Jupiter and Saturn are still highlights of the evening sky, in the south.

Now onto some weekly astrophysics: Do you know what causes the tides? Many people who remember their high school or college science classes will tell you that the moon causes the tides, which is correct. In the same way that the moon’s gravity pulls on the Earth to cause the tides, Earth’s gravity pulls back on the moon. The moon doesn’t have any water that will slosh around, making the tides obvious, but the tides from Earth, cause the solid body of the moon itself to stretch out a few feet.

This effect happens on other planets and their moons, too. Io, one of Jupiter’s four largest “Galilean” moons is a fun example to look at. It orbits very close to the gas giant and undergoes extreme stretching by Jupiter’s gravity as it moves closer and further away from the planet in its orbit. Between the two extremes, Io stretches by around 200 feet! The kneading of the body of the moon heats Io up and helps it stay geologically active (it has lots of volcanoes) . Io is also near the Roche limit – the minimum distance from a large body before tidal forces will destroy a large orbiting satellite.

I am sure glad we do not have that problem with our moon!

Any large moon that gets too close to its parent will be ripped apart by tides. The point where the moon is no longer able to hold together against the tidal stretching is called The Roche Limit.

   This week is not looking very promising for stargazing since the Ohio weather is giving nothing but clouds. We can still hope the forecast is wrong for later next week and may give some clear nights. If things clear up, grab a blanket or chair, a warm jacket, and your binoculars and telescope to explore the cosmos. Try spotting the waning moon, the greatest elongations of the two inner planets, two gas giants crossing the meridian, and a ghost of the summer. And think about how Io is nearly being ripped apart by Jupiter the next time you can see it through your telescope.


Clear Skies! (Hopefully)

What’s Up This Second Week of October

We are now in the heart of October, but the weather is not necessarily reflecting that. This week we can expect a handful of clear nights which become rarer as the seasons move through fall and into winter. The high temperatures are much warmer than the average for this time of year, even at night. The temperature will be in the mid-60s. Sunset this week is around 7 PM so be ready to stargaze by 8 PM. During this month Ohio, and other states around our latitude, will lose around an hour of sunlight. That is a little depressing but great for amateur astronomers and stargazers who just want to spend all their time outside at night.

This week be on the lookout for a young moon hanging with Venus, the first quarter moon, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and Ganymede, the moon swinging by Jupiter and Saturn, and lots of fall star clusters. I also want to talk about a neat astrophysical phenomenon, the expansion of the universe, that can be used as the coolest pick-up line ever.

The “Celestial Trio of Jupiter, Saturn and the first quarter moon.

This weekend just after sunset, look low in the western skies for the young crescent moon. On Saturday the waxing crescent will be no more than 2° away from the evening star, Venus. A pair of binoculars or a telescope will reveal very contrasty craters and surface features on the moon. You may notice that as the sky darkens, the dark side of the moon will appear to have a faint glow. This phenomenon is called earthshine. It is caused by the earth reflecting sunlight to the moon and faintly illuminating its surface.

Tuesday, October 12th, will be the first quarter moon. If you think about what this implies about the positions of the earth, moon, and sun, you will realize it means they form a 90° angle. So, before sunset the bright side of the moon should point straight towards the sun. But the moon pulls off one of the biggest optical illusions – its bright side appears to point over the sun! This is caused by something called foreshortening.

Set up your telescope and point it toward Jupiter just after sunset on Monday, October 11th. If you use a longer focal-length telescope (around 1000mm) and a decent eyepiece, you will be able to watch an eclipse on Jupiter. Between 7 PM and 10 PM one of the Galilean moons, Ganymede, will be casting a shadow that moves across the cloud tops of Jupiter.

A shadow transit on Jupiter that will be seen right after sunset on October 10.

On Friday, October 8th, and Wednesday, October 13th, take a look at Jupiter using a green or blue color filter (these filters help give color contrast of Jupiter’s surface) and try spotting the famous Great Red Spot. It should be easy to find since it will be crossing the middle of the planet at 10:40 PM and 9:50 PM respectively.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot crosses the center of the planet every 10 hours.

The waxing gibbous moon will be swinging by Jupiter and Saturn on Thursday, October 14th. While the moon will be bright enough to wash out some faint deep-sky object, this celestial trio will provide lots of amazement for anyone you go stargazing with.

The fall skies come with their own unique deep-sky objects and constellations, and one of the easier things to spot using binoculars or a telescope are the many star clusters rising in the east and northeast. Many of these clusters have fun names: m&m Double Cluster, Little Scorpion Cluster, Patrick Starfish Cluster, Lawnmower Cluster, and more.

Now for a little bit of astrophysics…

The universe is expanding, and this has been measured and quantified. Galaxies at different distances (or “z”, in cosmological terms) have different redshifts. A correlation was found that the further away a galaxy is, the more redshifted it is, meaning the faster it is moving away from us. This is much like the doppler effect, like when a train passes the horn has a slightly lower pitch when the train is moving away. There are two additional properties about the universe that are agreed upon: the universe is isotropic meaning the universe looks roughly the same in all directions, and the universe is homogeneous meaning the universe looks roughly the same at all points in the universe. For example, if we were to move to a completely different galaxy, all other galaxies would appear to be moving away from us. Because of these properties, it can be argued that any point is technically the center of the universe. So the next time you want to say something sweet to someone, tell them they are the center of the universe – quite literally!

Get outside this week and enjoy the handful of clear nights Ohio has gifted us. The warmer nighttime temperatures are an added bonus. Since it is getting darker earlier, there is no need to stay up super late to stargaze. This week be on the lookout for the young moon and Venus, the first quarter moon, a Jovian eclipse and the Great Red Dot, a celestial trio, and some fall star clusters all while technically being at the center of it all.

October, the true month of fall, is finally here. It seems that that spooky season is greeting us with lots of mostly cloudy skies, unfortunately. But some nights ahead may give way to some briefly clear moments. The nighttime temperatures are a little warmer this week, hovering around the low 60s. Sunset is around 7:10 PM so have your telescopes, binoculars, and stargazing gear out and ready by 8 PM. Be on the lookout this week for the new moon, zodiacal lights, the vertical Milky Way, some outer planets, the “evening star”, and some fall constellations.

If you are an observant person, you will have noticed the moon still hanging out in the western skies early morning this past week. Have you been able to track its motion across the sky from day to day? If you were tracking it, you have noticed it creeping closer to the sun (further east) every day. The whole lunar cycle, from new moon to full moon back to new moon, takes 28 days, so each “quarter cycle” takes a week. One week is a full moon and next week around the same time will be the 3rd quarter, a week after will be the new moon, and so on. Wednesday, October 6, will mark the official new moon for the month of October, so the night skies will be clear of its bright light for a few days.

Zodiacal light is an elusive astronomical phenomenon that very few people will see in their lifetimes. This is mostly because it is very faint and can easily be washed out by light domes and light pollution. This faint stream of light is best seen in the eastern skies just before sunrise at this time of year. A faint white light will appear to stretch from the eastern horizon up along the ecliptic (the plane of the solar system). The zodiacal lights are caused by lots of tiny “dust” particles floating around in the solar system reflecting sunlight. The zodiacal lights aren’t as photogenic as the northern lights and they are arguably much more difficult to see.

A simulated view of the elusive zodiacal light (seen just above the “E”) in the morning skies.

If you find yourself under dark skies, one of the long arms and the core of the Milky Way will make their presence known. Around this time of year about an hour after sunset, the Milky Way stands straight up starting at the southwest horizon and stretching all the way through the zenith. Since we are in the plane of the Milky Way, we can only see into/out of the plane or above/below. As you might imagine, as we look into the plane of the Milky Way (where most of the stars in our galaxy reside), there is a rich field of stars, clusters, gas, and dust.

This week the Milky Way stands straight up in the evening when the skies are fully dark.

Between roughly 7:15 PM and 8 PM, you will see the sky transition from a pale blue color to black. Through this transitionary period from twilight to darkness, more and more stars will fill the sky. Some of the first “stars” to be visible during this period are actually planets. If you look above the southern horizon anytime this month you will see Jupiter and Saturn. Because they reflect so much sunlight, they appear very bright and to the untrained eye, may appear as bright stars.

Amongst the brightest “stars” in the southeast after sunset are not really stars at all, but planets.

If we turn our attention to the western horizon just after sunset, we will see the “evening star”, also known as Venus. Since Venus is roughly the same size as the earth and relatively nearby, it reflects a lot of sunlight and appears even brighter than the gas giants of Jupiter and Saturn. This is why Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky (the brightest object is the moon).

Venus hovers near the western horizon right after sunset all month.

Each season is home to a set of different constellations. This is caused by the earth’s orbit around the sun. During different times of the year, different parts of the sky are hidden behind the sun and different parts are visible at night. Fall is famous for the Andromeda, Perseus, Cassiopeia, and Triangulum constellation (among many others). These constellations didn’t always look like how we see them. When the ancient Greeks and other civilizations were naming them and using the stars to navigate, the night sky looked different. This is because the stars are not fixed objects. All of the stars we see are also whipping around the Milky Way at whopping hundreds of thousands of miles per hour! And despite the sky looking like a flat painting, there is depth. So the constellations we see are actually very 3D arrangements of stars. Think about that the next time you are stargazing. (https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/astronomy/what-is-astronomy)

October is here and it brought with it some cloudy nights. Despite this, there is some good news – the nights will still be relatively warm for several days so you don’t need to pull out your winter coat for stargazing just yet. If some of the forecasted partially cloudy nights have some gaps in the clouds then be on the lookout for the zodiacal lights, the vertical Milky Way, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and some fall constellations.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Last Week of September

Wednesday was the autumnal equinox which marks the start of fall. The season made its presence known with a dramatic shift to cooler temperatures. Sunset this week occurs just before 7:30 PM, so most faint stars and deep-sky objects are visible around 8:30 PM. The early sunsets mean you do not have to stay up super late to do some stargazing or to break out your telescope for the night. The fall season is also a great time to catch the last of the summer constellations and deep-sky objects and the rising winter constellations and objects. This week may actually give multiple clear nights but with nighttime temperatures dropping into the low 50s. During the clear nights this week, be on the lookout for the bright moon creeping in from the East, rising Pleiades, Uranus, Cygnus the Swan at the zenith, and the faint Little Dipper.

If you find yourself up late in the evening or early in the morning, odds are you have seen the waning gibbous moon. Since the moon is in its waning phase, it will rise later and later every night after the sun has set. It is best to get an early start with stargazing because just a few hours after sunset the sky will slowly brighten as the moon’s glow fills the night sky. Tuesday, September 28, will mark the moon’s official Third Quarter phase.

The waning gibbous moon rises on Friday evening near midnight.

If you are still outside at 10:30 PM anytime this week, look low on the east/northeast horizon to spot the faint and twinkling Pleiades. The reason this brilliant open cluster will appear so faint and will be twinkling so much is caused by the atmosphere. When something is close to the horizon, its light must pass through a lot more of the Earth’s atmosphere than when the object is directly overhead. Light passing through the air will be scattered, reddened, and will pass through more turbulence (hence more twinkling).

Look northeast before midnight to see the distinct star cluster in the sky, the Pleiades, rising.

For the next few days, the moon will be hanging close to one of the outer planets, Uranus. If you want to see this gas giant, use a telescope or a pair of binoculars and wait a few days until the moon has passed. Despite being a gas giant and 63x the volume of the Earth, Uranus only shines at magnitude 5.7 which is nearing the limit to what the naked eye can see under ideal skies.

Uranus is very faint, but can be made out with the naked eye under ideal conditions. Mere mortals can easily spot it in binoculars.

One of the more popular summer constellations and one I tend to mention from time to time is Cygnus the Swan. This constellation is home to a busy part of the sky, and it includes Deneb, the North America Nebula, the Pelican Nebula, the Veil Nebulae, the Crescent Nebula, and more. This region of the sky also contains a section of one of the arms of the Milky Way. If you spot the core of the Milky Way low in the southwest just after sunset, you can follow this trail of dense stars through Cygnus. This time of year, the Swan is near the zenith, or the most overhead point in the sky.

Everybody knows the Big Dipper by name and could probably recognize it if they saw a picture of the constellation. And many people also know about its little brother, the Little Dipper (a.k.a Ursa Minor). But have you actually ever found this famous constellation? Well, the Big Dipper points right to it. If you follow the two stars at the “front” of the cup of the Big Dipper it will lead you to Polaris, the North Star, which is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper. That’s right, the Little Dipper is hanging out at the North Star. The caveat is that the Little Dipper is composed of fainter stars, so it is tricky to spot under light-polluted skies. This time of year, this constellation hangs upside down, almost like it is pouring something into the Big Dipper!

Get outside to stargaze under the night sky as it transitions from summer to fall. These may be the last few weeks of “comfortable” temperatures for nighttime stargazing and astrophotography. Despite the pesky bright moon rising just a few hours after sunset, there are still plenty of bright and interesting objects to observe. Be on the lookout this week for the third quarter moon, the twinkling Pleiades, Uranus, a swan in the sky, and the Big Dipper’s little brother.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Second Week of September

Stargazers and amateur astronomers will be blessed with a great gift this week – a forecast with several clear nights! The temperature will take a noticeable drop once the sun has set, shifting from the middle and upper 80s to the 60s over the course of just a few hours. Sunset will be around 7:50 PM so the fainter stars and deep-sky objects will be visible around 9 PM. It is interesting to think that just over two months ago sunset was at 9 PM and the night sky was fully dark at 10 PM.

This week be on the lookout for the thin crescent moon near Venus, the first-quarter moon passing Antares, Mercury high in the sky, and the Triangulum Galaxy. I will also include a short section about telescopes that work outside of the visible spectrum.

Thursday, September 9, just after the sun has set, look towards the western horizon and try spotting the young crescent moon hanging next to Venus. They will be separated by no more than 5°. Since they will both be near the horizon, the viewing window is only from 7:45 PM to 9 PM. Binoculars or a telescope will be great for both objects. The moon will be particularly interesting with high contrast along its terminus that will draw your attention to dramatic craters on the lunar surface.

The moon and Venus will make a lovely pair just after sunset on Thursday.

On Saturday, September 12, turn your attention to the south. You will see the nearly first-quarter moon situated just 3° away from a noticeably red star (although the moon’s brightness may wash the star’s color out). This red star is Antares, and it is part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. The moon’s light will prevent photos of this impressive deep-sky object, unfortunately.

On Saturday, the moon will be near the orange star Antares.

On Monday, September 13, the innermost planet, Mercury, will be at its greatest eastern elongation. In other words, it will appear to be at its furthest point from the sun. This makes it the ideal time to observe and photograph this tiny rock. Despite Mercury being at its furthest apparent distance from the sun, the window to see it is only from 7:50 PM to 8:15 PM with clear horizons. Even with a telescope, Mercury will appear to be no more than just a tiny white dot.

Mercury is usually difficult to spot. If you’ve never seen it, early next week will be a good time to try.

Most amateur astronomers and stargazers have heard of the Andromeda Galaxy, but many people do not know about another impressive nearby galaxy – the Triangulum Galaxy. Triangulum, Andromeda, and our own Milky Way are the three largest galaxies in the Local Group. In total, the Local Group is a small cluster of 30 galaxies with a center somewhere between the Milky Way and Andromeda. The Triangulum Galaxy shines at magnitude 5.7 which makes this an excellent binocular and telescope target under dark skies and can be found in the general area between Andromeda and Cassiopeia.

The Triangulum galaxy, M33, is the third largest galaxy in our “Local Group”. It is easy to spot in binoculars as a fuzzy blob. Here’s how to find it.

Alex Mullins took this image of M33 at JGAP.

All of the telescopes amateur astronomers and stargazers buy (even the astrophotography cameras) are designed for focusing and capturing light in the visible spectrum (or near-infrared), which is the same spectrum that our eyes can see. Very interesting astrophysics happens at different wavelengths (gamma, x-ray, infrared, microwave, and radio). For example, x-ray telescopes are used to observe the areas near black holes and stellar explosions whereas radio telescopes are used to study giant gas jets being spewed out from powerful galaxies. Unfortunately, many of these telescopes outside of the visible spectrum require very expensive materials for their sensors/cameras or unique lenses that make them inaccessible to the general public. Think of a typical telescope lens and you’re either picturing a piece of curved glass or a curved mirror. Well, my favorite type of telescope lens belongs to x-ray telescopes. They use tens or hundreds of nested metal circles that redirect x-rays to a focal point – weird! (https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/observatories/technology/xray_telescopes1.html)

An “X-Ray Mirror”.

Enjoy the series of clear and cool nights this week – Ohio stargazers know this is rare to have so many forecasted clear nights. Bring your binoculars, telescopes, and a chair for stargazing as you look for the moon hanging near Venus, the first-quarter moon passing Antares, Mercury, and the Triangulum Galaxy. Contemplate the night sky as you see it with your eyes and telescopes in the visible spectrum, then imaging how colorful the sky would be in other wavelengths.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This First Week of September

As we slowly move towards fall, the days and nights will be cooling down and the fall constellations and deep-sky objects will appear higher in the sky with each passing day. This week Ohio may give us all a handful of clear nights! Once the sun has set (around 8:00 PM), the temperature will slowly drop into the lower 60s. So, despite the warm and humid days, it might be a good idea to pack a light jacket if you’re stargazing late into the night.

This week be on the lookout for the moon near a famous open cluster, low-hanging Venus next to Spica, Saturn and Jupiter high in the sky, and the rising Andromeda Galaxy. I will also include a section on how to use “clear sky charts”.

If you wake up early for work or find yourself outside before sunrise, you will see a thin waning crescent moon. Over the next few days, the moon will pass into its new moon phase. On September 2nd, the moon will be sitting roughly 10° above Messier Object 44, better known as the Beehive Cluster. On September 3rd the moon will have moved enough so that it sits just 4° north of the cluster. If you use binoculars or a telescope, the crescent moon will be a fantastic sight with deep craters easily visible along the terminus (where the light meets the dark on the lunar surface). With your binoculars, try spotting the Beehive. It will look like a dense collection of bright stars. This cluster consists of younger stars and sits 570 light-years away!

On the morning of September 2, the moon passes by “The Beehive” cluster in the constellation Cancer. This will be a wonderful view in Binoculars.

All week, just after sunset Venus will be shining bright and low in the western skies. Starting around 8:30 PM, a star will appear next to Venus – this is Spica. A view through a telescope may reveal what phase Venus is in (much like the phases of the moon).

Spica is the 16th brightest star in the sky, and it is not just a single star – it is two. Stars that form in pairs, called binary systems, are actually more common than just single, alone stars, like our sun. The binary stars of Spica orbit each other once every four days. Most binary stars have orbital periods of several years or decades. The stars of Spica are so close together than they cannot be discerned in a telescope as individual stars.

The brightest “Star” in the evening sky is (and will continue to be for three more months) Venus.

For the past several months, just after the sun has set, two very bright objects appear in the eastern skies. These two objects are Jupiter and Saturn, the brighter of the two being Jupiter. A pair of binoculars can resolve the four Galilean moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. A steady hand with the binoculars will also reveal the massive ring system of Saturn. If you have a telescope on hand, use a higher power eyepiece to see the red stripes in Jupiter’s atmosphere caused by its rapid rotation and try to spot the gap in Saturn’s rings (the Cassini Division).

As soon as it is dark, Jupiter and Venus are seen over the southeast horizon.

If you’re familiar with the night sky, you know that the Cassiopeia constellation hangs in the northeast skies in the evening hours at this time of year.

Nearby is the Andromeda constellation- which is home to the famous Andromeda Galaxy. This object, also called Messier 31, is visible to the naked eye in very dark locations (like JGAP) but a pair of binoculars or a telescope will reveal more features. The Andromeda Galaxy is more of a winter and fall “target” for stargazers and astrophotographers, and we are on fall’s doorstep. This galaxy is home to roughly 1 trillion stars and will collide with our galaxy in about 4 billion years.

A photographic view of the closest large galaxy to the Milky-Way- The Andromeda Galaxy.

For stargazing or astrophotography to happen, there needs to be a clear night. If you live in Ohio, you know that clear nights are somewhat of a scarce commodity. In fact, Ohio only sees 173 clear days per year (as compared to the US average of 205 clear days). Many tools can be used to track when the next clear night will be and how clear it actually is. One of the best resources for this is called the Clear Sky Chart (https://www.cleardarksky.com/c/JGAPOHkey.html - for JGAP). This colorful chart shows the cloud coverage, transparency, seeing, and overall darkness (it also includes things like smoke, wind, and more). Each of these “sky clearness components” can affect what stargazers or telescope users can see on a given night. The website also provides a handy description and legend of how the components can affect your night-sky viewing.

JGAP’s website also has a link to the clear sky prediction for JGAP:

jgap.org

Since the upcoming nights will be cool, comfortable, and most importantly clear, bring your binoculars or telescope outside to explore the cosmos. This week try spotting the crescent moon nearing the Beehive Cluster, Venus next to an interesting double star, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Andromeda Galaxy. Use the Clear Sky Chart to plan your next stargazing session out in your backyard or at the John Glenn Astronomy Park.

Clear Skies!

This upcoming week may be a load of disappointment for stargazers and amateur astronomers since the forecast is looking very rainy and cloudy. We can always hope that there will be a clear night that sneaks its way in. Nighttime temperatures are hovering around the low 70s. Sunset is around 8:12 PM, so expect the faintest stars and Milky Way to reveal themselves by around 9:15 PM. In the event of a sporadic clear night, be on the lookout this week for the third-quarter moon, a faint eclipse on Jupiter, a recent nova, exercise your star-hopping abilities, and prepare to take a star-trail image.

Monday, August 30 the moon will pass through its third-quarter phase. During this phase, the moon stays out of the sky until much later into the night. This means that stargazing and astrophotography benefit greatly from the moon-free dark skies. If you are up to 1 AM you will be able to catch the third-quarter rising over the eastern horizon.

The third quarter moon near the Haydes cluster in Taurus on Monday, August 30.

During the early-morning hours of September 1st between 12:30 AM and 5 AM one of the four Galilean moons, Calisto, will be casting a shadow across the surface of Jupiter. You will need a higher-power telescope to see this, and even then it will be difficult. This shadow will appear to be a tiny black dot near the lower red stripe on Jupiter.

A shadow transit of Callisto, on the Morning of September 1

If you missed all the excitement in March of this year about the nova that suddenly brightened in Cassiopeia, you can still observe this star! Plotted in the image is a light curve of this nova. You can see that it brightened in March and then randomly throughout the year. This nova, officially named V1405 Cas, still shines at magnitude 8 or so. This makes it a great telescope and binocular target. V1405 can be found by hopping off of the “steep” leg of the Cassiopeia constellation.

The Nova 1405 CAS is still visible in binoculars after many months.

The light curve of Nova 1405 CAS. In this plot, up is brighter.

Star hopping is a skill that is great for manually aligning a telescope, using binoculars to hunt for deep-sky objects like clusters, galaxies, and nebulae, and it is a great skill to have at any star party.  Star hopping to find a deep-sky object may involve starting by finding a bright star, then hopping to a nearby fainter one, and getting progressively closer to your deep-sky target. Moving north to south, here are a few bright stars that you can try hopping between: Dubhe, Arcturus, Polaris, Caph, Vega, Rasalhague, Altair, and Nunki. Most of these stars are also in familiar constellations, can you figure out which stars belong to which constellation?

If you are new to astrophotography or a veteran, star-trail images are always fun, easy, and artistic. Star-trail images look like someone took all of the stars in the sky and smeared them out. If you are observant you may notice that these “dragged out” stars all appear to rotate around one point in the sky – this point is Polaris, the North Star. All you need is a DSLR, a tripod, a shutter remote or intervalometer, and 90 minutes. Set up your camera on the tripod with the north star in the field of view using a relatively wide-angle lens and frame up your shot. Ensure the stars are sharply focused. Set the ISO to 800 or 1600 (depending on your light situation), your exposure to 10-30 seconds, and open your aperture all the way to f/4 or so. Shoot your images in JPG mode to save some memory card space. Loop these 10-30 second exposures for 90 minutes using your intervalometer and making sure not to bump your tripod and camera. Take your files and import them into a free software called StarStaX. This software will take care of everything and you will have a beautiful star-trail image. Try using Photoshop or GIMP to make some final edits on your image and voila!

One of the most striking, but easiest, forms of astrophotography is the “Star Trail” image.

The forecast is usually pretty reliable up to a few days in advance, but hopefully some nights over the next few days turn out to be clear. Enjoy the warm nights and the sunset that will progressively get earlier through the seasons. This week be on the lookout for the third-quarter moon, an eclipse on Jupiter, the still-visible nova near Cassiopeia, all while using your star-hopping skills and taking a star-trail image.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Third Week of August

It will be rainy and cloudy leading up to the weekend, but Saturday and Sunday may have some partially clear nights for us stargazers. The weekdays following may also be plagued by cloudy skies.

On the few clear nights coming up, the temperature will be in the mid-sixties, which is perfect for stargazers and amateur astronomers alike.

Sunset this week is around 8:30 PM, so be ready with your telescopes and binoculars by 9:30 PM. This week be on the lookout for fireballs of the Perseid meteor shower, the first quarter moon, a Mercury-Mars, meetup, and play a game with the first stars to shine after sunset. I will also include a short section on what the scientific data suggests about the ultimate fate of the universe.

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Almost everywhere online ,and almost every news network, has mentioned the Perseid meteor shower at some point this past week. This meteor shower is arguably the most famous of the year – it is during a warm time of the year, it produces up to 100 meteors per hour, and the meteors are pretty bright! The peak was technically during the very early morning of August 12, however, there are still huge numbers of fireballs that can be seen over the next few days. These shooting stars that you see will likely appear to originate from a part of the sky near the famous Cassiopeia constellation- that “w” shape in the northeast sky. This falling space dust burns up in the atmosphere just 50 miles above your head as it slams into Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 37 miles per second!

The location of the radiant (the place from which the meteors appear to emanate) of the Perseid meteor shower is, as the name suggests, in the constellation Perseus, just below the famous “W” of Cassiopeia in the northeast sky. Meteors, however, can appear all over the sky and will do so well into the weekend.

The moon is getting brighter over the next several days. It will be finishing off its waxing crescent phase and achieving its first quarter phase this Sunday, August 15. This weekend, during the potentially clear nights, will be a great time to view the moon under the magnification of a telescope or binoculars. The dark gray and ancient lava seas will be visible, the contrasty craters will be easy to spot, and just after sunset, you may be able to see “earthshine” where the unlit side of the moon stands out against the sunset skies.

The “first quarter” moon, appears a week after new moon.

If you have a stargazing spot with a clear western horizon, you will be able to spot Mercury approaching Mars heading into Wednesday, August 18. This will be a tricky observation to make, considering these two planets are so low to the horizon this time of year and the sky will still be bright from the recently set sun.

As you prepare to stargaze, the time of greatest anticipation is between sunset and all the stars becoming visible against the darkening night sky. After the sun sets, it just becomes a waiting game. You can play “I spy” with different stars. After the sun sets, the first “star” you will see is Venus, which hangs low in the western skies and closely follows the sun. Soon after, start looking for Vega and Arcturus which hang almost directly over your head. These two stars will eventually become the brightest in the night sky as it continues to get darker. Then Altair and Deneb will become visible, and the Summer Triangle will be complete. Try not to get Saturn or Jupiter confused with one of these stars as they will be hanging out in the eastern skies. Lastly, look for Polaris, the North Star. By this point, you can start running your telescope’s alignment process and stargazing can begin. (IMAGE)

If skies are very clear, Mercury and Mars might be seen in heavy twilight a half hour after sunset.

In last week’s blog, I shared how the future of the universe may be a cold, empty, and dark. I want to now talk about some of the physics and data that govern this outcome. First, we must understand some terminology and background.

The space inside our universe on the large scale is expanding and the state of the universe is described as being flat, open, or closed, or in other words, “steady” expansion, accelerating expansion, and slowing expansion. The state of the universe is dictated, we think, by the ratio of “normal gravity” (like gravity produced by the earth, sun, galaxy, dark matter, etc.) to “non-normal gravity” (like dark energy that may be driving the expansion of the universe). Recent measurements performed by several ground- and space-based telescopes have revealed that the universe is flat to within 0.4% error. In other words, our universe once showed signs of slowing expansion but now shows signs of continuous expansion into that dark and cold universe I talked about last week.

The state of the universe is still a highly researched and debated field, but the implications are not yet fully understood, and may never be fully understood by our feeble human minds.

http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/rosalba/ast101/LECT22.pdf

A graph showing the possible fate of the universe given constant expansion, expansion that is slowing down (due to gravity alone) and expansion that is speeding up due to some as-yet not understood force which has been given the name “dark energy”. This last fate seems the most likely outcome.

Hopefully, the weather is nice to us stargazers and amateur astronomers this weekend. Enjoy the warm summer skies this weekend while you look for the fireballs of the Perseids under the first quarter moon. If the clouds are forgiving, look for Mars and Venus while you play “I spy” with the first stars of the night. Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Second Week of August

This upcoming week will likely hold several clear nights. This will be particularly rewarding given some of this week’s astronomical events, however, there will still be lots of haze in the atmosphere from the wildfires. Nighttime temperatures will be in the upper sixties and lower seventies. The conditions are almost always right on warm clear nights for dew to form, and may start condensing soon after sunset, which occurs around 8:40 PM.

This week be on the lookout for the new moon, a meetup of the moon and Venus, a rising Andromeda Galaxy, and some meteors as we approach the peak of the most famous meteor shower. I will also include a short section on black-hole hunting.

Sunday, August 8th will mark the official new moon. This is great news for stargazers and amateur astronomers alike since the moon glow in the night sky won’t wash out any deep-sky objects or stars. To give you an idea of how bright the full moon can be, imagine a star like Vega (one of the first stars to shine after sunset and one of the brightest) then multiply that brightness by 25,000 – that’s how bright the full moon is. The bright full moon can appear 40,000,000 brighter than the faintest stars the unaided eye can see.

On Tuesday, August 10th the newly formed waxing crescent moon will meet up with the third brightest object in the sky (behind the sun and moon), Venus. A more powerful telescope (focal length of 600mm or more) and an eyepiece (9mm or so) can resolve not just the craters and shadows that stretch across the lunar surface, but the phase of Venus. Careful observation will reveal that the inner planet is in its “waxing gibbous” phase.

On the evening of August 12, the crescent moon will be alongside Venus.

If you are more a fan of the winter skies than the summer skies, start looking low in the NE skies after sunset. You will see Cassiopeia, a famous constellation that looks like a big “W”. If you are familiar with the skies, you know that the Andromeda Galaxy hugs close to Cassiopeia. This galactic neighbor makes a fantastic beginner and expert astrophotography target. It also looks somewhat impressive through binoculars or a wide-field telescope.

If you like to stay up late (or get up really early, you can spot the “Fall” region which contains Cassiopeia and the Andromeda galaxy.

Coming up next week (Thursday, August 12th early morning) is the peak of the famous Perseids meteor shower. This shower runs from July 25 to August 18, so be on the lookout all this week, next week, and even the week after for fireballs. These meteors come from debris left behind from comet Swift-Tuttle. 1992 was the last time this comet was easily visible from Earth and it won’t be visible again until 2125.

Though the Perseid meteors appear to emanate from one area of the sky, the radiant, they can appear all over.

Instead of talking about stuff you can see in the night sky, here I want to talk about something that you can’t see – black holes. Since black holes are, well, black against the darkness of space and bend light around them, finding them is not easy. At the center of each galaxy, including our own, is a supermassive black hole. The Milky Way’s black hole is called Sagittarius A* and it’s only 31 times the diameter of our sun but contains 4 million times the mass of our sun. Fun fact, for the Earth to turn into a black hole, it would have to be compressed down to less than a cubic inch! These supermassive black holes are spotted by their effects on the stars and gas around them as it whips stars around at significant fractions of the speed of light and heats the gas into a glowing disk. Most typical black holes, however, are only three to ten times the mass of the sun. Some of these are undetectable and lurk in the darkness of space while other heat up nearby gas and emit x-rays that special x-ray telescopes can detect. So while the black holes themselves are invisible, their indirect effects are more easily seen.

The location of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. (You can’t, of course, see it.)

Get outside and enjoy the rare sight of multiple clear Ohio nights but be wary of the smoky haze. The earlier sunsets are also nice since we do not have to wait so long for the skies to get dark. Bring out a reclining chair as you patiently watch for meteors under the new moon. Bring some binoculars to view Venus and the Andromeda Galaxy.

Clear Skies!

This week may bring a few clear nights but with a caveat – the wildfires out west in Oregon and California are throwing a lot of smoke into the atmosphere recently which makes it difficult to see even bright stars. This smoke is why the sunsets have been exceptionally red, orange, and hazy the past few days.

The nighttime temperatures are in the upper sixties and lower seventies. Sunset this week is around 8:55 PM so the faintest night-sky objects will not be visible until 10 PM. Just a few weeks ago the sunsets were around 9:05 PM, these slowly shortening days are a telltale sign of the summer’s end in a few weeks.

This week be on the lookout for Venus in the evening sky, the full moon, rising Jupiter and Saturn, Mars hanging low in the sunset skies, and the deep-sky beauty of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.

In the evening skies shortly after sunset, there is a bright object resembling a star that closely trails the sun. This bright object is Venus. This inner planet is about the same size as the Earth but has a pressure at its surface that is 1300 pounds-per-square-inch (psi) which is over 92 times the pressure found at sea level on Earth. Venus also has a surface temperature of as much as 846°F due its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere!

Climate scientists are now looking upwards (literally) to study Earth’s climate and future. Mars and Venus both are very similar to the Earth in many ways, but one interesting difference is their atmospheres. Mars was likely home to running water and data suggests that even Venus was once more like the Earth. Mars has since dried up and contains little atmosphere left whereas Venus has had an opposite change. The CO2 atmosphere on Venus has thickened and has resulted in a runaway greenhouse effect – a fate that the Earth may one day share. So despite being millions of miles away, both planets provide excellent insight into Earth’s climatic future.

Venus is the “Star” of the evening twilight.

The moon is visible in the middle and late afternoons this week high in the sky. Wednesday morning marked the moon’s Perigee, the closest point to Earth in the moon’s orbit. Thursday will mark the moon’s northern libration. If you have ever seen a month-long timelapse of the moon, you will notice that the moon appears to tilt up and down. The northern libration is the point when the moon is most “downward-facing” meaning we can see more near the moon’s north pole than otherwise. Then Friday the moon will be full. Try to catch it near the horizon for a fantastic sight.

The full moon may be a little yellow this week as a result of smoke from the fires out west.

Any evening this week look towards the ESE horizon around 10:45 PM to spot Jupiter hanging low to the ground. Look up and further west a little more than 15° to find Saturn. A telescope or binoculars will help bring out the details in these gas giants.

Jupiter and Saturn rise in the east before midnight.

10 to 30 minutes after sunset grab some binoculars and look just 5° below and right of Venus to spot faint Mars. You will want to catch Mars this week because it will only get lower and lower in the sky over the coming days and weeks.

Venus will provide a waypoint to find much fainter Mars, which will be difficult to spot in evening twilight. Also, again, the smoke will dim the view.

If you are an astrophotographer of any skill level, you likely have a simple DSLR and tripod. You can always get fancy and equip different lenses or use an equatorial mount – but to image the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, you do not need much. This large object (several times larger than the full moon) can be found in a region of the sky near the bright red star of Antares in the southern skies. This complex consists of dark nebulae and star-forming regions. When photographed it looks like a GIANT shooting star with long streaming tails of gas and dust that cloud out the background stars. This object is fun to image due to its ease to locate and the fantastic colors – red and orange from Antares and blue from the newly-formed stars.

The Rho Ophiuci region is one of the most dramatic parts of the sky for photographers. If the skies clear, (and maybe you have a tracking mount) give it a try! Shoot lots of short images and then stack them in a program like Photoshop or AstroStack.

Hopefully, the Ohio weather can be on our sides this week and hopefully the smoke in the atmosphere can subside enough for us stargazers. Get outside and enjoy the warm summer nights while they are here along with the seasonal night sky (don’t forget that the summer skies will be changing to fall skies before you know it!). This week be on the lookout for Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn as well as the many “milestones” of the moon and the Rho Ophiuchi complex.

Clear Skies!

The forecast for this upcoming week calls for mostly cloudy days and nights. That’s not to say all hope is lost. After all, last week’s forecast looked similar but had a handful of surprise clear nights.

One phenomenon that is affecting stargazing are the wildfires out west. These fires pump smoke and other particulates into the atmosphere that make our skies very hazy and it is difficult to see the stars and deep-sky objects clearly.  The nighttime temperatures hover in the mid- to upper-sixties.

Sunset this week is very similar to last week and the week before, around 9 PM.

This week be on the lookout for a Moon-Venus-Mars conjunction, the new moon, a Venus-Mars conjunction, a “summer” double star, and a deep-sky nebula made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope.

On Sunday just after sunset, look above the western horizon to spot the young waxing crescent moon near Venus and Mars. A pair of binoculars or a telescope will also help with this observation. You will only be able to make out a sliver of light from the moon and Mars will appear a red color while Venus appears brilliantly white.

The evening sky, just after sunset, on Sunday. (Assuming it’s clear, of course.)

A Moon-Mercury conjunction occurred during the waning crescent phase on Thursday morning, while a few days later the Moon-Venus-Mars conjunction occurs during the waxing crescent phase. The phase between the waning crescent and waxing crescent is the new moon, which occurs on Friday evening. The new moon will not be visible since it appears so close to the sun.

There are many iconic constellations and deep-sky objects that are characteristic of the summer skies. One great example of this is the double star of Albireo. If you are familiar with constellations, this star system sits at the head of Cygnus the Swan. Through binoculars or a telescope, you will notice a bright red star right next to a bright blue star. This object makes a great and relatively easy astrophotography target for beginners given how relatively easily it can be spotted and the bright vivid colors.

The name “alberio” means “The Beak” in old Arabic. This lovely double star is the beak of the swan.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been orbiting Earth and doing science since 1990 producing some of the most famous and colorful images of space. One of the most iconic photos is of the inner section of Messier Object 16 a.k.a. The Eagle Nebula. The inner part is known as The Pillars of Creation. This is a region of hydrogen gas that provides the fuel for the creation of young stars. This object is located in the SSE skies above the constellation of Sagittarius. It can only be seen, unfortunately, with a telescope and camera with long-exposure capabilities. Below is an image I have taken of The Pillars of Creation and one that Hubble has taken (note the quality difference between a several-hundred-dollar telescope and several-billion-dollar telescope). The red color in my image is due to the strong hydrogen alpha light emission that is primarily found in the red part of the visible spectrum. For some context, the different elements of a star emit different wavelengths of light due to how the electrons in each element can release energy in specific quantized ways (Google “star spectral lines” for more information on this). Hubble’s image looks orange due to false color mapping. It uses different filters for different wavelengths of light. So the orange light is mostly hydrogen alpha (red) light whereas blues and yellows are light emitted by doubly ionized oxygen and Sulfur II respectively.

“The Pillars of Creation” as taken by an amateur on the ground, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Hopefully, Ohio can catch a lucky break like we did last week with the clouds. If you find a chance to go stargazing or do astrophotography, bring bug spray, a comfortable chair to recline in, and prepare for everything to get wet as the dew begins to condense after sunset. This week be on the lookout for the conjunctions between the Moon, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, young waxing and waning crescents, Albireo the double star, and The Eagle Nebula.

Clear Skies!

This week is not looking promising for stargazers and amateur astronomers in Ohio. The forecast is predicting mostly cloudy skies over the next week. The nighttime temperatures are predicted to fluctuate between the upper 50s and the low 70s – quite the swing. Sunset hovers right around 9 PM since we just recently passed the summer solstice.

In the event of clear skies, or at least some gaps in the clouds, be on the lookout for the last quarter moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Hercules Globular Cluster. At the end of this post, I’ll include a short section on how to take a simple but fantastic image of the Milky Way at the John Glenn Astronomy Park for the clear skies next week.

The moon will be passing through its last quarter phase on Thursday, July 1. It will be visible during the daytime hours and again when it rises at 2 AM. The rising moon is one of the most impressive things. When it hangs in the sky surrounded by blackness, we have no reference points to visualize its size. However, when the moon is near the horizon, we have houses and trees and other foreground objects to compare its size to – and it always looks huge. This size change is, of course, just an illusion. The moon is the same size near the horizon as it is when it is high in the sky.

The third quarter phase of the Moon, visible this week, is less commonly seen at night since it rises after midnight.

If you are a morning person, look low near the eastern horizon this week just before sunrise to spot a bright “star”. This is the innermost planet, Mercury. The Earth orbits the sun every 365 days, whereas Mercury completes its orbit every 88 days. So you will easily be able to track its motion in the sky over the course of just a few days or weeks.

Mercury moves swiftly from the morning sky to the evening sky, as it takes just 88 days to orbit the sun. Right now it is in the morning sky.

This week as the sun sets, peer low in the western skies to spot Venus, the brightest object in the sky after the sun and moon. Just like the moon, Venus will appear to have different phases as it cycles through its orbit which can be revealed by a telescope. Look just 5° up and left of Venus to spot Mars. From Earth, we cannot see the phases of Mars (or any planet outside of Earth’s orbit). This is because we are always interior to the outer planets and will never be behind them to see the “dark sides” that give the inner planets (and our moon) different phases.

Brilliant Venus, the brightest “star” in the sky, will help you spot the much fainter, but still easy to see, Mars in the evening skies.

After the sun has set and the stars are out, pull out your binoculars or telescope and look nearly directly overhead to spot one of the more famous clusters in the sky – M13 the Hercules Globular Cluster. It is a collection of hundreds of thousands of densely packed stars. It will appear like a patch of fuzz in the sky through your binoculars. The M13 globular cluster sits over 22 thousand light-years away and resides in the halo region of the galaxy (Globular clusters in the plane of the Milky-Way galaxy are only “passing through”. Most are above and below the plane.).

M13 is one of the most spectacular objects in small (or large) telescopes in the entire sky.

If you are an avid stargazer curious to try your hand at astrophotography, here is a quick walkthrough for taking a great Milky Way galaxy image:

Remember that astrophotography is an art just as much as it is a science, so it can be very difficult sometimes. You will need a DSLR camera, a tripod, and a lens (the 18-55mm kit lens that comes with the camera is great) –that’s it. Change your camera to “M”, the manual setting. Googling the next steps for your camera may help. Change your ISO to 1600, open the lens aperture all the way (the lowest F/stop number), and set your shutter speed to 30 seconds. If you have an image processing software on your computer like Gimp, Capture One, Lightroom or Photoshop, shoot in “Raw”, instead of JPEG to ensure that you capture all the data that your camera is capable.

Make sure you put your lens into manual focus and focus the camera on something far away, like a distant light post. Many cameras allow you to focus in “live mode”. If so, go into Live Mode, point your camera on the brightest star you can find, zoom in using the “magnify” feature on the back the camera, and focus. Then leave the focus setting alone.

Set your camera on the tripod and point it up and southeast. Make sure you do this after sunset, when the Milky Way is up in the sky. You can use a 3s self-timer so that pressing the shutter button will not shake the camera during the photo. Take the photo and remember not to touch your camera while it is exposing for the 30 seconds. Change the focus and framing as you need but, congratulations, you have just imaged the Milky Way and thousands and thousands of stars!

The weather will certainly not be ideal for stargazing nor taking that amazing Milky Way image, but there may be some partially clear nights during or past the weekend. Enjoy the warm nights and be sure to wear bug spray while stargazing now as the Ohio mosquitoes are in full force. Be on the lookout through the gaps in the clouds for the third quarter moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Hercules Cluster.

Clear Skies!
Jared

This upcoming week may only give us one or two clear nights – but that’s Ohio for you. The temperatures are hovering around the mid 50’s on clearer nights. Sunset occurs just after 9 PM and faint stars and other celestial objects will not be visible until 10 PM.

Since we are past the summer solstice, the days will slowly become shorter and shorter and sunset will slowly get earlier.

If there is a break in the clouds this week be on the lookout for a Mars-Beehive Cluster conjunction, a full moon, a late-night double eclipse on Jupiter, and a run-in between the moon and Saturn. Since we will all likely be under clouds, I will include a brief section of interesting facts about stars that you can use to impress your friends and family next time you’re stargazing.

Wednesday or Thursday night (perhaps the only night with clear skies) grab a pair of binoculars and wait until just after sunset to find Mars low in the western skies passing through the famous Beehive Cluster. You will have to be quick to see this one since Mars and the Beehive set below the horizon just 40 minutes after first becoming fully visible.

Mars will be passing through the noted “Beehive” cluster this week. Spot the cluster in the evening tiwlight in binoculars.

Thursday marks the full moon of June. Officially the moon will be at its fullest at 2:39 PM, but it will appear the same all day long. The bright moon usually washes out many faint night-sky objects and makes it difficult for your eyes to adapt to the dark. A full moon behind some clouds may make for some great, ominous photography opportunities.

The full moon and clouds are often a photogenic combination.

If you are more of a night owl, look low near the horizon on June 26 at 1 AM with a telescope at Jupiter. You will find two dark spots on the surface. These are shadows cast by two eclipsing moons. If you watch this event for the next hour and a half, you will see one shadow race and pass the other.

Jupiter’s four big moons occasionally cast shadows on its cloudtops.

Sunday any time between midnight and sunrise try to spot the moon hanging in the sky. You may notice it has a nearby partner, Saturn. This outer planet makes a great binocular and telescope target. Try to spot the Cassini Division. This is a large gap in Saturn’s rings that make it look like someone painted a thin black stripe along the ring system.

How to find Saturn on Sunday morning.

The most distinctive feature of the rings of Saturn is the gap in them known as the Cassini Division, after the astronomer who discovered it: Giovani Cassini

Lastly, here are some interesting facts about stars that you can think about and share with fellow stargazers…

You may notice that stars only came in three colors – red, white, and blue. These colors are related to the star’s surface temperature. Hot stars are blue while cooler stars are red. You may ask, “So why no green or violet stars?”. Well, stars shine a whole spectrum, like our own sun, so they may shine lots of green but their full spectrum makes them appear white.

85% of stars form in pairs called binary systems. (Our sun may have been one of them.) Some stars even form in a group of three! Imagine three suns orbiting around each other instead of just the one we have.

Under perfect conditions, the naked eye can see around 3,500 stars and a telescope can see around 3 million. Even with the telescope, this is just 0.003% of the total stars in our Milky Way galaxy (100 billion total stars estimated to be in our galaxy).

Stars are born in clusters, and our sun is no exception – so where are the sun’s brother and sister stars? Nobody is sure. Since our sun was born 4.5 billion years ago alongside its cluster stars, it has rotated through the Milky Way 20 times. Gravitational forces and other processes are responsible for the dispersion of the original cluster (this happens frequently with other stars and their clusters too, not just with our sun).

Try to enjoy the one or two clear nights this upcoming week or try spotting the bright moon’s light piercing through the clouds. As summer moves forwards, the dark night skies will arrive earlier and earlier and the nighttime temperatures will retain their daytime warmth. This week try spotting Mars passing through the Beehive Cluster, the full moon, a double shadow on Jupiter, and the moon passing near Saturn. The few facts provided about stars are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how interesting stars (and space in general) can be.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Third Week of June

The week ahead seems to promise several clear nights, except for the weekend when most stargazers and amateur astronomers are able to stay up the extra hours. The nighttime temperatures drop into the low 60s and high 50s so I would still pack a light jacket for stargazing.

Sunset this week is just after 9 PM so don’t expect to see the faint stars until 10 PM or later. Compared to last week (with the partial solar eclipse over parts of the US), this week is kind of slow in terms of astronomical events – but there is a ton in the sky to observe this time of year. This week be on the lookout for the first quarter moon, the summer solstice, the different levels of twilight, and overhead satellites.

Thursday June 17 is the first quarter moon. This means that at sunset, the moon will be roughly at its highest point in the sky. As the moon slowly advances through the first quarter phase and into the waxing gibbous phase, its light will block out more of the night sky. While this is the perfect opportunity to look at the moon with binoculars, telescopes, and even your naked eye, this is a frustrating time for astrophotographers (since the moon is so bright). In medium-dark to very-dark locations the moon affects your nighttime vision. After staring at the moon then looking away you may notice a bright glow left in your eyes. It takes about 10 minutes to really start adapting your eyes to the darkness.

The first quarter moon is a great time to observe its rough surface through a small telescope or binoculars.

Sunday June 20th is a special day – it’s the summer solstice. Sometimes when people are having a rough day they say “it has been a long day”, well Sunday will literally be the longest day of the year. The solstice should be a day for celebration, however, since it marks the official start of summer. The solstice happens when the sun reaches its northernmost declination (the highest path it can take in the sky) which is why the day will be so long. It will not be a huge jump in the number of hours of daytime, in fact, the day before and after the solstice is just six seconds shorter and less than one second longer respectively.

A simulated view of the sun at its highest point in the sky on the day of the Solstice.

The time after sunset is called twilight. This is (in my opinion) the time of most anticipation for stargazers and amateur astronomers since the sun has set and the wait has begun for the sea of stars to become visible. There are actually three phases of twilight before it officially becomes night (or day). After the sun has set we immediately enter into civil twilight. This is still a bright time where artificial lights are not required to see. When the geometric center of the sun is 6° below the horizon we enter nautical twilight. In this stage, the human eye can roughly identify objects outdoors, but cannot make out details. When the sun is between 12° and 18° below the horizon we enter into astronomical twilight. This is when the faintest stars begin to become visible and only silhouettes of objects can be seen. Try guessing what stage of twilight you are in based only on what your eye can and cannot see.

The sunset is a process that goes on long after the sun dips below the horizon. During the height of summer, the sun takes a long time to dip far enough below the horizon to allow the sky to be completely dark.

One of my favorite activities to do while stargazing with friends is to compete to see who can see the most satellites flying overhead. The satellites that can easily be seen are in low-earth orbit and circle the globe roughly every 90 minutes. Many of these satellites are only 250 miles above the earth’s surface, or roughly the distance from Cleveland to Cincinnati. These overhead satellites will appear to move at the speed of an airplane but will have no sound nor blinking lights. If you have a camera on a tripod and you take a long-exposure image (15 to 30 seconds, for example) you can likely see the long trails of maybe half a dozen satellites. The image below is a closeup of a star-trail image that has several small satellites and even a meteor. Can you spot them all?

Satellites usually look like “moving stars” and do not have flashing lights. The errant streak in this star-trail image is made by a satellite that moved over the course of the photo.

There will be several upcoming clear nights… just not over the weekend unfortunately. Get outside and enjoy the long days and track the twilight phases before stargazing through the comfortably warm nights. This week be on the lookout for the first quarter moon and hunt for overhead satellites by using your eyes or perhaps a long-exposure technique.

Clear Skies!

The middle of this week is forecast to be filled with cloudy and rainy skies, but the early week and weekend may have some clear or partially clear nights. The nighttime temperatures this week are hovering right around 60°F which is comfortable for stargazing. Sunset this week will be passing 8:55 PM, and the sun dips below the horizon more slowly than usual at this time of year, so the faintest stars won’t be visible until almost 10 PM.

This week be on the lookout for the Third Quarter moon, a close pass between Jupiter and the moon, sprites, and famous deep-sky objects. I will also include a brief section about stargazing in warmer weather.

Tuesday and Wednesday try spotting the moon. It will officially be in the Third Quarter phase in the very early morning hours on Wednesday. So to find the moon you will have to be stargazing very late into the night. Or get up before sunrise to catch it at its best. Third Quarter, similar to First Quarter, is an ideal time to observe the moon since the craters on the lunar surface, along the terminator (the line between night and day) are very easy to spot in the harsh edge-on sunlight.

Just before sunrise on Wednesday, while spotting for the Third Quarter moon, look just 10° further east to find Jupiter. It will be one of the last “stars” in the sky as the sun rises. Jupiter makes an excellent target for both binoculars and telescopes. Some telescopes provide enough “zoom” and clarity to make out the reddish and white stripes found in the gas giant’s atmosphere.

The moon is near Jupiter before dawn on Wednesday.

With this being the season for rain and thunderstorms in the midwest, now is the time to look for Sprites. Sprites are a very quick and rare event to observe. They are related mostly to lightning storms but are also somewhat related to astronomy and require darker skies to see. I figured with the incoming rainstorms, the odds of Sprites forming are very low – but not zero. Sprites are colorful discharges into the upper atmosphere that occur above lightning strikes. The phenomenon is still actively being researched.

To spot them you will need clear skies overhead but a thunderstorm that is far enough away that you can still see its cloud tops. If the conditions are right and the skies are dark, a lightning discharge in the clouds will spill into the upper atmosphere ionizing the surrounding particles and produce the colorful red and green Sprites. But be quick with your eyes because they only last for a fraction of a second!

A real photograph of sprites. IMAGE - https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210330.html

If you read these blogs weekly, you may notice a trend in the spring and summer months: me almost always mentioning the Milky Way spiral arms or the galactic core. I do that for a good reason - almost all deep-sky objects can be found somewhere in the arms or core region of the sky since most of these objects live within the plane of the galaxy. Some notable targets for telescope/binocular users and astrophotographers include the Lagoon Nebula (M8), the Dumbbell Nebula (M27), the North America Nebula, and the Eagle Nebula (these last two are better suited for astrophotographers).

The busy inner regions of the Milky-Way galaxy. In early June, the milky-way is high enough to get a good look at a bit before midnight.

Stargazing in warm weather is fantastic; no worries about frostbite and the night sky is beautiful. It does have a few drawbacks, however: warm and convective air, and dew. The ground (especially blacktop like roads and parking lots) absorbs a lot of heat during the day and radiates it off during the night. This radiation causes turbulence and other optical distortions that may slightly affect the quality of things seen through a higher power telescope (Jupiter may appear shaky through a telescope, for example.). Dew also forms later into the night as the warm moisture in the air condenses on cooler things like grass and your telescope. Invest in or make a dew shield to protect your telescope and prevent dew from leaving water marks or from distorting your viewing quality.

Get outside this week and enjoy the warm nights before and after the rainstorms. Bring a blanket to lay on yourself and the ground to keep the dew off while you look for the third quarter moon, the near pass between the moon and Jupiter, lightning Sprites, and deep-sky objects nested in the arms and core of the Milky Way galaxy.

Clear Skies!