09/29/2020 – Ephemeris – Let’s look for the naked-eye planets for this week

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 43 minutes, setting at 7:24, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:41. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 7:11 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look for the naked-eye planets for this week. Jupiter and Saturn are both low in the southern sky at 9 pm. Jupiter is the very bright one. To the left of it will be the somewhat dimmer Saturn which is just about due south at that hour. They are now seemly to close a tiny bit, and they will cross paths on December 21st. Jupiter will set first at 12:48 tomorrow morning with Saturn following at 1:27 am. The next planet visible will be Mars which will rise at 8:12 pm. It’s now down to 38.8 million miles (62.5 million km) away, as the Earth very slowly overtook it by 1.0 million miles (1.5 million km) last week as the Mars will be at its closest in 7 days. Brilliant Venus will rise at 4:07 am as it retreats slowly toward the Sun.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and Mars arrayed from south-southwest to east at 9 pm tonight September 30, 2020. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The Moon as it might appear in binoculars or a small telescope tonight at 9 pm, September 30, 2020. Created using Stellarium.

Venus, Mars, the Moon and the stars of winter but at 6 am October 1, 2020. The bright star under Venus is Regulus in Leo the lion. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The planets as seen in a telescope (north up) with the same magnification for the night of September 30/October 1, 2020. Times of the display are: Jupiter and Saturn, 9 pm; Mars, Midnight; Venus, 6 am. Apparent diameters: Jupiter, 40.53″; Saturn, 17.20″, rings, 40.07″. Mars, 22.45″, and Venus 15.52″. Jupiter’s moon Io is behind the planet and will reappear at 12:02 am. Mars also displays an enlargement showing surface detail. Mars will be closest to the Earth this go-a-round on October 6. The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on September 30, 2020. The night ends on the left with sunrise on October 1st. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

09/29/2020 – Ephemeris – The Harvest Moon is in two days

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 47 minutes, setting at 7:26, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:40. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:09 tomorrow morning.

This upcoming full moon is the Harvest Moon. It is the most famous of the named full moons, and was very useful in the days before electric lights. The reason is that the Moon, around the time it is full now doesn’t advance its rising time very much from night to night effectively extending the light of twilight to allow more time to gather in crops. This is because the Moon is moving north as well as eastward. The farther north it is the longer it stays up and retards the advance in rise times. On average the Moon rises 50 minutes later each night. This week the interval is down near 20 minutes advance in moonrise times per day extending twilight and the time each day to harvest the crops for a few more days.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The motion of the moon from tonight through next Monday night. This is looking east at where the Moon will rise, and we’re able to see below the horizon. The celestial equator, a projection of the Earth’s equator on the sky, crosses the horizon at an angle equal to 90 minus one’s latitude. Around my location that’s 45.5 degrees. The Moon and stars will rise parallel to the celestial equator. Its daily orbital motion is at the shallow angle of 5 degrees to the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun. So the advance in rise times starts off at 20 minutes later each night, rather than the average 50 minutes.

09/28/2020 – Ephemeris – A new sunspot cycle has started

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, September 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 7:27, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:38. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:06 tomorrow morning.

Word has come down from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the new solar or sunspot cycle has definitely started as of last December. The length of a sunspot cycle is about 11 years and may vary in length from one cycle to the next. The peak in sunspot numbers isn’t expected until 2025. The intensity of the cycle, that is numbers of sunspots around peak are expected to be about the same as the last cycle, about 150 observed daily. Each cycle is different and not really wholly predictable. Fewer spots means fewer solar flares and coronal mass ejections and less worry for satellite owners and power companies, and fewer displays of the northern lights for us.*

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

* I didn’t have time to add that we will have more cosmic rays penetrate the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble that protects us from damaging particles produced by high energy events in the universe. We’re at a solar minimum now, so cosmic ray flux is high. With a weak sunspot or solar activity cycle cosmic ray flux will not dip too much.

Sunspot numbers from solar cycle 19 to the prospective cycle 25. Credit: NOAA NWS Space Weather Prediction Center https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression

I came of age, astronomically speaking, during cycle 19, the most active peak since the 1779. I saw quite a few displays of the aurora borealis (northern lights) from Grand Rapids, MI 140 miles south from where I now live.

Sunspot butterfly diagram for solar cycles 23 and 24. Sunspots of a new cycle begin to appear at a relatively high latitude on the Sun. Sunspots of the old cycle form close to the equator. There is some overlap of spots from the old cycle seen at the same time as spots from the new cycle.

At one of 2019 summer’s Sun party at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore we saw a high latitude sunspot popping up as a precursor to cycle 25. We watched two solar flares from the spot in our hydrogen alpha solar telescopes that afternoon, ejecting short term filaments of hydrogen. It was cool watching it in real time.

09/25/2020 – Ephemeris – The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Virtual Star Party is tonight

This is Ephemeris for Friday, September 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 7:33, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:35. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 1:51 tomorrow morning.

Tonight the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society may hold the park’s 50th anniversary online star party this evening starting around 8 pm via the Zoom app available for Android smart phones, iPhones and computers. Instructions for joining are on the society’s web site gtastro.org and the Sleeping Bear Dunes Facebook page. Images will be captured live, if it’s clear, from Northwestern Michigan College’s Joseph H Rogers Observatory. The images will be pretty much what is seen at the telescope eyepiece, and definitely not Hubble Space Telescope quality, which take days to process. Visible will be the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and later on Mars plus some really neat objects beyond the solar system. it all begins at 9 pm.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Preview of Saturn imaged by Professor Jerry Dobek at Northwestern Michigan College’s Joseph H. Rogers Observatory.

Preview of Mars imaged by Professor Jerry Dobek at Northwestern Michigan College’s Joseph H. Rogers Observatory. Notice at top the small whitish patch, it a polar cap at the south pole of Mars. There are also some darker patches on the upper half of the image.

09/24/2020 – Ephemeris – Phosphine found in Venus’ atmosphere

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, September 24th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 7:35, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:34. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 12:49 tomorrow morning.

Three years ago astronomers began to discover phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. The chemical phosphine is related to ammonia in that it has three hydrogen atoms. They are tied to phosphorus rather than to nitrogen as is ammonia. It can also be created biologically, as it is almost entirely created on the Earth. It also is produced by volcanoes, and Venus has evidence of volcanic action. After three years of observation and looking for and ruling out non biological origins of phosphine they made public the announcement last week Monday. The detection was made in the millimeter wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwave and the infrared. Is life responsible? A space probe or many to Venus will be needed to find out to help solve the mystery.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Clouds on the night side of Venus as seen in the infrared from the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki, the only active spacecraft currently orbiting Venus. Credit JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic

Some links for more information:

Original article – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4,

From Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/so-astronomers-may-have-found-evidence-of-life-on-venus

09/23/2020 – Ephemeris – Let’s look at a the naked-eye planets for this week

This is Ephemeris for Wednesday, September 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 7:37, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:32. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 11:53 this evening.

Let’s look at a the naked-eye planets for this week. Jupiter and Saturn are both low in the southern sky at 9 pm. Jupiter is the very bright one. To the left of it will be the somewhat dimmer Saturn. They are now seemly to close a tiny bit since Jupiter is resuming its eastward motion, and they will cross paths in December. Jupiter will set first at 1:11 tomorrow morning with Saturn following at 1:51. The next planet visible will be Mars which will rise at 8:44 pm. Its now down to 39.8 million miles (64.0 million km) away, as the Earth very slowly overtook it by 1.5 million miles (2.6 million km) last week as the Earth is moving nearly abreast of it. Brilliant Venus will rise at 3:53 am as it retreats toward the Sun.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The planets visible at 9 pm or about an hour and a half after sunset tonight September 23, 2020. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

The first quarter Moon tonight as it might appear in binoculars or a low power telescope. Created using Stellarium.

Mars, and Venus and the morning stars at 6 am or an hour and a half before sunrise tomorrow morning September 24, 2020. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

The planets as seen in a telescope (north up) with the same magnification for the night of September 23/24, 2020. Times of the display are: Jupiter and Saturn, 9 pm; Mars, Midnight; Venus, 6 am. Apparent diameters: Jupiter, 41.42″; Saturn, 17.40″, rings, 40.52″. Mars, 21.96″, and Venus 16.25″. Mars also displays an enlargement showing surface detail. Mars will be closest to the Earth this go-a-round on October 6. The ” symbol means seconds of arc (1/3600th of a degree.) Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on September 23, 2020. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 24th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.

09/22/2020 – Ephemeris – Autumn starts this morning

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 7:39, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:31. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 11:05 this evening.

Fall is about to a, well… fall upon us and in a few weeks so will the leaves. At 9:31 this morning (13:31 UTC*) the Sun will cross the celestial equator heading south. The celestial equator is an imaginary line in the sky above the earth’s equator. At that point the Sun will theoretically set at the north pole and rise at the south pole. The day is called the autumnal equinox and the daylight hours today is 12 hours and 8 minutes instead of 12 hours exactly. That’s due to our atmosphere and our definition of sunrise and sunset. The reason for the cooler weather now and the cold weather this winter is that the length of daylight is shortening, and the Sun rides lower in the sky, spreading its heat over a larger area, thus diluting its intensity.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

* UTC – Coordinated Universal Time. Greenwich Mean Time if you haven’t kept up. Zulu if you’re in the military.

The Sun crossing the celestial equator in three steps: 9:31 am Sept 21, 22, and 23 2020. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

The Sun’s path through the sky on the equinox day from Traverse City, MI. Created using my LookingUp program.

That is not a pumpkin on the head of the motorcyclist. That’s the Sun rising as I’m traveling east on South Airport Road south of Traverse City Mi. on the autumnal equinox. This is the east-west section of the road. The Sun is rising over the hills some 6 miles to the east. Credit: Bob Moler.

09/21/2020 – Ephemeris – This is the last full day of summer

This is Ephemeris for Monday, September 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 11 minutes, setting at 7:41, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:30. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 10:24 this evening.

Enjoy the last full day of summer. Summer will last until 9:31 am (05:31 UTC) tomorrow when the center of the Sun will cross the celestial equator, an imaginary line above the Earth’s equator, heading southward. At that instant autumn will begin for Earth’s northern hemisphere and spring will begin in the southern hemisphere. Shortly, for us, the Sun will be up less than half the day. The day and the point in the sky that the Sun crosses is called the autumnal or September equinox. The word equinox means equal night, implying the equality of day and night. Geometrically that’s true, but the Earth’s atmosphere and the definition of sunrise and sunset, prolong daylight by a few more minutes. The amount of heat we are getting and will get from the Sun cannot sustain our current temperatures, and it will get a lot colder on average before it gets warmer again.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Sun crossing the celestial equator in the sky moving southward in three steps: 9:31 am Sept 21, 22, and 23 2020. The vertical axis is declination, the exact match to latitude on the Earth. The horizontal line at 00°00′ is the celestial equator, a projection of the Earth’s equator on the sky. The diagonal line that the Sun appears to travel on is the ecliptic, the plane of the Earth’s orbit. Due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis it is inclined by 23.5° to the celestial equator. The horizontal values mark right ascension, the celestial analog of longitude. One hour equals 15°. Since the Earth rotates, the right ascension that is on one’s meridian, the north-south line passing through the zenith, is best kept track of by using a clock. A clock that runs 3 minutes 56 seconds fast a day. We call that a sidereal clock. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Chart) and GIMP.

09/18/2020 – Ephemeris – A closer look at Cepheus the king’s most famous star

This is Ephemeris for Friday, September 18th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 7:46, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:27. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 8:52 this evening.

There’s a faint constellation in the northeast above the W shaped constellation of Cassiopeia. It’s a nearly upside down church steeple of a constellation called Cepheus the king, and husband of queen Cassiopeia. Cepheus’ claim to astronomical fame is that one of its stars, Delta (δ) Cephei, is the archetype for the important Cepheid variable stars. Delta is the bottom most of a trio of stars at the right corner of the constellation. In the early 20th century Henrietta Leavitt discovered that Cepheids in the nearby galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud varied in brightness with a period that was related to their average brightness. This meant that Cepheids could be used as standard candles to measure the great distances to other galaxies.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Cassiopeia and Cepheus finder animation looking in the northeast at 9 pm or about an hour after sunset in mid-September. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

Delta Cephei (circled) finder for mid-September at 9 pm or about an hour after sunset looking northeast. The brighter stars are marked by their Bayer Greek letters. Numerical designations are Flamsteed numbers. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Chart).

Light Curve of Delta Cephei. The pulsation period is 5.367 days. Credit: ThomasK Vbg – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13887639

09/17/2020 – Ephemeris – Finding Cassiopeia the queen and Cepheus the king

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, September 17th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 7:48, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:25. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.

The stars of the autumn skies are slowly replacing the summer stars from the east. Look midway up in the northeastern sky in the evening and you can find the W shaped constellation of Cassiopeia the queen. Cassiopeia is so far north that it never sets for us in Michigan. It is opposite the pole star Polaris from the handle of Big Dipper. There’s a dim star that appears above the middle star of the W which turns it into a very crooked backed chair, Cassiopeia’s throne. Above and left of Cassiopeia is a dim upside down church steeple shaped constellation of Cepheus the king, her husband. The Milky Way flows through Cassiopeia toward the northeastern horizon. She is a character in an autumn star story with five other constellations.

For my retelling of the Greek myth that links these autumn constellations click here.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Cassiopeia and Cepheus finder animation looking in the northeast at 9 pm or about an hour after sunset in mid-September. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.