Steve’s Virtual Planet

Jupiter returns for 2024

Daylight savings time is almost gone for the year so Jupiter is back in view during evening skies, coming up in the east around 9:00PM. The DST shift grants even more time for catching the King of Planets. Once it clears the treeline, about 10:00PM or so, you can enjoy Jupiter nestled in the midst of the bright stars of the Winter Hexagon.

If the Galilean Moons are your thing, see if you can pick them up on your binoculars. With a small telescope and a magnification of around 18-30, and a decent dark(ish) sky, you should be able to see the moons and some cloud top features on Jupiter. Galileo himself had recently developed his 30 power telescope by the time he documented these moons for his book, The Starry Messenger.

You can get a useful preview of the moon positions using Sky View Cafe. If you open the tool to the “Moons” tab, you can them adjust your date and time to see where they will appear in relation to Jupiter itself. Depending on the optics you are using, set the Options over in the right marked “North on top” and “Celestial east on left”. Use the Help page and scroll to the Moon/GRS View section for details how to use those two settings.

Especially notable this apparition is the Great Red Spot (GRS) that has been appearing steadily smaller for the last 10 years or so. However, it is not known for sure whether the storm is actually shrinking or this appearance is merely part of an ongoing behavior. The Moons tool above will also show you when the GRS is in view.

Jupiter will be with us in the evening sky through the end of April, plenty of time to explore the moons and features of our largest planet. I hope you will enjoy the show from our biggest and brightest planetary neighbor!

originally published Oct 30, 2024

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Full Moon Names - October

Fall is HERE and its time for a Super Moon!! Check out the NASA link for a detailed explanation of how different cultures celebrate this event. The traditional full moon name for October is the Full Hunter’s Moon. This month’s full moon appears already full on Thursday, October 17th, around 7:27 AM EDT.

Check the almanac references in the links below:

From the older Old Farmer’s Almanac - October Full Moon. See the article to access a moon rise calculator. There are also alternative names from early American history various native cultures.

From the newer Farmer’s Almanac - October Full Moon. There is a deeper explanation of the history of the full moon names in North America and some additional alternate names.

Posted in Ethnoastronomy | No Comments »

S.V.P. Comet News - C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

Comet C/2023 A3 is in the news over the last few weeks and with a lot of due excitement. It was discovered independently by two different observatories in early 2023 and also goes by the proper name of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS to recognize the co-discoverers. It may end up being one of the better visible comets in the last few years.

C/2023 A3 has been clearly visible naked eye from the southern hemisphere and there are already dozens of great images posted around the internet. Lucky for us in the northern latitudes, the comet will soon emerge from the glare of the sun so we can see it in the northern hemisphere. If you have a good view to the west, by October 12 it should be getting into view in eastern Virgo.

It’s currently fairly bright, about magnitude 3 as of this writing. It should reach an easy to see mag 2.6 on October 7 but will then dim gradually over the next few weeks. Nevertheless, it promises to still put on quite a show in the next month or so. It will climb higher in the sky through Serpens in mid October and into Ophiuchus during November.

If you need a sky map to find the comet, I recommend using this great tool at In-The-Sky.org. You can set the options for time span and the generate a map that can be download for printing.

The SpaceWeather.com web site has been carrying frequent reports and the now have a growing collection of images in their image gallery. You can also check out these sites for lots of good updates- Astronomy magazine, Space.com.

first published on Sep 26, 2024

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Sunspot Maximum

On August 23, 2024, the count of sunspots on our Sun reached a 20 year high, during the peak in solar cycle 23. The Space Weather web site highlighted this phenomenon with images of the Sun. If you look at the Daily Sun area in the left hand margin, you can get a large image of the sun with the active regions (AR) labeled. You can also get a “Carrington” map that compares the current view to the event of the same name.

I was also able to get some good shots that day from my front yard using my cell phone clamped on a white-filtered 80mm refactor. Active regions 3790, 3792 and 3799 were “just plain huge” (that’s a technical term for ‘larger than the Earth’). Truly remarkable even if not quite as big (fortunately) as Carrington but nevertheless a remarkable day in the life of our Sun … not to mention that I actually got a decent astro-photo that was in focus!!

Published Sep 23, 2024

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The Carrington Event

Part of my upcoming new category on Solar Dynamics and Space Weather:

The Carrington event of September 1st, 1859 - from spaceweather.com

“On Sept. 1st, 1859, the most ferocious solar storm in recorded history engulfed our planet. It was “the Carrington Event,” named after British scientist Richard Carrington, who witnessed the flare that started it. The storm rocked Earth’s magnetic field, sparked auroras over Cuba, the Bahamas and Hawaii, set fire to telegraph stations, and wrote itself into history books as the Biggest. Solar. Storm. Ever.”

More articles like this on spaceweather’s archive site

Published Oct 31, 2020, Updated Sep 23, 2024

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International Observe the Moon Night

International Observe the Moon Night (IOtMN) is an annual public outreach event … “that encourages observation, appreciation, and understanding of the Moon and its connection to planetary science and exploration” (Wikipedia). International Observe the Moon Night is sponsored by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, with many contributors.

IOtMN occurs annually in September or October, when the Moon is around first quarter ― a great phase for evening observing. A first-quarter Moon offers excellent viewing opportunities along the terminator (the line between night and day), where shadows enhance the Moon’s cratered landscape. This year’s event is officially Saturday, September 14th, two days after first quarter.

Follow the first link above to visit the NASA IOtMN website with a rich selection of resources, viewing tips and detailed maps of the lunar surface highlighting the best targets for viewing. For a detailed map of the moon on that night, check out this interactive page. There is also a downloadable map set with specific easy to view surface features and locations of the six Apollo landing sites.

You can enjoy the magic if viewing the moon by yourself at home or in one of many events hosted by  organized groups. And the resources above are all usable every month for your own personal exploration of the Moon!

Published Sep 2, 2024, Updated Sep 12, 2024

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Series - Full Moon Names

This is the title page for the “Full Moon Names” collection. This series will contain a growing number of posts under the topics of ethnoastronomy, mythology, and history.

In-the-sky.org has a good introduction to Full Moon Names as well some brief history on lunar calendars and the almanacs that introduced traditional names to the American lexicon.

There are two long running almanacs with astronomy sections and they are easy to mix up - the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” since 1792, and the “Farmer’s Almanac” since 1818. Both have great online references for Full Moon events and the traditional names that go along with them.

Look for this month’s post on the July’s Full Buck moon.

Published 1-17-24; Updated 10-17-24

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International Moon Day 2024

Today is the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and humanity’s first steps on another world. As NASA posted this week, from “One Small Step, One Giant Leap” … “In July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin completed humanity’s first landing on the Moon. They fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s national goal, set in May 1961, to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade.”

Since 2021, today’s date has been set aside to commemorate this monumental achievement. At that time, the United Nations General Assembly declared July 20 as International Moon Day in recognition of the first human landing on the Moon. The U.N. said “The celebrations will also consider the achievements of all States in the exploration of the Moon and raise public awareness of sustainable Moon exploration and utilization”. The 2024 theme is “Illuminating the Shadows” to bring further attention to the missions to the lunar south pole.

This is now a global commemoration with various sponsors already involved. There are also events in Washington DC to celebrate the achievement and also to promote exploration of the Moon by the global space faring communities. With quite a number of countries now participating in lunar exploration, this event serves to bring additional focus on this international cooperation.

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T CrB is going Nova! - Pt 1

As of 2024, stargazers are possible on the verge of witnessing a fairly rare event in the night sky called a “Nova”, which literally means “new star”. In this case, the star is known as “T Coronae Borealis” or TCrB for short; there is a star chart in that link to help you find it. As luck would have it, the constellation CrB is right overhead in tonight’s sky around 10:00 EDT.

This is a fairly rare type of nova event in that it’s a process between both members of a binary system, made up of a red giant and a white dwarf. The pair of stars interact about every 70-80 years when hydrogen gas is pulled from the red giant and “piles up”. That leads to a condition on the white dwarf’s surface where a thermonuclear explosion occurs. At that time, the visual magnitude of the pair will brighten from the normal value of 10-10.8 to about 2.0. That’s about the same brightness as Polaris, The North Star. So, this nova event will be visible to the naked eye and roughly located between the bright stars Arcturus and Vega.

The Oxford dictionary defines Nova as “a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state over a few months”. The star will brighten due to eruptions of the star due to different effects however it settles down to repeat the cycle. So, its not the same as a Supernova or Hypernova in which the star self destructs as a result of the complete explosion of the star.

As for T Crb, there is a growing anticipation that it will soon erupt once again, as the previously recorded bursts have recorded. The last time this occurred was 1946 (78 years ago), before that it was in 1866 (80 years previous). You can check the status of the magnitude of T CrB on the SpaceWeather site in the right hand side bar.

I will be posting more information and web links in the coming days. So, keep an eye on this site and both eyes open to the sky for this unusual event.

Updated on 7-11-24

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Series - The Constellations

“The Constellations”, a series on the 88 modern day constellations with details on the major stars & deep sky objects, mythology, and history of these wondrous patterns in the night sky.

updated 2-24-24

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