August 2011 Highlights

August is here and we are moving into late summer in the northern hemisphere. July wasn't a very ambitious month for me because I spent so much time enjoying my summer, we'll see about a new month. The dominant astronomical event for August is the Perseids meteor shower. Although a Full Moon at it's peak will dampen the experience, the rest of the month should still be full of a few bright traces through the night sky. The weather is still warm, and many great constellations are high in the sky. So if you get the chance, go out and look up:


August 5: Juno Launch: Juno is an ambitious mission to understand the origin and evolution of planet Jupiter. You can read more about it on NASA Juno mission page.

August 8: First Quarter Moon: The Moon is halfway through the waxing phase, a great time for observing as the shadows provide wonderful contrast.

August 12-13: Perseids Meteor Shower: (active July 22-August 22) Usually one of the best meteors shower of the year, but this year it will be marred by a Full Moon during its peak. However, up to 60 meteors per hour may be possible in dark locations. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus.

August 13: Full Moon: The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This moon, in the Native American tradition of naming the full moons throughout the year, is known as the Full Sturgeon Moon. It gets its name from the large sturgeon fish of the Great Lakes and other major lakes were more easily caught at this time of year.

August 16: Venus at Superior Conjunction: Venus swings around the opposite side of the Sun and passes into the evening sky. (It will briefly be directly opposite of the Sun from us, therefore not visible.)

August 21: Last Quarter Moon: Halfway through the Moon's waning phase.

August 22: Neptune at Opposition: The planet will be on its closest approach to Earth and fully illuminated by the Sun. This is the best time to observe Neptune, but even the most powerful telescopes reveal little more than a tiny pale blue dot.

August 29: New Moon: The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth.

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Posted in Astronomy,August,Full Moon,Highlights,Meteor Shower,Planets 13 comments

June 2011 Highlights

As with previous months, I am delivering another summary of the great astronomical events you can expect this upcoming month. It definitely feels like Summer here, the Sun doesn't set until nearly 8:30 pm, and the heat has been sweltering this past Memorial Day weekend. All the more reason to spend more of the day at the pool and go out in the cooler evenings to take a look at the stars.

June 1: New Moon: The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth.

June 1: Partial Eclipse of the Sun: The partial eclipse will be visible in most parts eastern Asia, Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and other high latitude locations in the northern hemisphere. Begins at 19:25, ends at 23:06 UT. (UT stands for Universal Time, equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time)

June 9: First Quarter Moon: The Moon is halfway through the waxing phase, a great time for observing as the shadows provide wonderful contrast.

June 10: Saturn & Moon Conjunction: In the evening sky, you can expect to find Saturn and the Moon near each other.

June 13: Mercury at Superior Conjunction: Mercury swings around the opposite side of the Sun and passes into the evening sky.

June 15: Full Moon and Total Lunar Eclipse: Begins at 19:22 UT and ends at 21:03 UT. Mid-eclipse at 20:13 UT. Partial phases begin at 18:22 UT and end at 22:02 UT. The Moon will appear red-orange in color during totality (the Earth's shadow). Total eclipse visible from eastern South America, Africa, Europe, central Asia, and western Australia. This moon, in the Native American tradition of naming the full moons throughout the year, is known as the Strawberry Moon, because this is the time of year when strawberries are naturally in season.

June 21: June (Summer) Solstice: Summer is definitely here for the northern hemisphere! In the southern hemisphere, it is Winter. The Summer Solstice occurs when the Sun reaches the point farthest north of the equator (the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 degrees north latitude) marking the start of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere. It is also the longest day of the year for the north, while the shortest for the south.

June 23: Last Quarter Moon: Halfway through the Moon's waning phase, The next New Moon will be July 1st.

I'm going to be enjoying my long, warm June days. And you guys in the south keep warm, you'll be rubbing it in our faces come December. Have a great month everyone!

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Posted in Astronomy,Eclipse,Full Moon,Highlights,June,Planets,Solstice 20 comments

Saturday Space News!

Another Saturday with a couple more news stories! I hope you all are having a great weekend. We're having our 'horse party' for the Preakness race here in Maryland today. So it's a good day to relax, sip on something cool, and enjoy the Universe. And once again, it appears the Rapture has disappointed.

So in astronomy news this past week, there are a couple of stories of interest:

First up, NASA set the launch date for the final space shuttle flight. Space Shuttle Atlantis is targeted to lift off on July 8 around 11:40 AM EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle will take four veteran astronauts to deliver supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station. It will also deliver experimental equipment to test robotically refuel and service satellites in space. Given the shuttles recent history, this launch date can be expected to be delayed.

Illustration showing that dark energy (represented by purple grid) is a smooth, uniform force that now dominates over the effects of gravity (green grid). (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Next, Astronomers now have a better understanding of Dark Energy and Gravity. A survey of 200,000 galaxies confirms that dark energy is driving the Universe apart at accelerating speeds. The survey, GALEX, used data from NASA’s space-based Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Anglo-Australian Telescope on Siding Spring Mountain in Australia. The force is seen to be constant and uniform across the Universe. Dark energy is thought to dominate the Universe, making up about 74 percent of it, though what drives and the actual nature of dark energy is still poorly understood. (Additional source)

Astronomers have discovered a new class of planet. The 10 discovered planets are all free-floating, not orbiting a star, and about the size of Jupiter. These 'orphan planets' are about 10,000 to 20,000 light-years from Earth and indicate that a wide-range of these planets exist, perhaps more common than stars. There are expected to be hundreds of billions in the Milky Way, ranging across all sizes, including Earth-sized ones. The ones detected are at the limit of current technology, the smallest possible objects they could detect, using gravitational lensing techniques. The planets initially form around stars, and become orphaned due to gravitational interactions with other planets that force them out of the system. Smaller planets would be easier to influence, making it likely that small planets are more numerous in interstellar space then these large ones. It is even possible that our solar system has lost a planet or two due to this process. A lost brother out in space, as it were.

Voyager 2 (Credit: NASA)

Not really news, but still pretty awesome. You can follow the Voyager 2 space probe on Twitter. It provides real time updates of the probe and its sister, Voyager 1, of their distance from the Earth, chronicling their journey into interstellar space. (As of their last update, Voyager 2 is 13 hrs 08 mins 50 secs of light-travel time from Earth and Voyager 1 is 16 hrs 06 mins 58 secs)

And this one isn't even really astronomy related, but my friend Leroy, who I've mentioned before, is going on a cross country adventure. He is chronicling his adventure in blog format, and although he hasn't posted anything yet, it should be work checking out: The Life and Times of a Modern Day Gypsy.

Bella, wishing her the best.

In a bit of sad personal news, our cat Bella is in the animal hospital. She's been having a rough last couple of days. She's about 14 years old, don't really remember for sure, so shes lived a pretty long life. It's just pretty sad that we might be losing my favorite cat in the next day or two. Maybe she will pull through, but the amount of health complications she's having doesn't make me optimistic. At least I got her to purr for me before they took her to the vet, if that was the last time I get to see her.

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Posted in Cats,Dark Energy,Leroy,Planets,Space News,Space Shuttle,Voyager 25 comments

May 2011 Highlights

Another month is upon us, and summer is coming fast here in the Northern Hemisphere. By the end of the month, barbeques will be firing up across the U.S. for Memorial Day and thousands of students will be getting out on summer vacation. The weather will also hopefully stabilize and we will get some nice, crisp, late spring nights with great viewing. Here are some of the things you can hope to catch during the month of May:

May 2: Endeavour Launch: The next attempt to launch this shuttle on its final flight will be at 2:33 p.m. EDT. The launch has been further delayed, a week or more. The next launch will be no sooner then May 8. As the shuttle would have to clear the way for an Air Force launch on the 6th. The reason for delay is indications that issues with the APU-1 heating that caused the initial shutdown are symptoms of a deeper problem that will take engineers longer to access and fix.You can find the latest news on NASA's Shuttle site.

May 3: New Moon: The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth.

May 5 & 6: Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower: (active through May 12) A light meteor shower generated from Earth passing through dust released by Halley's Comet. You can see between 10 to 30 meteors per hour during the peak on May 5 & 6. You'll want to look towards the constellation Aquarius to the east after midnight, far from city lights.

May 7: Astronomy Day (Part 1): An event that happens twice a year that aims to bring astronomy to the people, it is a way for the general public and various astronomy enthusiasts, groups and professionals to interact. All around the world stargazing and astronomy clubs and other organizations plan to hold events. You can learn more from your local astronomy club or planetarium, or by visiting the Astronomical League's website. The next astronomy day is October 1.

May 10: First Quarter Moon: The Moon is halfway through the waxing phase, a great time for observing as the shadows provide wonderful contrast.

May 11: Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter: These three planets will be in conjunction, forming a 2-degree vertical line in the early morning sky to the east. Mars will also be visible nearby. 


May 17: Full Moon: The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This moon, in the Native American tradition of naming the full moons throughout the year, is known as the Full Flower Moon, because this is the time of year when spring flowers appear in abundance.

May 24: Last Quarter Moon: Halfway through the Moon's waning phase, The next New Moon will be June 1st.


Saturn will dominate the evening night sky for the entire month of May, so if you happen to be out and look up, it will probably be the brightest object in the night sky besides the Moon.


That's about all the exciting observable stuff happening in the month of May. If anything else comes up, I'll be sure to mention it.

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Posted in Astronomy,Full Moon,Highlights,May,Planets 18 comments

April 2011 Highlights

We are firmly into spring, even though it doesn't look much like it here, cold and wet still. But, in the northern hemisphere, April brings the promise of warmer weather! There is still the problem of 'April showers,' which can hassle astronomical observations, but hopefully the weather won't interrupt to many events this month. April has been designated Global Astronomy Month by the Astronomers Without Borders, so your local astronomy club might be up to something fun.

This month will see Venus continuing to be bright in the morning sky; and Saturn will rise shortly after sunset, reaching opposition (closest approach to Earth) early in the month, it will be bright. I try to keep this to planets and stuff that you can visually see, so no need for a telescope. Unfortunately, most of the planets are early morning this month. So unless you are an early riser, or really late sleeper, you'll probably miss out.

Here is more you can look forward to:

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Posted in April,Highlights,Meteor Shower,Moon,Planets,Saturn,Venus 20 comments

Of Kepler and Fermi

Last time I left off talking about the cosmic lottery. We are pretty lucky to be around, and just how widespread that luck is. Estimates say there are roughly 500 million planets in our galaxy residing in habitable zones, 500 million chances for life to arise at any given time. And not all these might seem obvious at first; a few might turn out to moons orbiting giant planets.

The number of planets that will actually have life will turn out to vary from this a bit. There is a great diversity in planets and the right conditions need to be there. In our own solar system, it is accepted that Venus is at one end of our habitable zone and Mars is at the other. If conditions were different on these planets, life might have taken hold, and it might have even been there in the past. In our search of these 500 million candidates, we will find lots of planets like Venus and Mars. Either too small to retain an atmosphere against the solar wind, or to thick of an atmosphere with a runaway greenhouse effect. A lack of a protective magnetic field or plate tectonics. Objects like the Moon and Jupiter that protect against asteroids and comets. And a stable, long living star.

Continues after the page break. >

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Posted in astrobiology,Astronomy,Kepler,Planets 25 comments

Of Kepler and Drake

I have made a few mentions to the Kepler Mission in my previous posts. It really is one of the most amazing and fantastic missions that NASA has going on right now. And recently, they released the data on 155,000 stars. This wasn't even the entire sample taken by Kepler, the rest of the stars were released to the public through stuff like PlanetHunters.org. And Kepler is still running! Which means there will be more observations, and more planets observed. The first set of data was taken over 4 months. So every planet that transits a star in that 4 month period is observed. If we are looking for Earth-sized planets, that is only 1/3 of Earths entire year. So the longer Kepler looks, the more planets will become observable as they transit.

Now, from the 155,000 stars released there included 1,235 candidate planets. Those numbers split as 68 Earth-size, 288 super-Earth-size (about twice the size of Earth), 293 are Neptune-size (about four times the size of Earth), and 165 candidates are the size of Jupiter (11 times the size of Earth). Those numbers themselves, from a relatively tiny patch in the sky, triple the known number of planets.

More after the page break.

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Posted in astrobiology,Astronomy,Kepler,Planets 27 comments