Knitting at the Lib Dem Conference

Stars spinning around Polaris

It's all much the same this week as you may well have anticipated. Jupiter is still blazing away in the southern sky very close to the waxing moon until it sets at about 1am, just as Mars becomes visible in the east sou eastern sky. Venus is moving further away from Mars toward the sun and shines very brightly in the east 2 hours before dawn in the east from about 5 am. Where’s it joined by Mercury and then Saturn around 6:30 am shortly before sunrise. Venus will be easily visible for early risers in the east but Mercury and Saturn are pretty well reserved for those of us on Tresco and St Martins because they are so low on the horizon they’ll be obscured by hills. But both are to close to the rising sun to be worth a look at the moment. But there’s a guide on the blog if you’re grimly determined.

September and early October are very much a transient time for the stars. The familiar winter constellations are not quite there yet. The Pleiades and the V of Taurus with its giant bright red malignant eye Aldebaran is well up in the east by 11, but it’s another month until my favorite constellation Orion is around much before midnight. And then Orion will be with us until late April when the summer stars are beginning to appear. The whole thing is centered on Polaris the pole star which the whole sky seems to revolve around including the moon and the sun, this is because the pole star hangs almost directly above the North Pole and doesn’t appear to move. It is in effect in line with the imaginary axle the earth spins on. With a long exposure the stars weave a circle of light around Polaris, the North Star, and the stars near Polaris will always be in the sky. The Northern constellations like the plough or Cassiopeia are there in the sky every night and during the day, if they could be seen. Orion and Taurus even the sun also appear to revolve around Polaris but the circle they carve goes way over the horizon so they come and go. And with the earth spinning at 23.5 degrees the southern horizon shifts up and down by twice that between December and June, which is about a ¼ of the sky, which is why stars on the North and Southern horizons only appear at certain times of the year. I’ve completely confused my self now but sadly theirs more to come. Many constellations are over the horizon at some point every day but for half the year they will be up with the sun, the summer zodiac constellations are never seen in the summer, for example Taurus and Gemini are only just now putting in an appearance, now. And that’s enough of that especially at 7:30 am. But why should I care, I’m asleep, but probably dreaming about it.

Moving on, we have the harvest full moon on Saturday, and when the full moon comes this early in the month it means we’ll have a blue moon soon, October and November just miss it but we have the second full moon in December on the 31st, so we have a blue moon on New Years Eve which is as good a reason as any to celebrate I suppose.

And finally for the 55th time theirs a new definitive answer to whether there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the earth. A bunch of mathematicians from Hawaii, presumably to effete to surf have determined that there are 1 with 19 zeros grains of sand on the earth whilst there are 1 with 22 zeros stars, I read how they worked it out but its pretty tedious. But sand does have the last laugh because it only a thousand times more and there must be billions of planets out there full of sand, so in the final analysis sand wins hands down.

Knitting at the Lib Dem Conference

Interpol

The sun scarperd over the horizon yesterday to make sheep all over the Falkland Islands hot and sweaty and desiccate forests all over Australia for the seasonal Christmas bush fires, and plunged us into autumn. And you can tell autumn’s here if you look at the eastern horizon after midnight. Taurus with its brilliant red eye Aldebaran is already well up. Mars and Orion put in a tentative appearance at about 12:30. Mars is in Gemini and will be clearly visible in the north east after 2am.

If you bizarrely you’d rather be in bed at 2 then we still have Jupiter blazing away in the Southern sky for most of the night. Look at it through binoculars and you’ll see a clear disc and up to 4 of the Galilean moons, named after Galileo who is credited with being the first man ever to see them. I know I keep saying this week after week but the heavens, mercifully, are renowned for slow sedate change, which is an anathema in this day and age, and certainly if they were a soap then no one would bother watching.

Before the dawn Venus is shining brightly in the east with much dimmer Mercury a little lower slightly to the North, but Mercury will probably be lost in the sunrise, as certainly will be Saturn a little behind it. And just for a change I didn’t look any of that up but rather gleaned it all from the wonderful Scilly Star map which is linked to on the Scilly Stars blog. But who in there right mind is up that early, even Scarborough Bimpson, real name withheld at the insistence of Interpol, who are running a covert surveillance operation, well less covert now, anyway even Scarborough is in bed by then having deposited her nightly stash in her two bulging warehouses hidden beneath mount Moorwell. And then of course there’s poor Chris who’s right at the start of his first morning show, playing music he can’t bear to people he has yet to learn to love, and like Caviar they are an acquired taste Chris.

If you look to the Southwest up to the weekend you’ll see the waxing moon rising through Scorpio and on to the Sagittarius Teapot. Libra is a little further to the Southwest of Scorpio with the Sun, which is why we’ve just gone in to Libra, and Scorpio is next in the spot light then Sagittarius you can probably see the emerging pattern. In fact the one sign of the zodiac that you’ll never ever see is the one we’re currently in. And that’s about it except.

It seems there’s been a flurry of UFO activity in Germany over the last month, but nothing here alas. I never quite know what to think of UFOs, I’m sure there’s a possibility, but it seems a long way to come just to flash a few lights and zoom off, and by the way why do aliens only kidnap people who like country and western music. And of course Fallon Colby, Alexis and Blake Carrington’s daughter in Dynasty and when she came back Jeff her husband didn’t even notice, and neither did anyone else.

That was your night sky for the week ending on the 38th anniversary of Oman joining the Arab League.

Benson The Giant Carp

Benson the Giant Carp, star of Request Stop 18.

The Walk

Firstly, I’ve done 87 of these now and I deserve a medal, email in if you agree. And as always there’s a little more information on the blog.

This week Mercury is hidden in the solar glare, as is Saturn. Venus is receding now and slowly moving away from us behind the sun, and so is starting to dim after a very bright run starting late last year. After the moon its still the brightest object in the sky and still dominates the dawn sky. Venus’s decent into the sun is a pretty slow one and it won’t be until February when Venus will return to the evening sky again, just as Jupiter disappears into the sunset. So basically what I’m saying is you can’t win, but don’t shoot the messenger.

And Jupiter is still there as blatant as an Oran U Tang in an ice cream van dominating the southern sky all night. This week is a particularly good week to look at it, the sky was wonderfully clear on Monday, and the easterly winds shouldn’t carry much moisture.

Its some consolation that Mars has now firmly escaped the clutches of the dawn, which sounds like a Michael Moorcock book, which he mercifully didn’t write, though I must say in my mid teens I was a great Michael Moorcock fan, which is no recommendation at all, the clutches of the dawn, it has a certain ring to it. Anyway Mars is now timidly peeping over the eastern horizon by 1am, but isn’t really showing well till 4am when its hanging around Gemini in the e sou east sky, tonight in almost a straight line with Venus and the moon.

Saturn is lost behind the Sun, and it’s just had its equinox, because the rings were edge on to us, but we can’t see them anyway, and we’re about to get ours. Next Tuesday, not Monday the 21st, when everywhere in the world whether you live in Canberra or God have mercy on you Camborne, will have a twelve hour day, and we leave the embers of summer behind and slide into Autumn cruel grasp. Which means I can talk about the autumn equinox when the earth’s orbital axis is perpendicular, or at a right angle, to its orbital plane with respect the sun. So far the next 6 months the South Pole will be angled towards the sun and the north away. So if you are one of our many Antarctic listeners working at the pole, its only another 3 weeks until the first plane since February comes in, but you may have known that already. For us Hiboreans, the frozen folk who live beyond the North Wind, it means autumn then winter, but we can console ourselves that Orion will soon be back with us, dominating the southern sky till next spring.

And if you’re one of the hardy folk walking between the Islands on Sunday, its all been made possible by the equinox. The Equinoctial Spring Tides this year fall on a new rather than a full moon, the tides are big because the earths axis is perpendicular to the ecliptic, the plane of the moon and the sun, so the tidal bulge is undistorted by any angular momentum effects. But if you are going be aware that Barbara will be know precisely who’s walking the walk and you could well come back to find that your house has been entirely cleaned out, an empty shell, gutted.

That was your nights sky for the week ending next Tuesday on the 230th anniversary of the establishment of the position of United States Postmaster General. The first one being one Samuel Osgood

Whale Meat Again

This year, Jupiter's Great Red Spot has been nicely bordered by the thick white line of the Red Spot Hollow, which indents the dark South Equatorial Belt. Note the very dark red barge following behind the pale Red Spot. The North Equatorial Belt is full of turbulence, including a big blue plume. Far to the right (celestial east), Ganymede and Europa are in conjunction. S&T's Sean Walker took this image at 1:15 UT September 3, 2009. South is up. Stacked-video images like this show much more detail than you're ever likely to see visually on Jupiter.

An example from the Scilly Star Map link.

Very little change if any since last week Mercury and Saturn are lost in the sunset, It’s a shame about Saturn because on September 4th its rings turned edge-on to Earth, and are invisible bar a dark line around Saturn’s equator. Venus is still blazing away in the pre dawn sky, with Mars moving away from it now and rising around 1pm, some where between Taurus and Orion. Aldebaran, in Taurus and Betelgeuse in Orion, all three are similarly coloured and bright, Mars is the most North Easterly.

The sky hasn’t been all that clear recently but over the weekend the full moon broke through and it was nice to see the Chinese lantern things; I’ve no idea what the proper name is crossing the path of the almost full moon and Jupiter on Saturday night. The moon is on the way out now its in its last quarter on Friday and if we get the clear skies predicted Jupiter will worth looking at with binoculars, dominating the southern sky all night. And the Milky Way will be over head arcing from the North east to the South West and it’s always worth a look.

You’ve probably gathered by now that I’ve haven’t got a whole lot to tell you this week, but if there’s anything you’d particularly like to have a look at, if you go to the Scilly Stars blog, look at the links and click on Scilly Star Map, I’ve finally set it up so it’s no longer exclusively for out Tasmanian listeners. The page has a set of basic but adequate tools for you to drill down to get what you’re looking, any time of day in fact any time at all. For example the 25th of October 1745 was completely useless all the planets were up all day long and if you were very lucky you might have caught a glimpse of Mars as it set at seven. October 25th is a lot better this year at 11pm we have mars rising as Jupiter sets. And in the year 2525 if man is still alive on October the 25th the moon is very close to Saturn in the South. See endless hours of free fun, I think I’d better stop now.


Someone from one of those green dots that mar our horizon from the South West to the North East told me in the co-op the other day that the off islands are under represented in Scilly Stars, well I don’t wish to offend anyone, so for the best view go up the garrison, any night you want, look just above the horizon due west and you’ll see the lights of St Agnes to the North you’ll catch a glimpse of the lights of Bryher behind Samson with Tresco next door and in the extreme North East you’ catch St Martins, though all of them are fairly easy to during the day, and I’ve been led to believe that there are manned expeditions to these Islands of light everyday. Scilly Stars is nothing if its not inclusive.

That was your night’s sky for the week ending on the 74th anniversary of Germany adopting a new national flag with the swastika.

The Bat, the Custard, the Labradoodle

The Bat
The Custard
The Labradoodle

Although the Moon and Jupiter look close together on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, Jupiter is actually 1,500 times farther away — and 40 times larger in diameter. Faint, 8th-magnitude Neptune is 7 times farther than Jupiter.

I was up very early on Tuesday Morning at 4:30, for reasons that will remain between me, the bat, the drum of lukewarm custard and the Labradoodle. The sky was icily clear the moon had set and there was no hint of the approaching dawn. Venus was blazing above long stone Orion was up to its right and Mars was between Taurus and Gemini, and the Pleiades, now up around midnight, were high in the south-eastern sky, Jupiter sadly had by that time sunk below the garrison. It was nice to see them all because I talk about the predawn sky every week but never see it and it all goes to confirm that I haven’t been lying to you for the last 3 months. Eventually it got a little to cold and I went back to bed, but before I did I’m sure I espied a shadowy figure creeping stealthily down church road, which could well have been Barbara S returning home with her nightly haul.

The sky this September sky has two celestial conjunctions.

The solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter, is now rising early enough for even younger children to catch a glimpse. It rises above the south-southeast horizon anytime after dark. Other than the Moon, and Venus at dawn, Jupiter is the brightest object in the night sky.

Even low-powered binoculars will reveal Jupiter’s four Galilean moons.

Near the end of the month, watch for the waxing gibbous Moon to rise with Jupiter. On the 29th, the two will be separated by less than two degrees. Of course, the Moon will be bright, so Jupiter may seem lost at first glance.

Earlier in the month the moon pairs as a waning crescent with our red neighbour, Mars. You will find the two in Gemini, in the hours before sunrise on the 13th, on your East horizon. That bright star in the same field of view is Mebsuta. Mebsuta is a super giant star located some 900 light-years distant. Mars, on the other hand, is currently just about 14 light-minutes away, while the Moon is a mere 1.3 light-seconds away … three very different objects appearing together to form one beautiful triangle.

Saturn has nipped behind the sun, maybe to eat some more of his kids, there’s a charming picture by goya on the blog, and some guides as well.

Venus (magnitude –4.0, in Cancer) blazes in the east before and during dawn.

Mars (magnitude +1.0, in the feet of Gemini) is high to the upper right of Venus before dawn.

Jupiter comes into view in the southeast as twilight fades — the first "star" to appear after sunset. And tonight you’ll see Jupiter just to the right of the moon, with Neptune, 20,000 times dimmer which you won’t see just to the moons lower left.

And sticking with tonight and Jupiter, if you’ve never seen Jupiter’s moons and don’t want to anyway, tonight’s the night not to see them, because tonight Jupiter displays no visible moons in a small telescope from 12:43 to 2:29 a.m. Thursday morning EDT (9:43 to 11:29 p.m. Wednesday evening PDT and this won't happen again until 2019, which is a strange sort of non event.

That was your weeks sky ending on the 43rd anniversary of Star Trek first appearing on NBC.

Saturn Devouring His Son is the name given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It depicts the Greek myth of Cronus (in the title Romanised to Saturn), who, fearing that his children would overthrow him, ate each one upon their birth. It is one of the series of Black Paintings that Goya painted directly onto the walls of his house sometime between 1819 and 1823.