The Night Comes Down

Not much to report this week except that everything has shunted forward an hour. And on that subject something occurred to me this week, whilst bickering with George in the Atlantic. George is pretty evangelical about British Summer Time, he loathes it with an unnatural passion, whereas I’m all for 2 hours in the summer and one in the winter. And by the way Giles, if you’re listening George still has your hammer. But I digress, this is what occurred to me, the hour goes back 5-6 weeks after the autumn equinox, which you may have noticed, but goes forward on the last Sunday in March, a week or so after the vernal equinox. Surely to maintain equilibrium it should go forward 5-6 weeks before March 21st, the first Sunday in February, which would be a real shot in the arm in that most dismal of months. And if you’re a Scottish farmer and don’t like the idea, well do something else. Well that’s what I think, and if you disagree then your wrong.

Anyway the upshot is everything is now up a little earlier. Orion is now clearly visible in the just south of east before 11:30, followed soon after by Mars further to the north. And speaking of Orion did anybody see any of the Orionids, which is by the way a rhetorical question, in that I’m not expecting a reply. I looked on one of the few clear nights we had last week, but sadly not a sausage.

The outlook for this week is about as exciting as Island Parish, the planets are much the same as last week, as you’ve no doubt come to expect.

Mercury has become lost in the glow of sunrise.

Venus is also getting lower in the east at dawn, but much more slowly; it's still moderately well up. It’s so bright that it's easy to spot if you look low in the east 60 to 30 minutes before sunrise time, it rises around 6.

Mars rises around midnight and is very high in the south before dawn. It's below Gemini's head stars, Pollux and Castor. If you’re a fanatic then why not use binoculars to watch Mars closing in on the Beehive Star Cluster; it will cross the cluster from the mornings of October 31st to November 2nd.

Jupiter shines brightly in the south after dark and lower in the southwest later in the night. It sets around 1 a.m. And I have a 6 inch reflector available now if anyone would like to come up and take a look. Give me a ring or plague Keri with emails if you’re interested.
Saturn, not overly bright is lying in the head of Virgo and is getting higher the east-southeast during early dawn. Look for it to the upper right of low Venus.
As usual there’s a little more information on the blog, and the local star map if you need a little help.
And that was your night’s sky for the week ending on the 52nd anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika, who achieved fame at no small personnel cost.

Orionides

Bolides

Better Later Than Never

A Bolide

Because Chris is to idle to put Scilly Stars up in the listen again section of the web page I may as well use a piece of music in the background that’s in copyright, and this week it’s the Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny.

Anyway off we go, if you remember last week I told you that we have The Orionids meteor shower this months which is expected to reach peak activity this year on the 21st, 2009. This meteor shower comes from Halley's Comet, since like most comets; it leaves a dusty trail as it orbits the sun. The particles in this trail eventually become meteors as they burn up in our atmosphere.


The Orionids have been producing rather bright meteors in the recent past, so it should be a good show. The shower reached a maximum of only 20-30 meteors per hour last year, but is still a worthwhile observing event! This is because the Orionids typically are very colourful meteors, sometimes being yellow or green and sometimes even producing fireballs called bolides. Also, this year's shower will be perfectly timed with a very thin crescent Moon, so the views of the meteors won't be impeded by moonlight!

As usual, the best time to observe this meteor shower is during the early morning hours, around 2-5 AM. This is because as the Earth rotates into the sunlight, we are moving into the meteor field. This increases the number of meteors entering our atmosphere over any given location. If you rather not stay up until 2, start watching for the meteors at local dusk, and they'll really start to pick up towards 11 PM or midnight. The Orionids have a very broad peak, so any night during the week of October 18th to October 24th will do. Last weeks blog shows you where to look in Orion which is just peeping over the Eastern horizon by 11pm.

And again for early risers its still all happening in the East, Venus and Saturn are almost on top of each other in the predawn sky this week. Venus will be very bright and unmissable in a clear sky just above the horizon, shadowed by a much dimmer Saturn with Mercury following shortly behind. And on Friday they’re joined by the sliver of a very old moon. As usual there’s a guide on the blog.

If like all right minded people your asleep at sun up, there’s still Jupiter now almost due south when it first appears at about 7pm. I got hold of a 6 inch scope last week and had a look it. Because Jupiter is so low this time round the best views were at a low magnification but it was still a very clear little disc, with striping if you used your imagination, and the 4 Galilean moons were very clear. It looked very lovely in deed and its quite sobering looking at it when you think it’s a half a billion miles away. Anyway if anyone would like come and have a look give me a shout. It won’t take long, aside from the three quarters of an hour required to line the scope up.

And we mustn’t forget Mars which is still fairly dim but getting brighter, the red planet rises in the S East at midnight and will be well up in the eastern sky by 3.

That was your night sky on the 28th anniversary of the collapse of The Nepalese Stock Exchange.

The moon against the Pleiades on the 7th.

Dawn on the 10th.

The Orionids around the 21st.

It’s the first Wednesday in October so here we have some highlights, and there are some this month.

Tonight In the early evening an 85% illuminated waning gibbous will be seen to pass below the Pleiades Cluster, low in the east-north eastern sky, and easy to spot for once.

On Friday morning, the three planets, Venus, Saturn ad Mercury lie close together in the early morning sky. By the 16th, they have separated somewhat bur are joined by the waning crescent Moon. If clear, this should make a wonderful skyscape, but alas to early for me, but perfect for Keri who’ll be skipping to week with a twinkle in his eye as they rise above the eastern dawn horizon.

In October we have another big meteor show, for the clouds to obscure like they did in August. It is worth looking out for them for a week around the 21st as the shower is long lived. They will best be seen in the hours before dawn when Orion is high in the southern sky. But more about that next week.

Jupiter, now lying in Capricorn, will dominate the southern sky all night, in the south east at twilight and setting about 1.

Saturn reappeared in the pre-dawn sky last week and will be best seen at months end when, at magnitude +1.1, it will rise at about 4am, three hours before the Sun.
Mercury reaches western elongation (when it was at its greatest angular distance from the Sun) before dawn yesterday. It was Mercury's most favorable dawn apparition this year but it’s good for a while yet, so as the Sun rises, Mercury will be 15 degrees above the horizon - in company with Venus and Saturn. See the blog.

Mars is becoming more prominent in the morning sky rising by half 11 in the middle of the month. It starts the month in Gemini but moves into Cancer on the 12th October. It will be due south, so highest in the sky at 06:30 am in mid month. We will have to wait a month or so until it will be seen more easily as the nights get longer and it rises earlier. The Earth will, soon be overtaking Mars "on the inside track" so we will come closer to it and its angular size will increase so allowing more features on the surface to be seen.

Venus is now drawing closer to the Sun and can be seen low in the east rising a couple of hours before sunrise. It will be close to the thin crescent Moon on the 16th October. It is now on the far side of the Sun from us so it’s getting pretty small. An interesting fact about its brightness is that it stays pretty constant for most of the time even though the apparent phase changes greatly. When the phase is thin, Venus is nearer to us, when near full much further away so it’s angular size is far less. As a result, the effective reflecting area of Venus as seen from Earth remains pretty constant.

And if the family silver gone AWOL don’t be to harsh on Barbara, it seems she’s a post modernist Robin Hood, and all her ill gotten gains go to a worthy cause, a home for bewildered cat burglars in Manly Gusset Staffordshire, and she’s patron as well.

And that’s was your night’s sky for the week ending on 97th anniversary of the opening of the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

Pointlessly World Wide

I got this from Statcounter, it shows the global distribution of hits the blog got over the last week. Odd really because it only really works for Western Europe. And sadly no South Korea this week.