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.

Not A Lot

Not unexpectedly last week’s Persied meteor shower was obscured by clouds for its entire duration, I did have a look on Friday when the sky was crystal clear just in case there were any late comers, but not a flipping sausage, never mind there’s some more in October.

First up is the Draconids, on the 8th and ninth and then the Orionids, a major shower of shooting stars, on October 20-21.

You’ve probably guessed that there’s not a whole lot going on this week already, or why would I be bleating on about October.

Mercury and Saturn appear near each other in bright twilight just above the horizon due west. Use binoculars to look for them about 30 minutes after sunset. At the beginning of the week Saturn is above Mercury; later it's to Mercury's upper right, check the blog, but even with a clear night you’’ need binoculars.

Venus is in Gemini and blazes in the eastern sky before and during dawn, and is unmistakeable. It’s still about as bright as it was in February when it wasn’t keeping antisocial hours and was setting up to 3 hours after sunset in the west.

Mars still on the dim side but improving rises about an hour and a half before the sun, passing between the horn tips of Taurus is high to the upper right of Venus before dawn. To its own upper right is similar-looking Aldebaran. To its lower right is similarly coloured Betelgeuse, which is the bright star to the top left of Orion. So although Mars will have moved a little by October when Orion returns to the evening star, it will be easily found and at its closest to the earth for a long time.

Jupiter, in Capricorn was at opposition on August 14th. So now it’s with us for the whole night It comes into view low in the southeast early in twilight — the first "star" to appear after sunset. It's higher in better telescopic view by 11 or midnight. You can’t miss it it’s the extremely bright star that arcs across the southern sky throughout the night.

But even with out a blockbuster feature, we’ve still got all the usual stars, and the most spectacular sight at the moment is the Milky Way, it arcs across the sky from north east to the south west and is always worth a look with binoculars, even with poor binoculars you’ll see at least 10 times as many stars. And the Milky Way although it’s a run of the mill spiral galaxy, amongst billions of the things, it still has some pretty impressive statistics.

The stellar disk of the Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter, and is an average, about 1,000 thick. With between 200 billion 400 billion stars, and its just our look that out of all those stars its our Solar System that produces Britain’s got talent.

Persid Meteor Shower

Persid Meteor Shower

The Perseid meteors appear to stream away from their radiant near the border of Perseus and Cassiopeia. And while you're outside on a dark night, don't forget to look for the Double Cluster and the Andromeda Galaxy, two of the easiest "faint fuzzies" to spot with your unaided eye.

Dawn Sunday/Monday

Jupiter's impact scar is the small dark mark in the planet's South Polar Region (top). The black dot on the edge of the South Equatorial Belt is the shadow of Callisto. Note the Great Red Spot just about to rotate out of sight on the celestial west limb (left). Sky & Telescope's Sean Walker used a 14.5-inch reflector for this stacked-video image 8:45 UT July 23, 2009.

This week’s big issue is the Persied meteor shower. The little bits of interplanetary grit making up the Persied meteoroid stream orbit the Sun with a period of about 130 years, like their object of origin, Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The richest part of the stream is strung out near the comet itself, which last dipped through the inner solar system in 1992. So the shower's annual sky show has waned of late —the great Persied meteor displays of the early 1990s are gone.

This year's Persied peak was predicted to come around 18h Universal between 11pm and dawn last night. But there should be still a few around for a few days yet. After 10 pm look to the north east for the radiant, straight down a few degrees from the first star in the Cassiopeia W, an easy constellation to spot, a misshapen W. There’s a diagram on the blog.

The waning Moon is nearly at last quarter. It rises an hour or two after dark and will brighten the sky somewhat during the best Persied-activity hours, from 11 p.m. until dawn. Nevertheless, but this is a pretty reliable shower, and some Perseids should be there for the catching.

If you’re really serious about Meteor watching, I found some instructions on S and T.com. Find a spot with an open view of the sky, wrap up warmly in winter clothes, perhaps an anorak or a sleeping bag, and use mosquito repellent where you're not wrapped. Lie back in a lounge chair and watch whatever part of your sky is darkest. Be patient. You may see a meteor zipping into the upper atmosphere every few minutes on average.

On Friday, Jupiter is at opposition, big and bright. It's opposite the Sun in the sky: rising around sunset, shining highest in the middle of the night, and setting around sunrise. And I’ve put a nice picture of Jupiter’s new black spot up on the blog.

During Sunday’s dawn morning the thin waning crescent Moon hangs with Mars, when early risers can watch the waning crescent Moon pass Mars and then Venus in the dawn. there’s a guide on the blog.

You can still catch Venus blazing away in the dawn sky, with Mars nearby between the horns of Taurus, but bear in mind they’re only horns if you have a vivid imagination or know a horribly misshapen bull.

Green Flash

Remains the same much of the week, for both images.

Green Flash

Tonight we have a full moon, the last but one of this summer and we have a slight penumbral eclipse, which means only a very slight dimming probably, too slight for any shading to be detectable at all by eye. If you want to try and spot it, the mid point is at 1:40am. If you can’t see it never mind, Jupiter will be easily visible near the moon, for the next two or three days.

I haven’t checked the tides, the bus is strangely unaffected by them, but I imagine they should be pretty big this week, with Jupiter the moon and the sun lining up, though Jupiter being so far away will only add a couple of inches.

On Thursday, the Moon rises in the dusk with a menacing Jupiter just 4° to its right.
Mercury is having a poor apparition deep in the glow of sunset. Look for it very low in the west-northwest in bright twilight.


Venus in the feet of Gemini blazes in the eastern sky before and during dawn.
As recently happened with Jupiter, an amateur planetary imager has found a newly-appeared marking on Venus! Frank Melillo of Holtsville, New York, discovered that Venus had unexpectedly grown a "Great White Spot" in ultraviolet light when he imaged it on the morning of July 19th. The European Space Agency's Venus Express probe, currently orbiting Venus, has imaged the spot in detail.

Mars getting a little brighter now, in the horns of Taurus is well to the upper right of Venus before dawn. Not far to Mars's right or upper right is Aldebaran, a close match for it in both brightness and color. The two are 7° apart on August 1st, 10° apart by the 8th.
Jupiter very bright in Capricorn shines low in the east-southeast during twilight. It's higher the southeast by midnight.

Saturn (magnitude +1.1, in Leo) is getting very low in the west after sunset. Pretty well lost to us now, and the rings have about vanished. They turn edge-on to the Sun and go black on August 9–10.

Now I’m about to take all the romance out of the fabled green flash. The reason for a green flash lies in refraction of light in the atmosphere, light moves more slowly in the lower, denser air than in the thinner air above, so sunlight rays follow paths that curve slightly, in the same direction as the curvature of the Earth. Higher frequency light (green/blue) curves more than lower frequency light (red/orange), so green/blue rays from the upper limb of the setting sun remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the earth. I’ve put a lovely picture on the blog which I’d love to say I took, but I didn’t
Though if you firmly believe it’s an omen for the imminent end of the world you won’t believe a word of that will you.
That was your night sky for the week ending on Al Qaeda’s 21st birthday.