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