Tag Archives: open star cluster

Waning Crescent Moon in Close Conjunction with Aldebaran

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   Tuesday July 10th in the hour or so before sunrise local time the very thin 26.5-day old waning crescent Moon will be within about 1o (width of 2 full Moons) from the reddish star Aldebaran in the open star cluster the Hyades. The Hyades are a v-shaped group of stars marking the face of Taurus the Bull. Reddish-colored Aldebaran represents an angry eye of the Bull.
   This conjunction is close enough so that a combination of a thin waning crescent Moon and the bright Aldebaran should make for a take a look with binoculars or the ‘naked-eye’.

   For those keeping track of Jupiter should be relieved to read that Jupiter’s retrograde motion has ended, and at least for the foreseeable future Jupiter has agreed to stick with the ‘program’ and resume it’s direct motion – eastward.

   
   
   

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.


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Mercury and the Bees

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   Late Wednesday evening July 4th the innermost planet Mercury will be within 0.5-1o from the open star cluster M-44, or more commonly known as the Beehive Cluster in Cancer the Crab. Both will be only 10-15o from the horizon and cold be a challenge to see. With binoculars the planet and star cluster should look good.

   
   
   

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.


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Venus May Get Stung!

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   Over the next few evenings, June 19th and 20th the inner planet Venus, as it orbits toward the east, will pass within about 0.5-1o from the open star cluster known as M-44, or the Beehive Cluster. Venus shines brightly with an apparent magnitude of -4.0 compared to the combined apparent magnitude of 3.7 for M-44. Further to the east is the first quarter Moon, but it should be far enough away so that its reflected light will not interfere too much with seeing the open star cluster.


   This should make for a great sight through binoculars or a wide-field view telescope eyepiece.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.


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Venus and Moon Are In Conjunctions

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   Monday evening May 21st the first quarter Moon and the inner planet Venus will each be in their own respective conjunctions. Venus is within 1o from the open star cluster, M-35, located near the foot of Castor, one of the Gemini Twins. Venus currently shines with an apparent magnitude of -3.96, and at that brightness will outshine the 5th magnitude of M-35.

    Nonetheless the two should be visible with binoculars, as this graphic simulates, as well as a couple of 3rd magnitude stars nearby.


   Further toward the east, and unmistakable is the first quarter Moon. During the night hours the Moon, as it orbits eastward, will pass within about 1.5o from the star Regulus in Leo the Lion. Since Regulus is very close to the ecliptic there is a good chance that the Moon and Regulus will have a regular repetitive pattern or cycle of conjunctions. As in the months that Regulus is above the horizon, which include the next two months, June 18th and July 15th.

   
   
   

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.

Venus Near Two Open Star Clusters

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   Tuesday evening May 1st the inner planet Venus will be between 2-3o from the open star cluster the Hyades, and about 9o from the open star cluster the Pleiades. Both of these open star clusters make up the shoulder and face of Taurus the Bull.

   Venus is close enough to the Hyades and the reddish star Aldebaran so that all will fit within the field of view of 7×50 binoculars.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.

Sun Enters Astronomical Sign of Aries

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April 19th   Thursday April 19th the Sun in its apparent eastward motion along the ecliptic, moves out of the constellation Pisces the Fishes and into the constellation of Aries the Ram. This is the true or actual position of the Sun as opposed to the pseudoscience of astrology which usually has the astrological Sun one constellation ahead or east from the Astronomical Sun’s position.
   Read a little more about how astrology has the Sun incorrectly placed in a previous blog, and in another blog discussing the effects of precession.
   
   
   


Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.

Lunar Eclipse – January 31 2018

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Here are two pictures from the rising Moon last evening.

   
   And this morning got a late start out the door – made a mistake and let the dogs out in front (north side) while I looked to see where the Moon was. Then chased the ‘guys’ for a while until they peed and sniffed enough and got them back inside.
Drove out east to our community park for a better horizon. Had planned on using 3 cameras but then applied the KISS or Occam’s Razor logic and set up one camera. In reality I had about 30 minutes prior to totality and only a couple of minutes as you see in the video near totality. The clouds were too thick near the horizon.
   This is a sequence taken at 300mm with several exposure times, f-stop and ISO changes along the way.

   
   
   

Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.