On Wednesday August 14th the inner planet Venus will have moved into superior conjunction – on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth. Venus will reappear on the east side of the Sun later next month and start becoming visible in the evening skies over the western horizon.
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.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
Sunday August 11th, over the southern horizon, the outer planet Jupiter will be about 6-7o from the reddish star Antares in Scorpius the Scorpion. A little further east, just above the handle of the teapot-shaped Sagittarius, is the outer planet Saturn and the 11-day old waxing gibbous Moon separated by about 1-2o.
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.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
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.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
On Friday August 9th Mercury, the innermost planet, will reach its orbital position known as greatest western elongation at 19.0o. At that moment Mercury, the Sun, and the Earth, would be arranged in something close to approximating a right angle as this graphic shows. Even though it sounds confusing at western elongation for either Mercury or Venus the inner planet will be to the right of the Sun as we view them, meaning that at western elongation an inner planet rises in the east before the Sun rises. And at eastern elongation with the inner planet on the left side of the Sun the inner planet follows the Sun across the sky setting after the Sun sets.
From our perspective the orbits of Mercury and Venus appear to move from one side of the Sun to the other – out to the left (east) from the Sun to eastern elongation, then reverse and move westward (inferior conjunction) between the Earth and the Sun to western elongation. From there the inner planet moves eastward going behind the Sun (superior conjunction) and eventually reappearing on the eastern side of the Sun for an eastern elongation. Repeat over and over – do not stop!
Mercury is visible in the morning skies about an hour before sunrise local time, as this graphic shows.
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.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
Over the next couple of evenings the waxing gibbous Moon will pass by two outer planets, Jupiter and Dwarf Planet Ceres. On the 8th the 8-day old waxing gibbous Moon will be about 2o from the Dwarf Planet Ceres, and on the 9th the 9-day old Moon will be about 2o from Jupiter.
Sunday July 21st the innermost planet Mercury reaches inferior conjunction. At inferior conjunction Mercury will move between the Earth and the Sun – much like the position of the Moon at new phase. The graphic to the right shows the planet positions relative to the Earth and Sun for both inner planets and outer planets.
At this inferior conjunction Mercury will not be directly in line with the Earth and the Sun – on the ecliptic. Mercury has an orbital inclination of 7o with respect to the ecliptic. So like our Moon, Mercury during each complete orbit, will cross the plane of the ecliptic moving north (ascending node) and also moving south (descending node). For this inferior conjunction Mercury will be south of the ecliptic, but angling north approaching its ascending node toward the middle of next month.
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.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
Tuesday July 16th the Moon will be crossing the plane of the ecliptic moving south. This is known as the descending node, one of two intersections the Moon’s orbital path (dark green line) has with the ecliptic.
On the day of the node crossing the full Moon will be passing through the Earth’s shadow giving the part of the world where the Moon will be visible a 65% partial lunar eclipse. This will be a penumbral lunar eclipse during which the Moon passes through the fainter outer Earth’s shadow, the penumbra. However the Moon will be passing deeply into the penumbral shadow giving viewers an relatively dark penumbral eclipse lasting more than 2 hours.
The full Moon rises shortly before midnight July 16th and is about 6-7o to the east from the ringed planet Saturn. The graphic shows how far the Moon has moved from the Earth’s shadow since the end of the Eclipse.
So where will the eclipse be visible? Not from the U.S. of A. The table below shows eclipse times in UT and a quick conversion to my time zone, U.S.A. Central Daylight Time (CDT=UT-5) shows the eclipse begins at 1:43 pm CDT, maximum is at 4:30 pm CDT, and eclipse ends at 7:17 pm CDT – all times are before the Moon rises for my time zone as well as the rest of North America.
Penumbral eclipse begins: 18:43:53 UT
Partial eclipse begins: 20:01:43 UT
Maximum eclipse: 21:30:43 UT
Partial eclipse ends: 22:59:39 UT
Penumbral eclipse ends: 00:17:36 on 17 Jul UT
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.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
Mid-evening Monday July 15th as the nearly full Moon rises it will be in a close conjunction with the outer ringed planet Saturn. The two will be separated by about 1-2o and both will easily fit within the field of view of binoculars, or a wide field 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.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
