New Moon:
July 6
Full Moon:
July 21
STAR GAZE (July 8):
Sun: Sets at 8:47pm, astronomical twilight ends at 10:39pm
and begins at 4:32am the next morning. The Sun rises the next morning at 6:22am.
Between astronomical twilights, we get only 5.9 hours of darkness.
Moon: (illuminated
6%) The Moon sets at 10:39pm on the night of the gaze.
Mercury: Reaches greatest elongation from the Sun today. This is a good time to find it. Look in the evening sky, about 2 degrees below & to the left of brighter Venus.
Venus: 18 degrees above the western horizon at sunset at magnitude -3.9. It's almost fully illuminated (89%), so there is no pretty crescent shape to observe.
Mars:
Rises at 1:20am at magnitude -0.2, but it's diameter is only 9.8 arc seconds.
It's apparent size will increase during the summer, reaching 20.2 arc seconds
in late October. At this time Mars will be the closest it will be for the next
13 years. It will be much higher in the sky than it was during it's 2003 approach,
so will appear smaller but sharper in telescopes.
Jupiter & it's moons:
Jupiter is 44 degrees above the horizon at sunset, heading down towards the western
horizon. It appears quite large, at 36 arc seconds. No Jovian moon events (eclipses,
transits, etc.) are visible tonight.
Saturn: Saturn is very close to the western horizon at sunset, actually below and to the right of Venus & Mercury. It will be difficult to find and will be too low in the sky to see any detail.
Asteroids: Ceres culminates at 9:09pm. You can see it in binoculars as a faint star-like object at magnitude 8.2 in the constellation Libra. (Location at midnight:14hr 43.3m R.A. -11 deg 12.15m Dec. See the chart on page 56 of the May Sky & Telescope.)
Comets: Temple-1 & "Deep Impact", see "Highlights" below.
Satellites:
Mag -7 Iridium Flare at 11:50:45pm Friday
night: In the East at 72 degrees altitude.
Mag -1 Iridium Flare at 04:31:08am
Saturday morning: In the ESE at 27 degrees altitude.
(If the gaze is postponed
one night :On Saturday night & Sunday morning there are 3 flares.)
These
predictions are for Mt. Pisgah. Flares will be slightly different from Asheville.
See the "Heavens-Above" web site: www.heavens-above.com.)
DEEP SKY OBJECTS (DSO's)
(Not the biggest or brightest, but interesting):
M24, NGC6603,
B92, B93: The Earth is located on the inner edge of the Orion-Cygnus Arm
of the galaxy. When we look towards Sagittarius, we are looking across a void
at the Sagittarius-Carina Arm (6,000 light years (ly) away) and towards the center
of the galaxy, which is 27,000 ly away. Our view to the galactic center is blocked
by dust, but we can see through a gap in the Sagittarius-Carina Arm to the Norma
Spiral Arm 14,000 ly away. In this gap appears the star cloud M24 and its several
associated objects. M24 is 530 ly long and is easily visible to the naked eye.
M24 itself appears very large (95'x35', 3 times the size of the full
moon) and is best viewed through a rich-field telescope. Keep in mind that what
you are seeing is twice as far away as the Swan Nebula (M17) to the NNE and the
Triffid Nebula (M20) to the SW.
NGC6603: A small
(5') but dense open cluster of faint stars, easily seen in scopes 8" or larger.
True size 20 ly. (Location: 18hr 18.4m RA -18 deg 25' Dec, in Sagittarius).
B92, B93: Dark clouds of dust that obscure the stars beyond. B92 is
one of the most easily seen dark nebulae, about 15'x10' in apparent size.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Deep Impact: NASA's Deep Impact probe is scheduled
to smash into Comet Temple-1 at 2:00am on the morning of July 4. Expectant amateur
astronomers all over the world over are waiting to see if they will be able to
detect a brightening of the comet due to the ejected debris. Astronomers in Asheville
will not be able to see the comet at the time of impact, but that may not matter
because it will take a while for the ejecta cloud to become large enough to cause
any brightening. The east coast of North America will get it's first chance to
see any brightening the next evening, on July 5, but it would be best to observe
the comet on the nights before the impact to get an idea of its normal brightness.
The comet will be east of Spica & 8 degrees northeast of Jupiter. For the
comet's exact location, see page 68 of the June Sky & Telescope.
Earth
is at aphelion (farthest from the sun): July 5th.
Pegasid
meteor shower: July 9th. Great time to view this short meteor shower,
with only ZHR=3! These meteors are quite faint, but very fast: 70 km/sec. They
seem to originate from Pegasus' neck.
35th
anniversary of the 1st manned landing on the moon: July 20th.
Delta
Aquarid (south) meteor shower: July 28th. It's a good time to see these
meteors, and there's more of them than the Pegasids: ZHR=20. These also tend to
be faint and travel about half as fast as the Pegasid meteors, at 41 km/sec.
Alpha Capricornid meteor shower: July 30. These meteors tend to
be slow (23 km/sec), but are bright, with an occasional fireball. The moon interferes
a bit this year.
TERMS:
AFOV=apparent field of view / dec=declination
/ EP=eye piece / FOV=field of view / ISS=International Space Station / HST=Hubble
Space Telescope / ly=light year / mag=magnitude / ra=right ascension /
culminates=transits the meridian=when an object as at its highest point in the
sky / transit=passing in front of another object / ZHR=zenithal hourly rate (basically,
the most meteors 1 person could see in 1 hour under ideal conditions)
You can check the AstroAsheville Yahoo
group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroAsheville/) or call Tim @ 251-0040 or John @ 251-1933
(before 5:00) or 667-9268 (after 5:00) for a go/no-go decision and to verify
location.
CLUB MEETING:
The club meeting is the first Thursday of every month, at
6 p.m. at Sim’s
Group located at 230 Short Coxe Ave., Asheville, NC.
Happy Starwatching! Dress Warm!
Blue Ridge Parkway Information
Line is 828-298-0398
(Much of the above info derived from Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines,
Ottewell's Astronomical Calendar, The Night Sky Observer's Guide, Megastar 5.0,
Planets202, the ol' Miller Planesphere, and a little (very little) common sense.)
www.AstroAsheville.org