New Moon:
Nov 9
Full Moon:
Nov 24
DEEP SKY OBJECTS (DSO's) (Not
the biggest or best, but interesting) :
Open Clusters:
NGC 7789: Mag 6.7, 16' in size. Said to be visible under dark
skies with just the naked eye as a very faint patch of light. Thru a scope,
the many faint background stars glow behind the brighter resolved foreground
stars. 5,900 light years away & 2 billion years old (that's old for an Open
Cluster). Located halfway between Rho and Sigma Cassiopeiae, it makes a right
angle with Alpha and Beta. So it's EASY TO FIND. (Location: 23hr 57m RA
+56 deg 44' Dec, in Cassiopeia)
NGC 6791: Mag 9.5, 15' in size. One of the oldest Open Clusters, 9 billion years old . Most Open Clusters last no more than 200 million years. It is about the age of the youngest Globular clusters. Most member stars are rather faint at 11-13 magnitude. (Location: 19hr 21m RA +37 deg 51' Dec, in Lyra)
Stephenson 1: Mag 3.8, 20'. A nearby Open Cluster, 800 light
years away. Use low power and wide field. Located at one corner of the Lyra
trapezoid (Delta-1 & Delta-2 are actually members of the cluster!), so it's
EASY TO FIND. (Location: 18hr 54m RA +36 deg 55' Dec, in Lyra)
Globular Cluster:
M71: Mag 8.1, 7.2' in size. One of the youngest Globular Clusters. Is
it is or is it ain't a globular? The final word is that M71 is a relatively
nearby, small, young Globular Cluster, and not a distant open cluster. It's
12,000 light year distance puts it, according to William Harris, closer than
all but 6 of some 150 globulars (remember it is ~27,000 light years to the center
of the galaxy.)
M71 has the luminosity of 13,000 suns. (For comparison, M13, the Great Hercules Cluster, has the luminosity of ~250,000 suns, is 21,000 light years away, and is much more impressive to our eyes here on Earth.) Very young for a globular at 9 billion years, M71 is about the same age as the oldest Open Cluster (see NGC6791 above). Located halfway between Gamma and Delta Sagittae (the shaft stars of the arrow). So it's EASY TO FIND. (Location: 19hr 54m RA +18 deg 47' Dec, in Sagitta)
Carbon Star:
T Lyrae: Mag 8-10. Very, very red. Carbon in the star's atmosphere filters
the light so that mostly only red escapes. The larger the scope, the redder
it appears (You hear that, Butch? hint, hint) because the rod receptors in our
eyes are not sensitive to red light. It almost forms an isosceles triangle with
Vega and Zeta Lyrae (the trapezoid star next to Vega), and is about 1.5 degree
SSW of Vega. So it's EASY TO FIND. (Location: 18hr 32m RA
+37 deg 00' Dec, in Lyra)
Double Stars:
An in-depth Double
Star article, centered around Pegasus.
(Note: Catch NGC 6791 and T Lyra first, as they are in the west and will set
quickly.)
HIGHLIGHTS:
Two Minor Meteor Showers:
Nov 5: Taurid South, active Oct 1 to Nov 25, maximun on Nov 5, ZHR=5.
Nov 12: Taurid North, active Oct 1 to Nov 25, maximum on Nov 12, ZHR=5.
The radiant (near the Pleiades) is above the horizon all night. The meteors
in these two showers are small bits of comet 2P Encke entering Earth's atmosphere.
They tend to be quite slow (27 km/sec) because the comet and it's associated
"debris" are catching up with Earth.
Nov 17: Leonid Meteor shower, active Nov 14-21, peaking on Sunday Nov 18. The ZHR for North America is expected to be only average this year, possibly around 15 per hour. These meteors tend to be very fast (70 km/sec) because this "debris" in comet 55P/Temple-Tuttle's dust trail is having a "head-on" collision with Earth. The waxing gibous moon sets about the same time the Leonid radiant rises, so viewing should be good and dark. See this web site: IMO
MONTHLY STAR GAZE (November
9):
Sun: Sets at 5:27pm, astronomical twilight ends at 7:58pm
and begins at 6:31am the next morning. The Sun rises the next morning at 7:00am.
Between astronomical twilights, we get 10.5 hours of glorious darkness.
Moon: (illuminated 0%) The Moon sets at 4:59pm on the night of the gaze
and rises at 7:47am the next morning.
Mercury: A good time to find it in the morning sky, it is 18 . It reached greatest elongation from the Sun the day before.
Venus: Very bright in the morning sky! Was at greatest elongation from the sun on October 28. On the morning of the gaze it is 37 degrees above the eastern horizon at sunrise, it's 57%-illuminated crescent is 21" in diameter, and is a very bright magnitude -4.3. By the end of the month but it will have shrunk slightly to a 66%-illuminated, 18" diameter crescent!
Mars: Rises at 8:54pm at magnitude -0.8; it's diameter
has grown to 13.0", and surface features will be visible later in the night.
It will reach almost 16" in diameter in late December, when it will be
closer than until 2016. It is much higher in the sky than it was during it's
2003 approach, so appears smaller but sharper in telescopes.
("Looking
is not observing. So many look but few observe."
This quote of Richard
Baum applies more to planets than to any other astonomical object. It takes
time and patience to see much detail on planets!).
Jupiter & it's moons: Very low in the south west
when the sun sets. There are no Jovian events tonight.
Saturn: Saturn rises at 1:23am and will be high enough to view later in the morning, before twilight.
Uranus: Was at opposition on September 10, so it's a good time to find it. See a finder chart on page 60 of the July issue of S&T. At 3.6" in diameter, it appears about 1/4 the size of Mars. High magnification will show a slightly blue, round "ball" shape.
Neptune: Was at opposition on August 13, so it's setting earlier than Uranus. Use the same S&T finder charts as mentioned above. Even though Neptune is just past opposition, it appears only 2.2" in diameter. Even with high magnification it may appear only as a "fuzzy" star. Find Uranus and Neptune soon after sunset, before they get too low.
Asteroid Vesta: Earlier this summer Vesta, at magnitude 5.4, was the brightest it had been in 18 years. Next year Vesta will get only as bright as mag 6.4. On the night of the Novmeber star gaze Vesta is the second-brightest asteroid, easily visible in 7x50 binoculars. It is now found in Sagittarius and sets at 8:48pm. Vesta is not the biggest asteroid, but it is the brightest. This is because it reflects much more of it's light than do most other asteroids.
Asteroid (Dwarf Planet) Ceres: Ceres is at opposition tonight, and also is the brightest asteroid at this time, at magnitude 7.2. It transits at 12:25am, so you'll have all night to find it. It's located in the extreme north corner of the constellation Cetus, near the western hoof of Taurus. Ceres is the largest "asteroid" and has enough mass to have formed into a spherical shape. For this reason it is the only "asteroid" that is now called a "dwarf planet".
Satellites: You can check for satellite passes by going to
"www.heavens-above.com"
and logging-on as registered user "Astro Asheville" with password
"12345". There are several observing site to choose from. Choosing
the correct site is important only for seeing the Iridium flares.
There are two iridium
flares on the night of the gaze, one at 6:09pm (mag -1) and the other at 6:11pm
(mag -4). Both are about 60 degrees altitude. The first is towards the north
east and the second is towards the north north east. There is no ISS flyover
that night.
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)
Note: Links to other web pages are in color. Please go to the web page version of this page to follow those links.
You can check the AstroAsheville Yahoo
group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroAsheville/) or call Tim @ 251-0040 or John @ 251-2025
x208 (before 5:00) or 667-9268 (after 5:00) for a go/no-go decision and to verify
location.
CLUB MEETING:
The indoor 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
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(Much of the above info derived from Sky & Telescope magazine, 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