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New Moon:
Sept 3
Full Moon:
Sept 18
Club Indoor Meeting: Sept
1 (Thursday)
Club Stargaze: Sept
2 (Friday). The Sun sets at 7:54pm, astronomical twilight ends at 9:24pm and begins
at 5:33am the next morning. The Sun rises the next morning at 7:03am. Between
astronomical twilights, we get 7.6 hours of darkness.
Satellites on Sept 2: There are no Iridium Flares this evening.
(These
Iridium predictions are for Mt. Pisgah. Flares will be slightly different from
Asheville.)
The International Space Station (ISS) begins a magnitude 2.4 pass
at 9:07:10pm in the WNW on Sept 2nd. It heads towards the NNW, reaches only 14
degrees above the horizon, and disappears at 9:10:25.
See the "Heavens-Above"
web site at: "www.Heavens-Above.com".
MARS
It's apparent size will increase during the summer and fall, 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.
DEEP SKY OBJECTS (DSO's) (Not
the biggest or best, but interesting):
Edge-on Galaxies:
NGC 891: Mag 9.9, size is 9'x2' thru an 8" scope. It appears
large, so it seems dimmer than it's magnitude would indicate. A 12" scope
is needed to see it's dark lane. 16" scopes show much detail, such as the
"chinmeys" in the dark lane. This galaxy in inclined 88.2 degrees to
our line of site (1.8 degrees from edge-on). (Location: 02hr 23m RA
+42 deg 21' Dec, in Andromeda)
NGC676: Mag 9.6, size is about
3'x1' thru amateur scopes. A superimposed star from our galaxy makes this galaxy's
core deceptively bright. Individual stars can be seen thru 16" scopes. It's
location is relatively easy to find in a finder scope, after you find the bottom
of the deep "V" in Pisces. (Location: 01hr 49m RA +05
deg 54' Dec, in Pisces)
(Note:These 2 galaxies transit at about 2:00am
in Mid-September. This puts them highest in the sky just after many lights are
turned out for the night.)
HIGHLIGHTS
Sept
18: Harvest Moon. This is the full moon nearest the fall equinox.
The Moon is on the celestial equator at this time, and is progressing "up
" (westward on) that equator. This helps compensate for the Moon's eastward
movement against the stars, so the Moon rises only about 30 minutes later each
night, instead of it's usual 50 minutes. This is more pronounced the further north
you are, until eventually, at 62 degrees north, the Moon is actually rising earlier
each night.
Sept 22: The Fall equinox. the Sun crosses into the southern
celestial hemisphere.
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)
CLUB STARGAZE
You can check the AstroAsheville
Yahoo group [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
Indoor club meetings are usually the first Thursday of every
month, at 6 p.m. in the Sims
Group offices (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 is derived from Sky & Telescope magazine, Ottewell's
Astronomical Calendar, The Night Sky Observer's Guide, Burnam's Celestial Handbook,
Megastar 5.0, Planets202, Cartes du Ciel, the ol' Miller Planesphere, and a little
(very little) common sense.)