The Royal Sky

Every Fall, the royalty of the sky rises in the north-east and showcases a very fine part of the sky that includes the outer reaches of the band of the Milky Way, a galactic treasure, and a few easy-to-spot patterns that are easily visible in the night sky.

The Royal Sky

The trio includes Cepheus (the King), Cassiopeia (the Queen), and Andromeda (the Princess). In the early evenings this time of year, they are in a line from nearly due North toward due East, and the middle of these three constellations is quite bright and easy to locate in the sky. Over the course of the evening, they gradually shift position, spiraling out from the north circumpolar region of the sky toward the zenith, following closely the Great Square of Pegasus (of which Andromeda shares a corner star, Alpheratz).

I enjoy looking at this region through binoculars, with the outer reaches of the Milky Way visible in and around Cassiopeia, and of course the treasure of this part of the sky, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).  Take some time to enjoy this royal corner of the night sky, brimming with discoveries small and large. 

Image courtesy of Sky Safari.

Comet C/2012 S1 - Comet ISON Approaches

Comet C/2012 S1

Comets are beautiful and engaging to watch, gracefully floating across the night sky, arriving unexpected and sometimes surprising us with an extraordinary show. Some comets are regular visitors to Earth ("short period comets" such as Halley's Comet) and are very predictable, but others arrive from the vast reaches of the outer Solar System (the Oort Cloud) and make only one pass through our neighborhood, never to be seen again. Comet C/2012 S1, better known as Comet ISON, is of the latter category, packing enough ice and mass to become 'the comet of the century' when it has a rendezvous with the Sun in late November. Predictions of spectacular comets sometimes miss (anyone remember Comet Kohoutek?) so we always try to plan for comets with lowered expectations and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Finding Comet ISON

Comet ISON passed near Mars a few weeks ago and is on a near-collision course with the Sun. A comet with a close encounter like this is called a Sungrazing Comet -- Comet ISON will pass within a solar diameter of the Sun, so close that it might not survive the trip back out of the Solar System. If it does, however, it is expected to have a beautiful tail and could be quite a spectacle. We have to watch and see.

This coming week provides an opportunity to spot Comet ISON as it appears in the morning sky, when it will be in close alignment with Mars and the bright star Regulus. Look to the east before sunrise (around 5:00 or 6:00 am) and use some kind of optical aid such as binoculars, and you'll have a nice view of the comet. I'll be out each morning to take a look, and will update the blog with news.

Images courtesy of NASA/Hubble, and EarthSky.org.

Update October 15: have tried two mornings in a row to spot ISON with binoculars from San Francisco, but have not yet found it. Either it is quite tiny, too faint, the skies here are too light polluted, or all of the above. Will continue to try the remainder of this week.

Bright Stars and Planets in the Morning

Fantastic Morning Sky

I get up early, and I am quite aware of the fact that as autumn begins, the mornings are darker and darker. Here in the west side of San Francisco, autumn is when our clear skies return (following the summer fog) and the sky starts to come alive. My early start of the day means that I get to see the fabulous winter skies and the brilliant planet Jupiter when I step outside to get the newspaper. The southeasterly view just before dawn is riveting, with Jupiter dominating
the sky to the east, and the stunning constellation Orion, and the brightest star in the sky Sirius, to the south.

Later this week, the waning gibbous Moon glides high across the sky, passing near Jupiter on the 28th. As the sunrise moves a few minutes later each morning, the sky becomes more accessible and if you can spare a minute of your morning routine, you'll like what you see.

Image courtesy of Sky & Telescope.

Venus and the Crescent Moon Pair Up

Moon and Venus pair up

Sunday September 8th will be a good day to go to the beach (or anywhere with a good western horizon) to see a great alignment of brilliant Venus and a young thin crescent Moon hovering above the horizon minutes after sunset. The two will be a beautiful pair for the hour after sunset (7:30 pm here in San Francisco) and as the sky darkens in the minutes after sunset, Earthshine on the Moon should be outstanding. The skies in the San Franisco Bay Area are at their best of the year, clear and calm. Can't wait to look at this!

EarthSky recommends that you use the Moon to help you find Venus during the daytime. Yes, you can see the brightest celestial objects in the middle of a sunny day if you know where to look. I think it's quite cool to spot the shiny dot of Venus hanging in the bright blue sky. It's a real challenge to find, but worth the search. Best of luck with that, and if you don't find Venus in the day, you'll certainly find it after sunset.

A Sea of Deep Space Objects

The Galactic Center

The waning days of Summer are an excellent time to enjoy a view into the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. We observe our own galaxy all around us in the night sky, and if you are in a reasonably dark location, you can see the band of stars that are the spiral arms of our own galaxy stretch across the sky. At this time of year, as the sky darkens after sunset, the Milky Way stretches high overhead, touching the southern horizon at the constellation Sagittarius. In fact, when you look due south toward that very constellation, you are looking toward the center of the galaxy. Not surprisingly, you also can see a lot of beautiful deep space objects, and with a pair of binoculars you can see many interesting objects, from clusters of stars to nebulae. The diagram gives you an idea of the richness of this part of the sky and galaxy, and even in city lights you will still be able to spot many of these objects. A telescope is fine to use as well, but I find that binoculars give you a big picture and are quite good for seeing the colors and breadth of many of the big nebulae in and around Sagittarius. 

Six months from now, as the Earth swings around the Sun and our view of the night sky has shifted, we'll be pointing the opposite direction toward the 'antipode' of the Milky Way Galaxy, a much less interesting part of the sky (but still cosmically significant). So enjoy Sagittarius and the center of the galaxy while you can.

The SETI and Europa Report

I don't post movie reviews on my blog, but I will talk a bit about a very interesting science fiction movie I enjoyed recently. The movie is called Europa Report, and it is a fact-based sci-fi, something that I quite enjoy because it employs very solid science and technology in its depiction of the future. In this case, the story is of a search for extraterrestrial life, a trip to the Jovian moon Europa in hopes of finding the first sign of life outside of Earth.

Europa Report poster

I find the search for extraterrestrial life and SETI (extraterrestrial intelligence) to be an excellent scientific endeavor, and the latest discoveries of exoplanets on the Kepler Mission, and the ongoing search being conducted by the SETI Institute at the Allen Array in Northern California, along with advanced astrobiology research going on at SETI in Mountain View, all are part of the grand search that captivates so many -- the ongoing pursuit of an answer to the question "are we alone in the universe?" I am happy that we live in a world where some of our tax dollars and donations support these scientific endeavors

The movie Europa Report, like Contact and Deep Impact, are portrayals of unusual or theoretical situations that attempt to remain scientifically grounded. I once heard astronomer and blogger Phil Plait give a fairly in depth assessment of Deep Impact, and although it has some flaws, it is mostly on the mark and an exciting movie for the subject at hand, a comet impacting the Earth. Europa Report follows the story of six astronauts on the long journey to one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, because it contains a large ocean of water under a layer of ice, and could harbor life. Without spoiling the movie ending, I'll simply say that the drama and excitement (and danger) of this kind of journey are well captured in this movie, and if you want an entertaining and riveting evening out, go see the movie. If you'd like a proper movie review, here are some good ones: Space.com is good, as is Roger Ebert's review and the review on io9.

KALW Broadcast - August 8, 2013

I provide a fairly in-depth outline of the Perseids and how to see them during this interview with Ben Trefny of KALW's Crosscurrents program. Click here to listen.

KFOG Broadcast - August 8, 2013

Today's discussion with Greg Gory and the Morning Show team at KFOG includes the Perseids, the International Space Station, Star Parties and Saturn. Listen here.