The Spring Nighttime Sky Beckons

Spring Sky Highlights

Spring arrives on Monday March 20th and with it the ever-changing night sky with all it has to offer. The upcoming three months offer many celestial wonders, from Moon + Planet pairings to Meteor Showers to the arrival of Leo and Virgo high overhead as Orion and the winter beacons gradually fade into the western sky. Mercury makes a strong showing in April while Venus fades out of the evening and emerges in the morning sky.

The Infograph from Universe2Go showcases these highlights quite nicely. Look ahead for opportunities to get out under the night sky in the coming months and savor all that the universe has to show you.

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of February 10, 2017

Penumbral Eclipse

Friday evening the Moon will have a close encounter with the Earth's shadow 240,000 miles out in space. As the Moon reaches its full phase just after sunset (from the west coast), it will darken somewhat as it passes through the light outer shadow of the Earth. This shadow is called the 'Penumbra' and is not as dark as the central 'Umbral' shadow so this won't be a blood Moon or anything even close to that. But for the careful observer it will be an interesting sight as the Moon rises in mid-eclipse and displays a darkening on its upper limb as it enters the Earth's penumbral shadow. The Moon rises at 5:45 pm for viewers in San Francisco and will already be well along in the eclipse for viewers in the eastern USA and Europe.

This eclipse marks the start of an 'Eclipse Season' in which we will experience one Lunar Eclipse (in this case a Penumbral Eclipse) and two weeks later a Solar Eclipse (in this case an Annular Eclipse visible only in the southern hemisphere). Eclipses come in waves approximately every six months and this particular Eclipse Season is the last one before the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 across the United States.

Sky & Telescope has an excellent online article detailing the February 10th Penumbral Eclipse in much more detail.

Image courtesy Sky & Telescope.

Solar Eclipses and the Saros Cycle

Moon's Ascending and Descending Nodes

Eclipses are the outcome of a chance series of alignments between three bodies: the Sun, Moon and Earth. Orbital mechanics and the laws of Kepler ensure that these bodies circle each other in a beautiful series of harmonious ellipses, near perfect circles each with their own periodicity and in the case of the Moon, with its own orbital inclination. The interplay between the various cycles of the Moon orbiting the Earth, the Earth orbiting the Sun, and the Moon’s gradually changing orbital inclination lead to patterns that repeat over short, medium and long periods of time as these three bodies align.

Eclipses of Saros 145

One of the overall epicycles of these orbits is called the Saros Cycle. At any given time there are many Saros Cycles occurring coincidentally and the Great Eclipse on August 21^st is a member of Saros 145. What does this mean? A Saros is an 18 year cycle in which three of the Moon-Earth cycles repeat nearly perfectly, the end effect of which is to create a near duplicate eclipse in this long period of time. The eclipse across Europe in August 1999 was a member of Saros 145, the most recent one of that Saros series until this coming August. In the intervening 6585 days there have been many other lunar and solar eclipses, but none with the exact geometry and timing that we saw in August 1999. So if you get a chance to see the eclipse in August 2017, know that it is virtually identical to the one experienced by observers in Europe 18 years ago. I was in Hungary for the 1999 eclipse and look forward to seeing the Great American Eclipse this summer, a chance to see an old friend again, a pleasant 2 minutes and 40 seconds where I am aligned with the Sun, Moon and Earth but not only just aligned, but in the specific geometrical arrangement that I witnessed 18 years prior. 

For a somewhat deeper look into the Saros Cycle, here are the basic three motions. (1) The Moon’s orbit around the Earth combined with the Earth’s orbit around the Sun leads to the well-known phases of the Moon that repeat every 29.5 days, the time from New Moon to New Moon, and we call that the Synodic Month. (2) At the same time, the Moon’s elliptical orbit around the Earth means we have a close approach and a more distant approach every month and the time between two successive closest approaches (Perigee) is 27.55 days, a time period that is called the Anomalistic (Perigee) Month. (3) Finally the Moon orbits the Earth on a slightly inclined orbit so at times the Moon is ascending from below to above the plane of the solar system (‘ascending node’) or descending from above to below the ecliptic plane (‘descending node’). The time period from one ascending node to the next is called a Draconic Month which is 27.21 days. If you combine all three of these time periods, they nearly perfectly repeat after 18 years and 10 or 11 days (depending on the number of Leap Years between the two years in question), constituting the repetition period of consecutive eclipses in a Saros Series. Saros 145 eclipses took place on August 11th 1999 and on August 21st 2017. And of course the next Saros 145 eclipse will arrive on September 2nd 2035, right on schedule!

For more on this subject, Wikipedia has an excellent write up. 

Images courtesy NASA. 

Seeing the Andromeda Galaxy

Pegasus and Cassiopeia

While out under the night sky I frequently point out that everything we can see with the naked eye is located in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The thousands of stars that shine in a dark night sky are, relatively speaking, local stars in our own galaxy. The Milky Way is vast, stretching 100,000 light years from end to end. To see anything beyond our own galaxy means we are seeing well past 100,000 light years.

The Andromeda Galaxy is a neighboring galaxy in our 'Local Group' and is the nearest fully-formed galaxy. Despite its size (about 50% larger than our own Milky Way galaxy) and overall brightness, it is located 2.2 million light years away so it is an object that only under very good conditions can be glimpsed by the naked eye, but even then is challenging to spot and is best viewed with some magnification. My preference is to find Andromeda with binoculars and in the winter it is a good target because it is located directly overhead. With warm clothes and a comfortable blanket or pad, you can lie on your pack and look up with binoculars, and with some attention and focus you can see beyond our galaxy into Andromeda.

The Andromeda Galaxy

My way to find the galaxy is to look between on the Great Square of Pegasus and Cassiopeia, finding the galaxy in the space between the two. The first image (above) shows the overall proximity of the Andromeda constellation between Pegasus and Cassiopeia. The second image (right) shows a more close up view for pointing your binoculars. As you search this part of the sky under reasonably dark conditions you will be able to see the glow of Andromeda come into view in your binoculars.

Images courtesy of Sky Safari.

Quadrantid Meteor Shower 2017

The first meteor shower of the year, the Quadrantids, peak on the morning of Tuesday January 3rd for those of us on the west coast of the United States. The Quadrantids have a relatively short peak (a few hours) and if you have favorable conditions with a dark cloudless sky, it will be worth the effort to brave the cold weather and look for these meteors.

Here are some other resources on the subject. The Sky & Telescope article provides a good history of this particular shower and both have tips on when and where to look.

Earth Sky: http://earthsky.org/?p=4287

Sky & Telescope: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/catch-the-quadrantid-meteors-if-you-can/

Winter Astronomy Highlights

Winter is nearly upon us, and the magical sky that arrives at the end of each year lights up the long dark night with many colorful stars, bright constellations, and treasures that await your viewing. When the sky is crisp and clear, put on a warm coat and grab a pair of binoculars and face south and you will find a sky full of ... more than just stars.

Universe2Go created a nice infographic that includes a timeline of specific events of interest over the next three months. Next up is a close alignment of the waning Moon and Jupiter on December 22nd, one day after the Winter Solstice. Mark your calendar for those and other astronomical events of interest.

Image courtesy of Universe2Go.

Geminid Meteor Shower 2016

Geminid Radiant in Gemini

Every year there are many meteor showers that arrive on schedule, resulting from the fact that Earth travels through well-established regions of dust and particles on its annual trek around the Sun. The Geminids are one of the year's best, reliably peaking as the Earth passes through the remants of asteroid 3200 Phaethon on December 13th and 14th each year.

One of the most important factors in viewing a meteor shower is to find a dark sky and this year, unforunately, this will be very difficult due to the fact that the full Moon coincides with the peak of the Geminids. So although many meteors will streak into the upper atmosphere and burn up, most won't be visible because their light will be drowned out by the glowing moonlight in our atmosphere.

That being said, if the weather is clear and you have warm clothing, it will be a fine night to just sit out in your garden or a park or on a mountainside and look anyhow. The Geminids reach their peak much earlier than most meteor showers, so a pleasant hour of viewing in the evening should reveal a few of the brighter meteors. Just temper your expectations and you will have a nice night. You won't see hundreds of meteors per hour, but then again, there will be plenty of stars and if you have binoculars, you can turn it into an evening of reacquaining yourself with the brighter stars and nebulae of the winter sky as Orion climbs high into the eastern sky after sunset and Pegasus dominates the sky overhead.

Here are excellent online resources for further reading on meteor showers:

Sky & Telescope

NASA

EarthSky

Image courtesy of Sky & Telescope.

Supermoon on November 13 and 14

How much bigger is a Supermoon? 

The natural cycles of the cosmos brings us many interesting sights in the night sky and our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon, is always one of the best and brightest as it aligns with the Sun for an eclipse, or a planet for a spectacular conjunction. Sunday and Monday November 13 and 14, the Moon reaches its closest point on its orbit around the Earth at nearly the exact same time as it reaches its full phase, creating a Supermoon. This special situation happens every year or so, but this time the Moon will be a slight bit closer to the Earth, making this the closest Supermoon since 1948. The next Supermoon of this stature will arrive in 2034. So if you have clear skies Sunday or Monday, make a special effort to get out and see this ever-so-large object in the sky, 14% larger than it is when the Moon is at its farthest from the Earth.

The exact moment of the full Moon is Monday morning at 5:52 am pacific time, and the closest approach to the Earth (perigee) at 3:22 am, a bit earlier that night. So if you want to see the biggest and best view that will be early Monday morning November 14th. However, moonrise on both the evening of the 13th and 14th should be incredible so don't feel obligated to see it at the exact moment if you prefer sleeping in a warm bed! Or if you happen to live in Europe you can simply watch the moonrise on the evening of Monday 14th and you'll be all set. The exact time of moonrise can be found here, depending upon your location.

Here are some good online resources to learn more: 

Sky & Telescope Magazine

EarthSky.org

NASA

San Francisco Amateur Astronomers

Image courtesy of Wikipedia