The constellation Orion is now fully visible in the eastern predawn sky; I had someone at a Perseid meteor party ask me if Orion was what they were seeing in the east – I laughed and mentioned my post from last week where Orion had not quite fully risen before sunrise.
The constellation Orion in the early morning sky to the east on Aug. 14, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The southern sky will be simply fantastic for observing this week, with 3 three planets splashed across the sky.
Mars, Saturn and Jupiter in the south-southern sky at 10:00 PM, Aug. 14 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon joins the planets in the south later this week; this weekend will be an outstanding time to do some sidewalk astronomy – which is exactly what my wife and I will be doing at the Michigan ComicCon this weekend at Detroit’s Cobo Center!
The Moon will be between Jupiter and Saturn in the southern sky after sunset between Aug. 17-20, 2018. The yellow dots show the position of the Moon on the 17th, 19th, 20th, and 21st. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon joins Venus and Jupiter in the western sky at dusk on Aug. 14th.
The Moon joins Venus and Jupiter in the southwestern sky at dusk, Aug. 14, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Southern Hemisphere:
From Antonina, Brazil, Venus and the crescent Moon are high in the western sky after sunset on Aug. 14th.
Seen from Antonina, Brazil, the Moon joins Venus and Jupiter in the western sky at dusk, Aug. 14, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon
The Moon is a waxing crescent visible in the southwestern sky at dusk. The Moon will be at first-quarter on August 18th, and will then be a waxing gibbous, visible in the southern sky around dusk later in the week. The Moon with be an excellent target for sidewalk astronomy this week.
The Moon from Aug. 14-21, 2018. Visualizations by Ernie WrightObserving Target: Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina Craters
Theophilus crater location on the Moon. Visualizations by Ernie Wright , edited by Bob Trembley.Theophilus is a prominent lunar impact crater that lies between Sinus Asperitatis in the north and Mare Nectaris to the southeast. It partially intrudes into the comparably sized crater Cyrillus to the southwest. To the east is the smaller crater Mädler and further to the south-southeast is Beaumont. It was named after the 4th-century Coptic Pope Theophilus of Alexandria.
Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina form a prominent group of large craters visible on the terminator 5 days after the new moon.
From: Wikipedia
Viewing these three craters will give you an excellent start towards getting your Astronomical League Lunar Observing Program Pin!
The Sun
The Sun as been spot-free for 11 days – a large active region with coronal loop activity will soon be rotating out of view, while a smaller very active region rotates into view. The northern coronal hole has a long tendril stretching down past the equator.
The solar wind speed is 329.6 km/sec, with a density of 5.9 protons/cm3.
SpaceWeather.com says: “A long, narrow hole has opened in the sun’s atmosphere, and it is spewing high-speed solar wind into space. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the fissure on Aug. 13th pointing directly at Earth:”
Small prominences continue to appear all over the Sun for last couple days, with one rather large one appearing briefly popping out of the limb to the right of the video below.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Asteroids
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2018 PM10 |
2018-Aug-10
|
3.2 LD
|
7.8
|
14
|
| 2018 PD20 |
2018-Aug-10
|
0.1 LD
|
12
|
12
|
| 2018 PL10 |
2018-Aug-18
|
19.4 LD
|
12.6
|
135
|
| 2018 PK9 |
2018-Aug-22
|
17 LD
|
9
|
31
|
| 2018 PW7 |
2018-Aug-23
|
11.3 LD
|
10.6
|
44
|
| 2018 PR9 |
2018-Aug-24
|
18.1 LD
|
14
|
46
|
| 2018 LQ2 |
2018-Aug-27
|
9.4 LD
|
1.5
|
39
|
| 2016 GK135 |
2018-Aug-28
|
16.8 LD
|
2.8
|
9
|
| 2016 NF23 |
2018-Aug-29
|
13.3 LD
|
9
|
93
|
| 1998 SD9 |
2018-Aug-29
|
4.2 LD
|
10.7
|
51
|
| 2018 DE1 |
2018-Aug-30
|
15.2 LD
|
6.5
|
28
|
| 2001 RQ17 |
2018-Sep-02
|
19.3 LD
|
8.3
|
107
|
| 2015 FP118 |
2018-Sep-03
|
12.3 LD
|
9.8
|
490
|
| 2017 SL16 |
2018-Sep-20
|
8.5 LD
|
6.4
|
25
|
| 2018 EB |
2018-Oct-07
|
15.5 LD
|
15.1
|
155
|
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 50, this year: 1022, all time: 18574.
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1912 (as of July 31, 2018)
Minor Planets discovered: 779,736 (as of July 31, 2018)
Fireballs
On Aug. 13, 2018, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 214 fireballs – WOW!
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point–Earth. Source: Spaceweather.comThe Solar System
This is the position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the solar system:
Position of the planets in the inner system, Aug 14 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the middle system, Aug 14 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, Aug 14 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Exoplanets
Confirmed Exoplanets: 3,775 (8/9/2018)
Multi-Planet Systems: 625 (8/9/2018)
Kepler Candidate Exoplanets: 4,496 (8/31/2017)
TESS Candidate Exoplanets: 0
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
Apps used for this post:
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions.
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator – free for the PC /MAC.
I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
2018 is NASA’s 60th anniversary!P.S. My cat Deimos was trying his hardest to make it difficult for me to write this post…
