What got you into astronomy?
I recently asked the membership of the Warren Astronomical Society this question; I’m going to be recording interviews with members with the thought of putting together a presentation (probably a video) based on their responses.
I thought this was such a cool idea, I asked the same of the Vatican Observatory staff too! I’ve gotten quite a few responses.
I was a child during the Apollo era – back when Star Trek:TOS, Jonny Quest, the Time Tunnel, Lost in Space, and Land of the Giants were airing. Through my cheap refractor telescope, I showed Jupiter and Saturn to whoever was in proximity. Flint’s Longway Planetarium staff probably got tired of seeing me. Carl Sagan was always my hero – I can’t even remember when I became aware of him.
And I had a REALLY COOL high school science teacher, who made learning a lot of fun; we won’t be discussing dipping of the hands into the big vat of mercury and seeing all the glistening sparkles on the hairs of my hand, or the Van de Graaff generator handshake, or the mass-displacement experiment… using a rifle…
Venus continues to appear low above the western horizon before sunset all week, getting closer to the star Spica each evening.
The Moon appears low about the eastern horizon after sunset on August 24th.
Jupiter and Saturn continue to appear in the southern sky after sunset; the Moon, which passed by the pair of planets last week, is pulling away to the east each evening.
The Moon appears high in the eastern sky with the Pleiades and the star Aldebaran in the early morning hours on August 28th.
- The Moon is a a Waning Gibbous – rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.
- The Third Quarter Moon occurs on August 30th – rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.
If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2021 page – it will show you what the Moon looks like right now. If you click the image on that page, you will download a high-rez TIFF image annotated with the names of prominent features – helpful for logging your lunar observations!
Moon News:
The Sun has one small sunspot – SpaceWeather.com says: “Sunspot AR2859 is crackling with minor B-class solar flares.” They also warn that “A solar wind stream and, possibly, two CMEs are approaching Earth. A direct hit by the stream on Aug. 25th followed by near-misses (or glancing blows) from the CMEs on Aug. 26th could spark 2 to 3 days of polar geomagnetic unrest. That’s exciting because the Arctic Circle is getting dark enough for auroras.”
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
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.
Amateur Solar Astrophotography
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 310.6 km/sec ▼with a density of 18.1 protons/cm3 ▲▲ at 1400 UT.
Click here to see a near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
Sun News:
- Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 153, this year: 1715 (+27), all time: 26,555 (-263)
- Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2203 (+3, updated 2021-08-24)
- Total Minor Planets discovered (NASA): 1,113,527 (updated 2021-08-17)
- Total Minor Planets discovered (MPC): 1,086,655 (+30,162) (updated 2021-08-24)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2020 BC16 | 2021-Aug-24 | 15 LD | 6.7 | 34 |
| 2011 UC292 | 2021-Aug-24 | 9 LD | 8.5 | 98 |
| 2021 NS8 | 2021-Aug-25 | 18.4 LD | 4.2 | 36 |
| 2013 TM4 | 2021-Aug-26 | 15.6 LD | 7.3 | 56 |
| 2021 PL39 | 2021-Aug-27 | 15.7 LD | 16.5 | 31 |
| 2021 PB17 | 2021-Aug-28 | 11.7 LD | 6.5 | 30 |
| 2021 PT | 2021-Aug-29 | 12.8 LD | 7.2 | 146 |
| 2021 PM5 | 2021-Aug-29 | 10.3 LD | 11.7 | 29 |
| 2017 RK15 | 2021-Aug-29 | 13.3 LD | 11.6 | 26 |
| 2015 SW6 | 2021-Sep-05 | 15.9 LD | 9.9 | 45 |
| 2021 QG | 2021-Sep-09 | 6.2 LD | 5.9 | 17 |
| 2010 RJ53 | 2021-Sep-09 | 9.6 LD | 19.3 | 56 |
| 2020 KR2 | 2021-Sep-10 | 14.2 LD | 5.1 | 17 |
| 2017 SL16 | 2021-Sep-20 | 12.8 LD | 6.1 | 23 |
| 2021 NY1 | 2021-Sep-22 | 3.9 LD | 9.4 | 176 |
| 2019 SF6 | 2021-Sep-26 | 16.4 LD | 8.6 | 20 |
| 1998 SD9 | 2021-Oct-06 | 10.6 LD | 10.8 | 59 |
| 2015 TQ21 | 2021-Oct-07 | 10.7 LD | 20.7 | 12 |
| 2019 SE5 | 2021-Oct-11 | 16.3 LD | 6.6 | 16 |
| 2020 TH6 | 2021-Oct-19 | 7.3 LD | 5.9 | 6 |
| 1996 VB3 | 2021-Oct-20 | 8.8 LD | 15.3 | 135 |
Asteroid News:
Tourists visit an asteroid in Kerbal Space Program
I can relate to the KSP challenge – I left a docking port attached to an asteroid that I brought into orbit of Kerbin. Several rounds of tourists have visited this asteroid in Bob’s career-mode game.
Asteroid tourists pay a LOT of credits for their trip! And they don’t care one bit about radiation shielding! Yea!
On August 23, 2021, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 13 fireballs!
(12 sporadics, 1 kappa Cygnid)
Fireball News:
If you see a bright meteor or a fireball, please REPORT IT to the American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization!
Position of the planets & several spacecraft in the inner solar system on August 24th:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the outer solar system:
Position of the planets in the extreme outer solar system – the orbit of dwarf planet Eris is highlighted:
Solar System News:
See a list of current NASA missions here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions?mission_status=current
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Exoplanet News:
SpaceWeather.com Realtime Aurora Gallery: https://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html
Black Gap Wildlife Management Area has been designated as an International Dark Sky Sanctuary
- Visit an International Dark Sky Park: https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/parks/
- If you live in Michigan, visit the Michigan Dark Skies site: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/darkskies/
Education and STEM
Hubble – Beautiful Universe
The star HD 44179 is surrounded by an extraordinary structure known as the Red Rectangle. It acquired its moniker because of its shape and its apparent color when seen in early images from Earth. This strikingly detailed Hubble image reveals how, when seen from space, the nebula, rather than being rectangular, is shaped like an X with additional complex structures of spaced lines of glowing gas, a little like the rungs of a ladder.
The star at the center is similar to the sun, but at the end of its lifetime, pumping out gas and other material to make the nebula, and giving it the distinctive shape. It also appears that the star is a close binary that is surrounded by a dense area of dust — both of which may help to explain the very curious shape.
The Red Rectangle is an unusual example of what is known as a proto-planetary nebula. These are old stars, on their way to becoming planetary nebulae. Once the expulsion of mass is complete a very hot white dwarf star will remain and its brilliant ultraviolet radiation will cause the surrounding gas to glow. The Red Rectangle is found about 2,300 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn).
The High Resolution Channel of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys captured this view of HD 44179 and the surrounding Red Rectangle nebula — the sharpest view so far. Red light from glowing Hydrogen was captured through the F658N filter and colored red. Orange-red light over a wider range of wavelengths through a F625W filter was colored blue. The field of view is about 25 by 20 arcseconds. – NASA
Software Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator – free for the PC /MAC.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Stay safe, be well, and look up!
Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs: Astronomy at the Beach will be a live-streaming event this year
As I suspected, the Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs decided to cancel the in-person Astronomy at the Beach event this year, and will point visitors to several live-streaming telescope sessions hosted by various club members. There may be some presentations, but honestly, everyone is suffering from online meeting burnout, and we’re not planning anything like last year’s schedule.
As disappointing as this is, we all agreed that it’s nearly impossible to properly social-distance with telescopes… and children are always a large part of the visitors to this event – none of the board members wants a child to catch COVID from their equipment, or from an irresponsible member of the public.
Venus appears low above the western horizon before sunset all week, and will appear a bit lower each evening.
Jupiter and Saturn appear in the southern sky after sunset; the Moon appears near Saturn at midnight on August 21st.
The Moon appears near Jupiter high in the south-southeastern sky at midnight on August 22nd.
Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon appear high in the south-southeastern sky at midnight on August 23rd and 24th.
The Moon appears near Uranus in the eastern sky at midnight on August 26th.
- The Moon is a Waxing Gibbous – visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night.
- The Full Moon occurs on August 22nd – rising at sunset, visible high in the sky around midnight, and visible all night.
- After August 22nd, the Moon will be a Waning Gibbous – rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.
If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2021 page – it will show you what the Moon looks like right now. If you click the image on that page, you will download a high-rez TIFF image annotated with the names of prominent features – helpful for logging your lunar observations!
Moon News:
<HEAVY SIGH!> Issues with spacesuits likely to delay 2024 Moon landings.
See also: https://www.airspacemag.com/airspacemag/21st-century-moon-suit-180973122/
The Sun has one small sunspot – SpaceWeather.com says: “AR2857 has a simple and mostly stable magnetic field that poses no threat for strong flares.”
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
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.
Amateur Solar Astrophotography
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 460.0 km/sec ▲ with a density of 2.9 protons/cm3 ▼ at 1230 UT.
Click here to see a near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
Sun News:
- Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 126, this year: 1688 (+65), all time: 26,818 (+391)
- Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2200 (+4, updated 2021-08-10)
- Total Minor Planets discovered (NASA): 1,113,527 (+2,651)
- Total Minor Planets discovered (MPC): 1,086,655 (updated 2021-06-22)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid | Date(UT) | Miss Distance | Velocity (km/s) | Diameter (m) |
| 2021 PJ4 | 2021-Aug-19 | 6.7 LD | 16.2 | 46 |
| 2021 PV | 2021-Aug-20 | 18.5 LD | 13.2 | 39 |
| 2016 AJ193 | 2021-Aug-21 | 8.9 LD | 26.2 | 655 |
| 2021 PG7 | 2021-Aug-21 | 19.9 LD | 10.1 | 30 |
| 2019 UD4 | 2021-Aug-22 | 14.2 LD | 5.5 | 86 |
| 2021 PW2 | 2021-Aug-23 | 16.5 LD | 6.3 | 25 |
| 2020 BC16 | 2021-Aug-24 | 15 LD | 6.7 | 34 |
| 2011 UC292 | 2021-Aug-24 | 9 LD | 8.5 | 98 |
| 2021 NS8 | 2021-Aug-25 | 18.4 LD | 4.2 | 36 |
| 2021 PB17 | 2021-Aug-28 | 11.7 LD | 6.5 | 30 |
| 2021 PT | 2021-Aug-29 | 12.9 LD | 7.3 | 147 |
| 2021 PM5 | 2021-Aug-29 | 10.3 LD | 11.7 | 29 |
| 2017 RK15 | 2021-Aug-29 | 13.3 LD | 11.6 | 26 |
| 2015 SW6 | 2021-Sep-05 | 15.9 LD | 9.9 | 45 |
| 2010 RJ53 | 2021-Sep-09 | 9.6 LD | 19.3 | 56 |
| 2020 KR2 | 2021-Sep-10 | 14.2 LD | 5.1 | 17 |
| 2017 SL16 | 2021-Sep-20 | 12.8 LD | 6.1 | 23 |
| 2021 NY1 | 2021-Sep-22 | 3.9 LD | 9.4 | 176 |
| 2019 SF6 | 2021-Sep-26 | 16.4 LD | 8.6 | 20 |
| 1998 SD9 | 2021-Oct-06 | 10.6 LD | 10.8 | 59 |
| 2015 TQ21 | 2021-Oct-07 | 10.7 LD | 20.7 | 12 |
| 2019 SE5 | 2021-Oct-11 | 16.3 LD | 6.6 | 16 |
Asteroid News:
On August 16, 2021, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 17 fireballs! WOW!
(11 sporadics, 6 Perseids)
Fireball News:
If you see a bright meteor or a fireball, please REPORT IT to the American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization!
Position of the planets & several spacecraft in the inner solar system on August 17th:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the outer solar system– the orbit of TNO Arrokoth is highlighted:
Solar System News: Juno Turns 10!
See a list of current NASA missions here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions?mission_status=current
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Exoplanet News:
SpaceWeather.com Realtime Aurora Gallery: https://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html
Glacier National Park Certified as an International Dark Sky Park
- Visit an International Dark Sky Park: https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/parks/
- If you live in Michigan, visit the Michigan Dark Skies site: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/darkskies/
Education and STEM
Universe News: IceCube Neutrino Observatory Captures 3.7 Billion year old Neutrino
Hubble – Weird and Beautiful Universe: Relativistic Jet
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Software Apps used for this post:
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.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
