On Sunday the 4th, my wife and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. It was a beautiful day; we walked around the Armada (Mi) Flea Market, drove around looking at houses for sale at several locations, and then took a long drive up Michigan’s east cost. We were driving through Lexington, which was having a street art show, so we stopped to have lunch and browse the art. Last week, my daughter Amanda and son-in-law Sam Festian (finally) announced publicly that they were going to have a baby! I’ve known for weeks, but waited for them to tell everyone first. *MY* first baby picture wasn’t a grainy ultrasound showing my wittle footsies…
It’s “Conjunction Week” as the Moon goes from waxing crescent, to first quarter, to waxing gibbous all week in the south-southwestern sky. The Moon passes close to Jupiter and Saturn during several evenings; the next several days should be great for sidewalk astronomy!
Conjunctions of Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon in the south-southwestern sky after sunset from Aug. 6-12. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Mercury is at its highest in the eastern predawn sky on August 10 & 11th.
Mercury in the eastern predawn sky on Aug. 10, 2019 – Mercury’s orbit is shown in red. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
M63 – The Sunflower Galaxy
Sunflower Galaxy (Messier 63). Image: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of ArizonaMessier 63 or M63, also known as NGC 5055 or the seldom-used Sunflower Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. M63 was first discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain then later verified by his colleague Charles Messier on June 14, 1779. The galaxy became listed as object 63 in the Messier Catalogue. In the mid-19th century, Anglo-Irish astronomer Lord Rosse identified spiral structures within the galaxy, making this one of the first galaxies in which such structure was identified.
This galaxy has a morphological classification of SAbc, indicating a spiral shape with no central bar feature and moderate to loosely wound arms. There is a general lack of large scale continuous spiral structure in visible light, a galaxy form known as flocculent. However, when observed in the near infrared a symmetric, two-arm structure becomes apparent. Each arm wraps 150° around the galaxy and extends out to 13 kly (4 kpc) from the nucleus.
M63 is an active galaxy with a LINER nucleus. This displays as an unresolved nuclear source wrapped in a diffuse emission. The latter is extended along a position angle of 110° and soft X-rays and H-alpha emission can be observed coming from along nearly the same direction. The existence of a super massive black hole (SMBH) at the nucleus is uncertain; if it does exist, then the mass is estimated as (8.5±1.9)×108 M☉. – Wikipedia
Location of M63. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Hubble Space Telescope close-up of M63: (WOW! I think I need to make a poster of this – it’s beautiful!)
Messier 63. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.
The first quarter Moon occurs on August 7th, it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
After August 7th, the Moon will be a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night.
The Moon from Aug. 6-12, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.Moon News
SpaceEngine on Steam Update – Includes Hi-Rez Moon Textures and Apollo Landing Sites with Closeup Textures
When I saw this 11 gig monster update on Steam, well you KNOW I had to go play with it! It’s pretty cool to be able to land on the rim of Tycho crater, and look across it! The Apollo landing sites are pretty neat too! The update also includes some asteroids named after science fiction authors; I emailed the author and asked about adding asteroids named after Jesuits and my wife.
Announcement on SpaceEngine blog
The Sun has a small spot – you can see AR 2745 develop south of the equator in the videos below. The Sun’s northern coronal hole is simply gargantuan, and it has a large friend on the equator. SpaceWeather.com says “Solar wind is currently blowing around Earth faster than 700 km/s (1.6 million mph)–the highest speeds observed so far in 2019. This solar wind storm could spark auroras at high latitudes on the night of August 5th and 6th. Sky watchers in Canada and northern-tier US states should be alert for Northern Lights, especially during the hours around local midnight.”
Light prominence activity over the last couple days; there were a couple large prominences, but they were relatively short-lived.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217500894187994&set=gm.2583176925026969&type=3&theater&ifg=1
The solar wind speed is 651.1 km/sec (↑), with a density of 0.3 protons/cm3 (↓) at 1005 UT.
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechYou 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.
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2006 QQ23 |
2019-Aug-10
|
19.4 LD
|
4.7
|
339
|
| 454094 |
2019-Aug-12
|
17 LD
|
8.2
|
148
|
| 2018 PN22 |
2019-Aug-17
|
17.1 LD
|
2.3
|
11
|
| 2016 PD1 |
2019-Aug-26
|
11.4 LD
|
5.9
|
65
|
| 2002 JR100 |
2019-Aug-27
|
19.4 LD
|
8.4
|
49
|
| 2019 OU1 |
2019-Aug-28
|
2.7 LD
|
13.2
|
97
|
| 2019 OF2 |
2019-Sep-03
|
18.3 LD
|
10.7
|
53
|
| 2018 DE1 |
2019-Sep-03
|
12.7 LD
|
6.6
|
28
|
| 2019 GT3 |
2019-Sep-06
|
19.5 LD
|
13.6
|
227
|
| 2010 RM82 |
2019-Sep-13
|
18.2 LD
|
14.6
|
23
|
| 2013 CV83 |
2019-Sep-13
|
15.7 LD
|
13.1
|
62
|
| 504800 |
2019-Sep-14
|
13.9 LD
|
14.4
|
155
|
| 467317 |
2019-Sep-14
|
13.9 LD
|
6.4
|
389
|
| 2019 JF1 |
2019-Sep-16
|
11.2 LD
|
4.3
|
61
|
| 2018 FU1 |
2019-Sep-16
|
18.4 LD
|
4.7
|
16
|
| 2017 SL16 |
2019-Sep-21
|
7.9 LD
|
6.5
|
25
|
| 2017 SM21 |
2019-Sep-21
|
11.5 LD
|
9.6
|
20
|
| 2006 QV89 |
2019-Sep-23
|
15.9 LD
|
4.2
|
31
|
| 523934 |
2019-Sep-24
|
10.9 LD
|
22.3
|
257
|
| 2017 KP27 |
2019-Sep-26
|
6.2 LD
|
4.8
|
25
|
| 2018 FK5 |
2019-Oct-01
|
13.3 LD
|
10.5
|
8
|
| 2018 LG4 |
2019-Oct-02
|
13.8 LD
|
8.1
|
12
|
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1983 (last updated May 8, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 796,541 (+82)
On Aug. 5, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 29 fireballs.
(14 sporadics, 12 Perseids, 3 Southern delta Aquariids)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point–Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.comFireball & Meteor News:
Perseid Meteor Shower this Weekend!
2017 Geminid meteor. Credit: David Levy- Best time to observe meteor showers is after midnight when the part of Earth you’re standing on has rotated into the meteor stream – the shower “radiant point” will be above your horizon.
- Try to find a location with no light sources.
- Prepare for a cold fall night – bring sweat shirts, coats and blankets. Bring extras too!
- Bring camp chairs, and something to drink.
- Give your eyes about 30 minutes to adjust to the dark.
- NO WHITE FLASHLIGHTS OR CELL PHONE LIGHTS – Red lights ONLY!
- Sit back, relax, and look up! Try to take in as much of the sky as you can in your field of view.
Perseid Observing Guide on Space.com
This is the position of the planets and a couple bodies in the solar system:
