Mars and Saturn agree that they rather like the early morning sky, and have decided to stay there forever… or so it seems…
Southern sky at 5:00 AM, May 15, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Jupiter just past opposition, is slowly leaving the morning planets and making its way towards being visible only in the evenings.
Southeastern sky at 10:00 PM, May 15, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.I was playing with the equatorial grid feature of Stellarium and noticed how close Polaris was to the North Celestial Pole.
North Celestial Pole at 10:00 PM, May 15, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.So, of course, I HAD to see how the South Celestial Pole looked… and I noticed the the southern hemisphere doesn’t have a convenient star near the pole – which led me to find this article on the One-Minute Astronomer about how to find the South Celestial Pole.
South Celestial Pole at 5:00 PM, May 15, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon
The Moon from May 15-21, 2018. Visualizations by Ernie WrightThe Moon is new on the 15th, and joins Venus in the western sky near sunset as a thin waxing crescent on the 17th. The Moon will be high in the western sky after sunset on the 20th &21st.
The Sun
Although there is some impressive coronal loop activity along the Sun’s equator, the Sun has been spot-free for a day. Coronal holes remain at both poles with a diffuse hole along the equator. The solar wind speed is 357 km/sec, with a density of 4.0 protons/cm3. SpaceWeather.com says: “NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on May 17th when a stream of solar wind hits Earth’s magnetic field. The gaseous material is flowing from a southern hole in the sun’s atmosphere. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras and, of course, STEVE.”
Compared to the last few weeks, there have been only a few prominences in the Sun’s chromosphere over the last couple days.
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:
We have a close shave on the 15th, as 2010 WC9 passes by the Earth at half the distance of the Moon!
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 1999 LK1 |
2018-May-15
|
13.3 LD
|
10
|
141
|
| 2018 JX1 |
2018-May-15
|
9.4 LD
|
7.7
|
18
|
| 2010 WC9 |
2018-May-15
|
0.5 LD
|
12.8
|
71
|
| 2018 JX |
2018-May-16
|
3.9 LD
|
13
|
77
|
| 2018 JC |
2018-May-17
|
17.7 LD
|
9.4
|
77
|
| 2018 GL1 |
2018-May-18
|
14.3 LD
|
5.2
|
69
|
| 2018 JL2 |
2018-May-19
|
10.9 LD
|
13.5
|
40
|
| 2018 JG1 |
2018-May-20
|
5.3 LD
|
8.3
|
44
|
| 2018 JK |
2018-May-22
|
16.3 LD
|
12.5
|
81
|
| 2018 JG2 |
2018-May-25
|
18.5 LD
|
6.9
|
62
|
| 68347 |
2018-May-29
|
9.5 LD
|
13.3
|
389
|
| 2013 LE7 |
2018-May-31
|
17.8 LD
|
1.7
|
12
|
| 2018 EJ4 |
2018-Jun-10
|
5.6 LD
|
6.2
|
195
|
| 2015 DP155 |
2018-Jun-11
|
9 LD
|
4.4
|
170
|
| 2017 YE5 |
2018-Jun-21
|
15.6 LD
|
15.5
|
513
|
| 467309 |
2018-Jun-23
|
17.9 LD
|
14
|
355
|
| 441987 |
2018-Jun-24
|
7.3 LD
|
12.6
|
178
|
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: 48, this year: 681, all time: 18234.
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1907 (as of May 15, 2018)
Minor Planets discovered: 774,880 (as of May 15, 2018)
Fireballs
On May 14, 2018, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 7 fireballs.
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 in the solar system:
Position of the planets in the inner solar system, May. 15, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.You may note the mess of text where the Earth should be – this is because of the InSight and MarCO A&B spacecraft.
Position of the MarCO A & B and the InSight spacecraft, May. 15, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.The MarCO A&B are cubesats that are flying in tandem with the InSight spacecraft.
Closer view showing spread of the MarCO A & B and the InSight spacecraft, May. 15, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.The MarCo spacecraft are technology demonstrations; they will transmit telemetry back to Earth as the InSight lander descends towards Mars’ surface.
MarCO B satellite. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, May. 15, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, May. 15, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
How far mankind has traveled, May. 15, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Voyager 1, looking back towards the Sun, May. 15, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Exoplanets
Confirmed Exoplanets: 3,725 (4/26/2018)
Multi-Planet Systems: 613 (4/26/2018)
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.
