In the Sky This Week – May 8, 2019 – MARCON 54 Edition

My wife and I are Science Co-Guests of Honor at MARCON 54, a science fiction convention this weekend in Worthington, Ohio! The excitement and anticipation is going to make me explode! We’ve been attending midwest SF conventions for decades – I met Br. Guy at one! I became a volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador and started lecturing at SF cons in 2013; in 2014, I was asked to run the science programming track for DETCON1 – the North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC) in Detroit. where I helped arrange to have Br. Guy Skype-in from the Vatican Meteorite Lab for a very well attended panel.

Bob and Connie standing next to a large voltage multiplier stack at Fermilab. The clear tubes contain strings of high voltage diodes immersed in oil. The rounded metal things are corona shields that surround the connections between different components in the system and prevent the air from being ionized when it’s running. Ultimately the thing produces 750,000 volts DC and was used as the first stage in a string of large particle accelerators.

Br. Guy will be Skyping-in to MARCON for a lecture with me, and weather permitting I’ll be setting up my telescopes to see the Moon and Sun – I’m REALLY hoping for clear skies on Sunday when I’m scheduled to have my solar telescopes out, as there are a couple large sunspots right now! Saturday morning my wife and I will be part of a group from the convention who will be helping judge the Ohio State Science Fair – so that ought to be interesting! Saturday May 11^th is also International Astronomy Day – so there’s a bit of serendipity there with me expounding about astronomy all weekend!

Venus appears very low in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

Venus very low eastern horizon before sunrise on May 8th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The waxing crescent Moon is very near the star Tianguan on May 7th, and near the star Alhena on May 8th. On May 9th, the Moon will appear between the stars Pollux and Procyon in the western sky after sunset.

Saturn, Jupiter and the star Antares continue to appear southern sky early in the morning – each morning they appear a little more to the southwest.

Saturn and Jupiter are high in the southern sky all week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The star Arcturus and “the Big Dipper” appear in the west-northwestern predawn sky.

The star Arcturus and “the Big Dipper” in the west-northwestern predawn sky on May 8th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon!

This Saturday is International Astronomy Day – find a ‘scope, and spot some craters and mountains on the Moon!

The Moon is a waxing crescent,visible toward the southwest in early evening.

The first quarter Moon occurs on Sunday May 12^th, the Moon will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

After May 12^th, the Moon will be a waxing gibbous,visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night.

The Moon from May 8-13, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Moon News

The Sun has 2 spots – and they’re BIG ones!

AR2740 and AR 2741 are making their way across the face of the Sun; AR2740 poses a threat for M-class solar flares – you can see them crackling in the video below. SpaceWeather.com says: “A faint CME that left the sun on May 7th could strike Earth’s magnetic field on May 10th or 11th, according to NOAA analysts. The plasma cloud was hurled into space by an explosion in the magnetic canopy of big sunspot AR2740. If the CME does strike, it will likely be a glancing blow sparking only minor geomagnetic storms.”

The eastern limb of the Sun continues to hog most of the prominences; you can see flare after flare coming out of AR2740.

The solar wind speed is 326.7 km/sec (↑), with a density of 9.1 protons/cm³ (↑).

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sun News

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com

On May 7, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 32 fireballs.
(23 sporadics, 9 eta 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.com

This is the position of the planets and a couple bodies in the solar system:

OSIRIS-REx – Bennu Temperature Map

Mars InSight – Observing Mars’ Weather

Climate

Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive

Exoplanet News

Exoplanet Artwork by Bob Trembley

Exoplanet PSR B1257+12 b. Credit: Space Engine / Bob Trembley

Read more: PSR B1257+B12

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.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
Space Engine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for the PC. VR support coming soon!

Section header image credits:
The Sky – Stellarium/ Bob Trembley
Observing Target – Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon – NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun – NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids – NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs – Credited to YouTube
Comets – Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System – NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News – NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets – Space Engine / Bob Trembley
The Universe – Universe Today

2018 is NASA’s 60th Anniversary!

July 20, 2019 is the 50^th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.