If you live in the Midwest, especially in southeastern Michigan, this weekend is the annual Astronomy at the Beach event – both Friday and Saturday (13th and 14th of September). I’ll be crewing the Warren Astronomical Society‘s table again this year – stop by, and I’ll chat your ear off! For the first time I’ll be presenting at AATB! I’m giving my Sun lecture, and maybe squeezing in some demos of space simulation software.
There will be astronomers from clubs and societies across southeastern Michigan who set up their telescopes, presentations and hands-on activities, a sky scavenger hunt, club tables with freebies and enthusiastic astronomers to chat with. The 2018 Astronomy at the Beach events had 5000 attendees! I expect to be pretty tired on Sunday.
I feel like a broken clock repeating that Saturn, Jupiter and the star Antares are in the south-southwestern sky all week after sunset… but there they are… Jupiter is setting earlier each night tho.
Saturn, Jupiter and the star Antares in the southern sky at 8:45 PM from Sep. 3-8, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Orion rises earlier each morning in the southeastern sky before sunrise.
Orion in the southeastern sky at 6:00 AM this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Saturn and the Moon make great observing targets after sunset through the weekend.
The waxing gibbous Moon and Saturn in the south-southeastern sky at 8:45 PM on Sep. 10, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.By midnight on Sep. 11th, Saturn will be low(ish) on the horizon and the Moon will be high in the southern sky
The waxing gibbous Moon and Saturn in the south-southwestern sky at midnight on Sep. 11, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The full Moon is all alone in the southern sky at midnight on Sep. 14th.
The full Moon in the southern sky at midnight on Sep. 14, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Uranus
The planet Uranus taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechUranus (from the Latin name Ūranus for the Greek god Οὐρανός) is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both have bulk chemical compositions which differ from that of the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. For this reason, scientists often classify Uranus and Neptune as “ice giants” to distinguish them from the gas giants. Uranus’s atmosphere is similar to Jupiter’s and Saturn’s in its primary composition of hydrogen and helium, but it contains more “ices” such as water, ammonia, and methane, along with traces of other hydrocarbons. It has the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of 49 K (−224 °C; −371 °F), and has a complex, layered cloud structure with water thought to make up the lowest clouds and methane the uppermost layer of clouds. The interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock.
Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a magnetosphere, and numerous moons. The Uranian system has a unique configuration because its axis of rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into the plane of its solar orbit. Its north and south poles, therefore, lie where most other planets have their equators. – Wikipedia
“Uranus and Neptune are the ‘Ugly Stepchildren’ of Solar System Exploration… One fly-by in the 80’s, and that’s it!” – Bob Trembley
Check out NASA’s solarsystem.nasa.gov site – it’s got wonderful information on numerous solar system bodies – including Uranus. I’m planning on seeing Uranus during Astronomy at the Beach – I hope I get the chance.
Position of Uranus in the eastern sky at 11:00 PM on Sep. 13, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob TrembleyAs I was writing this post, I found this NOVA video – I’ll have to show this series to students in my after-school astronomy and space science club:
I show this video to my after-school club – It’s informative and humorous:
The Moon is a waxing gibbous, it is visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night.
The full Moon occurs on Saturday September 14th, it rises at sunset, is visible high in the sky around midnight, and is visible all night.
After September 14th, the Moon will be a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.
The Moon from Sep. 10-16, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.Moon News – India’s Vikram Moon Lander May Have Survived Landing
India’s Moon lander may not have crashed, but rather suffered a “hard landing,” and ended up on its side. Engineers are trying to regain communications.
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter prior to integration and launch. Credit: ISROIndia’s #Chandrayaan2 orbiter remains in lunar orbit and will continue its seven-year mission to study the Moon. Even though Vikram’s landing didn’t go as planned, this is a fantastic accomplishment for ISRO, and just goes to show that landing on another celestial body is HARD!
The Sun has been spot-free for 7 days – apparently AR2748, which I mentioned last week, vanished on the day I posted.
The north pole coronal hole is yawning; the hole at the south pole seems to have opened up a bit. One small coronal hole appears near the equator.
Sun in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Sept. 10, 2019. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.More excellent prominences for photographs over the last couple days.
Sun in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Sept. 10, 2019. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10219728903353982&set=gm.2645429152135079&type=3&theater&ifg=1
The solar wind speed is 504.13 km/sec (↓), with a density of 2.2 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1400 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.
Sun News
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 RO1 |
2019-Sep-04
|
7.3 LD
|
14
|
15
|
| 2019 QX3 |
2019-Sep-04
|
11.2 LD
|
17.8
|
32
|
| 2019 RB2 |
2019-Sep-04
|
1.1 LD
|
6.6
|
10
|
| 2019 RZ |
2019-Sep-04
|
12.4 LD
|
16
|
28
|
| 2019 RF1 |
2019-Sep-04
|
3.5 LD
|
6
|
6
|
| 2019 QE1 |
2019-Sep-05
|
13.2 LD
|
6.6
|
33
|
| 2019 RP1 |
2019-Sep-05
|
0.1 LD
|
25.9
|
10
|
| 2019 RM1 |
2019-Sep-05
|
8.2 LD
|
7.6
|
10
|
| 2019 RD1 |
2019-Sep-06
|
6.1 LD
|
7.1
|
15
|
| 2019 GT3 |
2019-Sep-06
|
19.5 LD
|
13.6
|
213
|
| 2019 RA |
2019-Sep-07
|
4.5 LD
|
5.7
|
29
|
| 2019 RC1 |
2019-Sep-07
|
0.5 LD
|
20.4
|
6
|
| 2019 QZ |
2019-Sep-08
|
15.7 LD
|
4.3
|
22
|
| 2019 RX1 |
2019-Sep-09
|
9.7 LD
|
13.3
|
29
|
| 2019 QZ3 |
2019-Sep-09
|
9.7 LD
|
7.5
|
40
|
| 2019 RG2 |
2019-Sep-09
|
1.4 LD
|
22
|
12
|
| 2019 QY4 |
2019-Sep-10
|
2.5 LD
|
7.8
|
10
|
| 2019 RH |
2019-Sep-10
|
7 LD
|
16.8
|
23
|
| 2019 RJ1 |
2019-Sep-12
|
10.8 LD
|
10.4
|
15
|
| 2010 RM82 |
2019-Sep-13
|
18.2 LD
|
14.6
|
23
|
| 2013 CV83 |
2019-Sep-13
|
16.1 LD
|
13.1
|
62
|
| 504800 |
2019-Sep-14
|
13.9 LD
|
14.4
|
155
|
| 2019 RT |
2019-Sep-14
|
13.7 LD
|
16.6
|
48
|
| 2019 RQ2 |
2019-Sep-14
|
9.4 LD
|
17.2
|
30
|
| 467317 |
2019-Sep-14
|
13.9 LD
|
6.4
|
389
|
| 2019 JF1 |
2019-Sep-16
|
11.2 LD
|
4.3
|
62
|
| 2018 FU1 |
2019-Sep-16
|
18.4 LD
|
4.7
|
16
|
| 2019 RC |
2019-Sep-16
|
17.5 LD
|
15.2
|
154
|
| 2019 RP2 |
2019-Sep-20
|
8.5 LD
|
1.6
|
6
|
| 2017 SL16 |
2019-Sep-21
|
7.9 LD
|
6.5
|
25
|
| 2017 SM21 |
2019-Sep-21
|
11.5 LD
|
9.6
|
20
|
| 2019 RE2 |
2019-Sep-21
|
19.7 LD
|
8.7
|
38
|
| 2019 QZ1 |
2019-Sep-22
|
12.5 LD
|
8.2
|
77
|
| 523934 |
2019-Sep-24
|
10.9 LD
|
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