In the Sky This Week – September 22, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  22 Sep 2020

This entry is part 166 of 253 in the series In the Sky This Week

Astronomy at the Beach – This Weekend!

The Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs hosts the annual Astronomy at the Beach event every September – this year it will be held online the 25th & 26th! The lineup of speakers and presentations for the event is simply amazing; four of the presenters just happen to write for the Sacred Space Astronomy site! If you are interested at all in astronomy, these are must-see presentations – and many will take questions from the viewing audience!

Website and Schedule: https://www.glaac.org/astronomy-at-the-beach-2020/

Having meetings with Michigan astronomers and working on the website for the Astronomy at the Beach event has been a great way to get to know the astronomers of GLAAC member clubs I’ve only had a little contact with in the past. I was thinking this morning how incredibly fortunate I am to be in the company of so many astronomers – both amateur and professional. I only wish I would have known about Michigan’s community of astronomers several decades ago.

Saturn and Jupiter appear in the southern sky after sunset, and the Moon appears near the star Antares after sunset on Sept. 22nd.

Southern sky after sunset Saturn and Jupiter appear in the southern sky after sunset and set in the early morning hours; the Moon appears in the southwestern sky on Sept. 22nd, and moves towards the pair of planets for several days. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon moves southward and appears near Jupiter and Saturn after sunset on Sept 27th and 28th.

Mars appears in the southeastern sky after midnight this week; the Pleiades star cluster and the bright star Aldebaran, the red eye of Taurus, appear in the eastern sky after midnight.

Southeastern sky after midnight Mars appears high in the southeastern sky after midnight this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Venus appears low in the eastern predawn sky all week, each morning a bit lower towards the horizon; the constellation Orion appears higher and to the south.

Eastern predawn sky Venus is visible low in the eastern predawn sky this week – appearing a bit lower each morning. The constellation Orion appears high(ish) in the southeastern predawn sky. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

 

The Moon is a waxing crescent – visible to the southwest in the early evening.

The first quarter Moon occurs on Sept. 24th – visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

After Sept. 24th, the Moon will be a waxing gibbous – visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.

Moon The Moon from 2020-09-22 – 2020-09-28. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 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 TIF image annotated with the names of prominent features – helpful for logging your observations!

Moon Annotated close-up of the Moon on Sep. 25th. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Moon News

 

International Observe the Moon Night – Sept. 26th

A time to come together with fellow Moon enthusiasts and curious people worldwide. Everyone on Earth is invited to learn about lunar science and exploration, take part in celestial observations, and honor cultural and personal connections to the Moon. Note that we encourage you to interpret “observe” broadly.

 

International Observe the Moon Night this year conveniently falls on the weekend of the Astronomy at the Beach event!

The Sun has been spot-free for 32 days; the northern coronal hole has remains monstrous and has grown tendrils, the coronal hole at the south pole appears to have diminished from last week. Something exciting this way comes! A region with a LOT of coronal loop activity is rotating into view.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) September 21, 2020:

Prominence activity everywhere over the last several days; the region rotating into view with coronal loops above is throwing prominences all over the place!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) September 21, 2020:

Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
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.

Solar Activity on Facebook – Run by Volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Pamela Shivak

SolarActivity The SOLARACTIVITY PICTURE OF THE DAY for Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020 goes out to Jean-paul Desgrees for this great prominence image.
Jean-paul commented: “SUN on the 21.09.2020th – TS130mm glasses on MESU MK2, Quark H alpha filter, UVIRcut, ASI178M. No tasks but a beautiful protuberance.”

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 322.7 km/sec (↓), with a density of 5.0 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1321 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

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

Sun News – We’re officially in the next solar cycle

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 244  (+128), this year: 1997  (+133), all time: 23,845  (+135)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2037  (last updated  June 2, 2020)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 995,206 (+270)

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 RD5
2020-Sep-22
10.6 LD
17.2
53
2020 SM2
2020-Sep-22
3.1 LD
4.5
6
2020 RB6
2020-Sep-22
6.7 LD
19.8
29
2020 RU7
2020-Sep-22
15.3 LD
6.3
30
2020 RE8
2020-Sep-23
18.1 LD
10.7
30
2020 RA2
2020-Sep-23
18.4 LD
5.4
22
2020 SN
2020-Sep-24
8.9 LD
6.9
42
2020 SW
2020-Sep-24
0.1 LD
7.7
6
2020 RO
2020-Sep-25
15.3 LD
11.8
78
2020 SM
2020-Sep-25
15.6 LD
18.4
60
2020 RF4
2020-Sep-26
11.7 LD
13.8
42
2020 RF5
2020-Sep-27
14.1 LD
3.9
53
2020 PM7
2020-Sep-29
7.5 LD
8.3
121
2020 SQ
2020-Sep-30
5.7 LD
5.9
11
2020 SO2
2020-Sep-30
18.1 LD
14.8
39
2020 RJ3
2020-Oct-01
15.3 LD
15.5
67
2001 GP2
2020-Oct-01
6.1 LD
2.2
15
2020 RZ3
2020-Oct-02
15.7 LD
13.3
35
2010 UC
2020-Oct-04
14.6 LD
3.2
12
2020 RV2
2020-Oct-05
14.9 LD
4.2
25
2020 RR2
2020-Oct-06
16.3 LD
4.1
29
2020 RK2
2020-Oct-07
10 LD
6.7
49
2019 SB6
2020-Oct-07
11.9 LD
7.6
16
2020 RO1
2020-Oct-09
17.4 LD
3.2
29
2018 GD2
2020-Oct-13
16.4 LD
6.7
5
2020 RM6
2020-Oct-15
13 LD
7.7
39
2017 UH5
2020-Oct-20
8.9 LD
5.9
18
2018 VG
2020-Oct-21
15.1 LD
6.7
12
2017 TK6
2020-Oct-24
17.3 LD
12.4
41
2008 GM2
2020-Oct-25
17.7 LD
3.6
8
2020 QD5
2020-Oct-26
10.1 LD
8.6
80
2020 OK5
2020-Oct-29
6.4 LD
1.3
27
2018 VP1
2020-Nov-02
1.1 LD
9.7
2
2020 HF4
2020-Nov-03
16.2 LD
2.9
11
2010 JL88
2020-Nov-05
10.5 LD
15.7
16
2019 XS
2020-Nov-07
15.4 LD
9.4
51
2018 VS4
2020-Nov-09
14.9 LD
10.1
25
2020 ST1
2020-Nov-14
19.1 LD
8.1
166
2019 VL5
2020-Nov-15
8.5 LD
8.2
23

Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com

Asteroid News:

On September 21, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 13 fireballs. 
(13 sporadics)

Orbits 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). Credit: SpaceWeather.com

Fireball News:

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:

Inner Solar System Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-09-22. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system:

Middle Solar System Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-09-22. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets, some dwarf planets and some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system:

Outer Solar System Position of the planets and some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system, 2020-09-22. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

 

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

International Space Station

Climate

See a list of current NASA missions here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/?type=current

Exoplanet
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.

All Exoplanets 4277  (+1)
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2412
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2392
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2368  (-50)
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 443
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 422
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 889
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 68  (+1)
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-09-12 13:00:02) 2240  (+66)
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 2240   (+66)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1344  (+39)

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.

Hubble: Beautiful Universe: Veil Nebula

Frame from a 3-D visualization of a fly-through across a small portion of the Veil Nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This region is a small part of a huge expanding remnant from a star that exploded many thousands of years ago. Hubble resolves tangled rope-like filaments of glowing gases. The 3-D model has been created for illustrative purposes and shows that that the giant bubble of gas has a thin, rippled surface. It also highlights that the emission from different chemical elements arises from different layers of gas within the nebula. In the imagery, emission from hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen are shown in red, green, and blue, respectively.
CREDITS: NASA, ESA, and F. Summers, G. Bacon, Z. Levay, and L. Frattare (Viz 3D Team, STScI);
Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Stay safe, be well, and look up!

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.
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.
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.

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
Light Pollution – NASA’s Black Marble
The Universe – Universe Today

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