Eastern predawn sky, Aug. 23, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Sirius, the “Dog Star,” accompanies Venus low in the eastern predawn sky.
Southwestern sky after sunset, Aug. 23, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Jupiter sets shortly after dusk and will vanish from view entirely in a early September. Saturn is high in the southern sky, and with the planet’s northern hemisphere tilted towards us at about 26°, Saturn is just a spectacular observing target.
Conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter, 9:00 PM Aug. 24 & 25, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon, fresh from the eclipse, will be in conjunction with Jupiter in the west at dusk on August 24th and 25th.
Southwestern sky after sunset, Aug. 28, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon will be a waxing crescent in the west at dusk, growing larger each evening until it is at first quarter on August 28th; the later part of this week will be excellent nights for star parties.
The sky overhead after sunset, Aug. 23, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The sky overhead before sunrise, Aug. 23, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The Solar System – Aug. 22, 2017. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Sirius compared to the Sun. Credit: Universe Sandbox ² / Bob Trembley.Sirius, the brightest star in Earth’s sky, is a binary star system about 8.6 light years away. Sirius A is a bright and hot main sequence star, with a faint white dwarf companion: Sirius B. Sirius A is class A0 star about twice the mass of the Sun, 25 times as luminous as the Sun, and with a much higher surface temperature than the Sun.
I am STILL coming down from the eclipse; my wife and I set up at Chesterfield Michigan’s Brandenburg park –
we set up our telescopes with a couple tents next to them, where my wife laid out my meteorites. The view of the bay was just beautiful.
I gave two presentations about the Sun in the clubhouse nearby, and my daughter and son-in-law helped with our telescopes – which had a 50 foot line the entire eclipse! As soon as my wife was set up she was set upon by hordes of people, and stayed that way continuously; she didn’t get to see the eclipse until about 2:30 PM – when the eclipse was at maximum for us. About 80% of the Sun was covered at maximum for us; several people in line for the ‘scopes mentioned that it appeared dimmer.
We got scores of “Oh WOWs” from people looking through our telescopes; there were some great sunspot groups too – they showed up really well in my 8 inch Dobsonian telescope. It was a party atmosphere, and from what I’ve been hearing, it was like that around the country: an event that unified the country for a day. We’re happy to have been a part of it!
A picture of my telescope made the Macomb Daily newspaper and website: http://www.macombdaily.com/general-news/20170821/eclipse-descends-on-macomb-county 🙂
The Voice News posted this series of pictures: http://media.voicenews.com/2017/08/21/photos-solar-eclipse-viewing-party-in-chesterfield-township/#17
My wife posted this set of pics:
Apps used for this post:
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux.
Universe Sandbox ²: a physics-based 3D space simulator.
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission app – free for the PC /MAC.
