A veritable riot of conjunctions is happening all week in the eastern predawn skies; Venus is VERY close to the star Regulus, and Mercury and Mars continue to be low in the sky before sunrise.
Eastern predawn sky, Sept. 19, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.These conjunctions can also be seen from the southern hemisphere; note how the position of the planets differs from the northern hemisphere.
Eastern predawn sky seen from Perth, Sept. 19, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Saturn continues to be a good observing target in the southern skies after sunset.
Southwestern sky after sunset, Sept. 19, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The southern skies seen from Perth after sunset are something I’d REALLY like to see; visible are the two Magellanic Clouds, the Carina Nebula
Southern sky after sunset seen from Perth, Sept. 19, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.In the eastern sky seen from Perth at 1:00 AM on Sept. 18th we see a good example of the different orientation of constellations seen from the southern hemisphere.
Eastern sky seen from Perth at 1 AM Sept. 18, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Pleiades star cluster can be seen high in the eastern sky at 2:00 AM.
Eastern sky at 2 AM on Sept. 19, 2017. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Pleiades open star cluster consists of approximately 3,000 stars, and is among the nearest star clusters to Earth; the cluster is easily visible to the naked eye.
The Pleiades open star cluster. Credit: NASA, ESA, AURA/Caltech, Palomar Observatory The science team consists of: D. Soderblom and E. Nelan (STScI), F. Benedict and B. Arthur (U. Texas), and B. Jones (Lick Obs.)This video shows a faster-than-light trip through space to the Pleiades star cluster:
SpaceWeather.com says that “Lonely sunspot AR2680 poses no threat for strong solar flares.”
The Sun – Sept. 18, 2017 – Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams. / Bob Trembley.There is a large coronal hole that can be seen in 211 angstrom s.
The Sun’s Corona – Sept. 12, 2017 – Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) 211 angstrom s. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.The Solar System:
Inner Solar System, Sept. 18, 2017. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Full Solar System, Sept. 18, 2017. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Apps used for this post:
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux.
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission app – free for the PC /MAC.
