Astronomy events schedule

davenn

Hi bertthebasher
welcome to PF

Download a planetarium program called stellarium and use it to work it out :)
its free and relatively easy to use

Dave

davenn

November is rushing up quickly ... gosh the year has flown by

Are any of the forum members, Aussies or from other countries heading to the Cairns area in northern Queensland state for the total eclipse of the sun in mid november 2012 ?

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/...2012Nov13T.GIF

Dave

davenn

well the Cairns total eclipse has been and gone this morning 14 Nov
some saw it some didnt. Being a tropics region of Australia, the weather on the day was always going to be the deciding factor. And as it turned out just being in the right spot at the right time paid off.

see the astro photo section for some of my pics

cheers
Dave

davenn

Greetings all
Happy New Year

Dont know how many on here are into comet hunting and viewing in general


This site I found a few months back is awesome for keeping up with the latest visible comets
going from top of page downwards it list comets in ascending order of faintness ... ie. faintest ones at the bottom and it gives an indication of what instrument will be needed to see that particular comet.
It also gives a link to a section of a skymap finder chart for that comet

last nite I managed, for the first time, to spy C/2012 K5 (LINEAR): An evening comet visible in binoculars. it was ~ 20-30 deg above my nthrn horizon and just visible as a fuzzy blob in my 7x50 bino's. The sky was quite bright towards the horizon, the joys of doing astronomy in a large city.
Tonite I will get the scope out and have a better view :) It will be higher up as it moves through Taurus over the next few days.

Cheers
Dave

sophiecentaur

Cheers Dave. It's great for us 'fringe' astronomers to be made aware of this stuff. One day, when the viz is OK and you tell me something, I'll be able to see it and be 'right chuffed'
BTW, HNY 2U2

davenn

you're welcome :)

I am plannig a trip to the USA for the 2017 total eclipse :) you should definately be able to see that event ;)

Dave

Borek

Still almost a year, but Autumn can be interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2012_S1

davenn

wow mag 18.8 when discovered, a really faint little sucker LOL

will be interesting to keep an eye on the SOHO images around the time it rounds the sun
with any luck it will show up on a few of those images, as a lot of sungrazers do

Dave

davenn

After taking the telescope out the following nite, fri 4th Jan, I discovered that I hadnt seen the comet in the binoculars, rather, the fuzzy blob I saw was M37 a faint compact open star cluster ( that almost sounds a contradiction huh ?!)
the cluster was easily resolvable in the scope but not in the 7x50 bino's.
After a couple of hours of searching I finally found the fuzzy blob that is the comet abd the star map confirned that there are no other fuzzies in that area YES Success!!

The comet is NOT visible in the binoculars and I would have estimated its magnitude to be ~ 9 - 10th

cheers
Dave

Astronuc

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news174.html

It's speed is ~7.8 kilometers/second (17,400 miles/hour)
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news177.html

sbrothy

What is the probability of DA14 hitting Earth? Some sources, i.e: www.inquisitr.com says the risk is as high as 2.7%, but I'm told that this is exaggerated and the number is closer to 0.0000036%, and that number is even for 2080. I was given this NASA impact assessment but 2013 doesn't seem to figure. Can anyone tell me?

TIA.

EDIT: Oh it actually says 0% chance in that article in the previous post. Never mind :)
EDIT: And it DOES figure: 3.6e-08%! Well that is as close to 0 as makes no difference! :)

Got confused there! :)

Redbelly98

Comet Pan-STARRS C/2011 L4 should soon be visible in the Northern hemisphere, around or shortly after sunset. Perihelion is tomorrow, March 10.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/...-this-weekend/

chemisttree

I saw it briefly from the observation deck of a tall bldg last night (3-13-13). Very difficult to find in the deepening twilight but obvious through 10X50 binoculars. Unimpressive when viewed from near downtown Houston.

Greg Bernhardt

April 21, 22 - Lyrids Meteor Shower. The Lyrids is an average shower, usually producing about 20 meteors per hour at its peak. It is produced by dust particles left behind by comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which was discovered in 1861. The shower runs annually from April 16-25. It peaks this year on the night of the night of the 21st and morning of the 22nd. These meteors can sometimes produce bright dust trails that last for several seconds. The nearly full moon will be a problem this year, blocking out all but the brightest meteors. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Lyra, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

Greg Bernhardt

April 25 - Partial Lunar Eclipse. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth's partial shadow, or penumbra, and only a portion of it passes through the darkest shadow, or umbra. During this type of eclipse a part of the Moon will darken as it moves through the Earth's shadow. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

davenn

Thanks for the reminder, Greg .... I had almost forgotten about that one coming up.
here's a link to a PDF page for all the info :)


cheers
Dave

davenn

for those in Alaska, nthrn North America, Scandinavia
in southern New Zealand and southern Australia.....

an aurora alert has been posted ... get your cameras ready :)


A Coronal Mass Ejection is expected to impact the Earth within the next 24 - 48 hours, possibly resulting in significant space weather activity and visible auroras at higher latitudes (eg Tasmania) during
local nighttime hours. The projected CME arrival time is for late Sunday (19-May). Alerts will follow should favourable space weather activity eventuate.

Australian Space Forecast Centre
IPS Radio and Space Services
Bureau of Meteorology


regards
Dave