Saturn and an Interplanetary Traveler
I hope you have had time to get out and watch the moon pass Venus the last couple of evenings. The sky has been absolutely beautiful.
This weekend you might want to start following a couple of solar system objects. The first is the planet Saturn. Over the next five months, you can see Saturn rise and move across the sky earlier and earlier. Also over those five months, Saturn's rings will "open up" from it's current nearly edge on view.
Right now, Saturn rises before 9 p.m. Give it a couple of hours to get high enough for good observing and take a peek through stabilized binoculars or a telescope. Through even a small telescope there will be no doubt that you are looking at Saturn. It will look like someone slipped a photo behind the eyepiece, rings and all. Through a telescope look for the second largest moon of the solar system, Titan, hanging around near Saturn as an orange-ish "star." Saturn looks like a cream-colored bright "star" below the tail of the constellation of Leo the Lion.
It seems that every year a comet passes Earth and flirts with becoming visible to the unaided eye. This year isn't any different. A couple of Chinese comet hunting teams found this year's comet, Comet Lulin. In February it should reach unaided-eye visibility as seen from a reasonably dark location. Whether it gets that bright, it already looks obvious in binoculars or a telescope as a fuzzy object. (Typically comets look better in the wide field of view of binoculars.) Start watching Comet Lulin now and watch it brighten and move across the background of stars. The comet glides through the constellation of Libra the Scales for the next couple of weeks on its way to a rendezvous with Saturn. Here's a map of the comet's progress through Valentine's Day.
Till next time, clear skies.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Meet the Beagle All Over Again
Let's take a moment for a quick entry now, to tell you about what's going on at the Beagle.
First, 2009 is a big year for science. In the event that you've somehow missed it, it is not only the International Year of Science, but the International Year of Astronomy. There are a lot of important anniversaries that fall in 2009, and we're hoping to add our efforts to those of the friends of science around the world.
Secondly, if you're already a Facebook user, you can now join the Beagle Society group on Facebook. We're posting upcoming events to the group, and trying to get everything in place there so that you can be updated on all the latest happenings with the Beagle as you would be with your long-lost high school friends. You can also comment on our Wall, upload photos, and do all of those Facebook things that you enjoy the most. The Facebook updates will not replace the regular email updates, but we're hoping to extend our reach with a little bit of additional publicity in a different medium.
John and Carol will be at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in the next few weeks, looking for what's best and brightest, or at least, what's interesting and affordable, from the world of minerals, rocks, fossils, beads and the like. The trip to Tucson is something of a busman's holiday, but it allows them to get out of town for a bit, and, as the colloquial wisdom has it, a change is as good as a rest...
Our online store is growing rapidly, and will eventually include everything that you will find in our physical store. You can visit it here at HMS Beagle Online. We're adding descriptions to items as rapidly as possible, but unfortunately there's no easy way to describe 10,000 items (give or take) from the two-line truncated descriptions in our point-of-sale system. Our goal is for the site to be an effective surrogate for an in-store visit. For those of you wondering, we chose to use PayPal as our primary payment means in the interests of everyone's security. PayPal has a proven track record in conjunction with eBay, and we're sure that a lot of you already have PayPal accounts. Of course, if you're still cautious about paying in this way, we'll also accept your payments through the post or in person, and you can select the Walk-In delivery option if you want to shop online and then come to collect your purchases, or the site will automatically quote you rates for UPS or US Postal Service shipping. If you haven't already taken a look, please do, and let us know what else you might like to see there.
And finally (though we're somewhat late in expressing this), we want to extend our warmest thanks to everyone who has supported the Beagle in 2008. Thanks to you, we have had what could in these economic climes be considered a good year, and January has also shaped up thus far to be on a par with our expectations. We have a lot of exciting things planned for 2009, and hope that we can continue to rely on your patronage and support. As always, if you have any questions, please drop us a line or post in the comments.
Best wishes to everyone for an educational and enrichment-filled 2009!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Astro Bites
A lot of interesting things have come my way through the Intertoobs this week, so I thought I'd just list them for your astronomical web surfing pleasure. After all, the weatherpeople are calling for cloudy skies all weekend in the Kansas City area.
1.) Good news! The Kansas legislature is considering a bill to protect and clean up Kansas' night skies (in other words, an anti-light pollution law). It looks like a pretty good bill to me. If you live in Kansas, and you think it looks good too, contact your reps in Topeka and let them know.
2.) "One stop shopping" for planning your observing sessions at NASA.
3.) A la Jeff Foxworthy, there's a new group on Facebook called "You know You're an Astronomer When..." I don't do Facebook so I won't be joining the group, but the group's front page has a pretty good list of things that might indicate you're an astronomer.
4.) Tuesday morning (1/27) from 10:05 to 10:25a.m. the International Space Station will be talking to schoolchildren in Parnell, MO via ham radio. I'll be listening. If you have a 2-meter ham radio or a scanner you can listen too on or around 145.800 MHz. Remember to account for the doppler effect. The frequency will be higher as the ISS approaches and lower as the ISS moves away. If you can't listen you can watch on NASA TV.
5.) And last, but not least, some actual observing... Check out a thin crescent moon approach Venus Thursday evening (1/29) and then be on the opposite side of Venus the next evening.
Till next time...Clear skies!
1.) Good news! The Kansas legislature is considering a bill to protect and clean up Kansas' night skies (in other words, an anti-light pollution law). It looks like a pretty good bill to me. If you live in Kansas, and you think it looks good too, contact your reps in Topeka and let them know.
2.) "One stop shopping" for planning your observing sessions at NASA.
3.) A la Jeff Foxworthy, there's a new group on Facebook called "You know You're an Astronomer When..." I don't do Facebook so I won't be joining the group, but the group's front page has a pretty good list of things that might indicate you're an astronomer.
4.) Tuesday morning (1/27) from 10:05 to 10:25a.m. the International Space Station will be talking to schoolchildren in Parnell, MO via ham radio. I'll be listening. If you have a 2-meter ham radio or a scanner you can listen too on or around 145.800 MHz. Remember to account for the doppler effect. The frequency will be higher as the ISS approaches and lower as the ISS moves away. If you can't listen you can watch on NASA TV.
5.) And last, but not least, some actual observing... Check out a thin crescent moon approach Venus Thursday evening (1/29) and then be on the opposite side of Venus the next evening.
Till next time...Clear skies!
Friday, January 16, 2009
What's Up This Weekend?
This weekend two wanderers and a hunter take center stage.
The first wanderer is the planet Venus. If you've seen a very bright "star" in the south-southwest after sunset in the past few weeks, then you've seen Venus. Through even a small telescope you should notice that Venus has just passed dichotomy. This is when Venus looks half-lit, like a first-quarter moon. Earth, Venus, and the Sun make nearly a right angle this weekend and we are looking at the day- and night-side of Venus simultaneously.
Our other wanderer is the planet Saturn, just about everyone's favorite. Saturn rises in the east about 10 p.m. and in an hour is well-placed for telescopic observing. Even the smallest telescope will show Saturn's rings, usually. I say "usually," because about every 15 years we cross the ring plane of Saturn. This is one of those years and the rings appear very thin. The rings are still visible, though, so take a look and compare your views in the next few years to see the rings "open up" again.
Traveling with Saturn is a large retinue of moons. Many of these can be seen in backyard telescopes. Its most famous moon, Titan, is the second largest moon in the solar system -- after Ganymede. Titan can be seen -- even in small telescopes -- as an orange-ish "star" near Saturn. The moon Rhea can be seen in telescopes larger than 60-mm in diameter. Tethys and Dione can be seen in telescopes 150-mm and larger.
Due south after sunset this time of year is the large constellation of Orion the hunter. Orion's most striking feature is his three "belt" stars that form a diagonal running from northwest to southeast. If we continue to move southeast from Orion's belt we run into the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, which is also the brightest star of the constellation Canis Major the big dog. Moving back through Orion's belt and to the northwest we run into Aldebaran, thr brightest star in the constellation of Taurus the bull. Moving past Aldebaran we run into an open star cluster known as the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades. The Pleiades cluster is often confused with the little dipper because of the shape made by its brightest stars. But the Pleiades cluster is microscopic compared to the actual Little Dipper in the northern sky. And last, but not least, if we move south from the left-most star in Orion's belt we see a fuzzy star. In binoculars or a telescope we discover that this fuzz is in fact the Great Orion Nebula, a gigantic cloud of dust and gas where stars are currently being born.
Do yourself a favor and take a look at these marvels this weekend.
The first wanderer is the planet Venus. If you've seen a very bright "star" in the south-southwest after sunset in the past few weeks, then you've seen Venus. Through even a small telescope you should notice that Venus has just passed dichotomy. This is when Venus looks half-lit, like a first-quarter moon. Earth, Venus, and the Sun make nearly a right angle this weekend and we are looking at the day- and night-side of Venus simultaneously.
Our other wanderer is the planet Saturn, just about everyone's favorite. Saturn rises in the east about 10 p.m. and in an hour is well-placed for telescopic observing. Even the smallest telescope will show Saturn's rings, usually. I say "usually," because about every 15 years we cross the ring plane of Saturn. This is one of those years and the rings appear very thin. The rings are still visible, though, so take a look and compare your views in the next few years to see the rings "open up" again.
Traveling with Saturn is a large retinue of moons. Many of these can be seen in backyard telescopes. Its most famous moon, Titan, is the second largest moon in the solar system -- after Ganymede. Titan can be seen -- even in small telescopes -- as an orange-ish "star" near Saturn. The moon Rhea can be seen in telescopes larger than 60-mm in diameter. Tethys and Dione can be seen in telescopes 150-mm and larger.
Due south after sunset this time of year is the large constellation of Orion the hunter. Orion's most striking feature is his three "belt" stars that form a diagonal running from northwest to southeast. If we continue to move southeast from Orion's belt we run into the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, which is also the brightest star of the constellation Canis Major the big dog. Moving back through Orion's belt and to the northwest we run into Aldebaran, thr brightest star in the constellation of Taurus the bull. Moving past Aldebaran we run into an open star cluster known as the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades. The Pleiades cluster is often confused with the little dipper because of the shape made by its brightest stars. But the Pleiades cluster is microscopic compared to the actual Little Dipper in the northern sky. And last, but not least, if we move south from the left-most star in Orion's belt we see a fuzzy star. In binoculars or a telescope we discover that this fuzz is in fact the Great Orion Nebula, a gigantic cloud of dust and gas where stars are currently being born.
Do yourself a favor and take a look at these marvels this weekend.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
What's Up This Weekend?
This weekend provides an excellent opportunity to witness one of the wonders of the night sky. I'm talking about the star Algol in the constellation of Perseus.
The cool thing about Algol is that it consists of two stars, a bright primary and a dim secondary. Even cooler, Algol is what astronomers call an eclipsing binary. The dimmer star, which orbits only five percent as far from its companion as Earth does the Sun, passes in front of the bright one every 2.867...days. This makes Algol's brightness dip nearly 70 percent from magnitude 2.1 to magnitude 3.4. From light-polluted, suburban skies Algol can go from a respectably bright star to seemingly not there at all.
Algol is the prototypical eclipsing binary system and provided a terrific laboratory for astronomers to study stellar masses, dimensions, and luminosity; which in turn allowed better distance estimates between stars in our galaxy. And we get to see this wonder take place every few days from our own backyards.
Algol's eclipse starts about 11:07 p.m. Saturday night (CST). Mid-eclipse occurs at 12:07 a.m. Sunday. And it should all be over about 1:07 a.m. Sunday. The constellation of Perseus will be high in the west-northwestern sky at that time. Algol lies nearly mid-way between The Pleiades star cluster and the constellation of Cassiopeia.
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