“STAR TRAK for November: Jupiter and Leonid meteor shower - PhysOrg” plus 1 more |
| STAR TRAK for November: Jupiter and Leonid meteor shower - PhysOrg Posted: 05 Nov 2010 11:19 AM PDT Jupiter will be easy to see in the south as night falls in November. The best time to observe this bright planet with a telescope will be from dusk to midnight as it travels high across the sky from southeast to southwest. Jupiter's four brightest moons will be visible with binoculars. The planet Uranus will be about 3 degrees northeast of Jupiter all month, offering a rare opportunity to use the conspicuous larger planet as a marker. Their apparent separation is about a third of the width of your fist at arm's length. Saturn will rise in the east a little before the start of morning twilight at the beginning of November and as early as 2 a.m. local time by month's end. The yellow planet will be slightly brighter than the bright white star Spica below it. Saturn's rings are opening rapidly after being almost edgewise as seen from Earth. Venus will rise in the east-southeast less than a half hour before the sun at the start of November, and it will be noticeably higher each day after that for observers at mid-northern latitudes. By month's end, Venus will rise more than three hours before the sun and reach the peak of its brightness as it approaches Spica directly above it. Mercury will gradually emerge very low in the southwest as the weeks of November go by. It will form a triangle with Mars and the bright orange star Antares, but all three objects will be hard to see so close to the horizon. Mars will be barely visible with binoculars very low in the southwest a half hour after sunset during November. The pumpkin-colored planet will be too dim to see without optical aid in such bright twilight, and it will disappear from view by month's end. Meteor showers The annual Leonid meteor shower will peak on the night of Nov. 17-18, just three days before full moon. Moonlight will make for impaired viewing conditions before midnight, but as many as 20 meteors per hour may be visible in a clear sky. The Leonid meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Leo the Lion. They are actually caused by streams of fast-moving dust particles from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The best time to watch for meteors will be after the moon sets around 3 a.m. local time, as sickle-shaped Leo gets higher in the east. The farther Leo climbs above the horizon, the more meteors there will be all over the sky. The bright star Regulus is part of Leo and can serve as a marker for the radiant, the point from which the meteors appear to come. Another meteor shower, the Southern Taurids, will peak before dawn on Nov. 5, when the new moon will not interfere. These meteors will seem to come from the constellation Taurus the Bull, whose bright orange star Aldebaran is easy to spot. Watch to the west between midnight and dawn. More information about meteor showers is available from the American Meteor Society at: http://www.amsmete … showers.html . Moon phases The moon will be new on Nov. 6, at first quarter on Nov. 13, full on Nov. 21 and at third quarter on Nov. 28. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Leonid annual meteor shower due soon - msnbc.com Posted: 05 Nov 2010 02:47 PM PDT In the coming days, skywatchers will likely be hearing much about the impending return of the famous Leonid meteor shower, which graces the night skies of November each year. When most people hear through the news media of an impending meteor shower, it's likely that their first impression is of a sky filled with shooting stars pouring down through the sky like cosmic rain. Such meteor storms have indeed occurred with the Leonids, such as in 1833 and 1966 when meteor rates of tens of thousands per hour were observed. In more recent years, most notably 1999, 2001 and 2002, lesser Leonid displays of up to a few thousand meteors per hour took place. [ Gallery: Spectacular Leonid Meteor Shower Photos ] But the 2010 version of the Leonid meteor shower are likely to be far weaker than that. In fact, the general consensus points toward rates of 15 to 20 per hour. In addition, there is going to be a bright waxing gibbous moon that will seriously interfere with observing the early stages of the display. However, the moon will set a few hours before sunrise when the Leonids reach their maximum. Thats good timing, as the moon will be getting out of the way just as the constellation Leo from where the meteors appear to emanate will climb high in the southeast sky. As for when the actual peak of the shower will occur, Mikhail Maslov, a Russian meteor expert predicts maximum activity at 1511 UT (10:11 a.m. EST) on Nov. 17. The International Meteor Organization (IMO) is forecasting that it will take place a bit later at 2115 UT (4:15 p.m. EST) on Nov. 17, while the 2010 Observers Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada says it will happen 45 minutes later at 2200 UT (5 p.m. EST). All three predictions suggest that central and eastern Asia will be in the best position to see the strongest Leonid activity. Meanwhile, for North Americans, it looks like it will be a compromise between the predawn hours of Nov. 17 (with activity on the rise) and the predawn hours of Nov. 18 (with activity on the wane). Viewers should count on seeing about a dozen Leonids per hour hopefully more. While a far cry from the meteor storms of a decade ago, its still better than nothing! The Leonids are the cosmic leftovers from a comet known as Tempel-Tuttle. These tiny comet particles orbit the sun in a direction opposite to that of the Earth. As a result, they hit our atmosphere at exceptionally high speeds: 45 miles per second. The results are very swift streaks of light, some of which can leave persistent trails in their wake lasting for many seconds. We will have more to say about the Leonids in the days ahead, and on Nov. 15 well publish a complete guide on how to watch for them. So stay tuned Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. © 2010 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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