Beautiful Conjunction

Over the course of the nights of March 12 and 13, Venus and Jupiter gracefully passed by each other in the night sky. Only a few degrees separated the two bright planets, and it was truly a blessing to view this conjunction in Oneonta under remarkably clear skies.

Seen hovering above the 16-inch dome at College Camp in the image above (Venus on the right, Jupiter on the left), these two planets are the first points of light to appear out of the fading sunset. If you know where to look, they can even be spotted while the sun is still up - though it is admittedly difficult. Venus is approaching its greatest eastern elongation as it traverses its orbit out from behind the Sun, so while it proceeds to increase its apparent distance from the Sun for the time being, Jupiter will gradually move closer and closer to the Sun as our own planet travels onward. Ultimately, Jupiter will be lost as it passes behind the Sun, only to eventually make a reappearance in the pre-dawn sky.

Look carefully and you'll spot the Pleiades star cluster above and nearby (above the telescope in this image). Look for the two planets to be joined by a slender crescent Moon on March 25 and 26. This will be a lovely grouping not to be missed.

In addition, Mars is making its presence known for the entire night these days. Looking to the east, its ruddy hue is unmistakeable in the constellation of Leo.

Here it can be seen rising above the 14-inch telescope dome, glimmering brightly in the east. If you wait until around 10:00 p.m., you'll even catch Saturn as it rises near Spica in the constellation Virgo. Need help finding Spica? Find the Big Dipper, then follow the curve of the handle to "Arc to Arcturus" - that other really bright star on the northeastern horizon at this time of night. Then "Speed on to Spica", following the horizon toward due east. Here is a chart facing east to help you.

Arcturus is the star on the left, Spica is the star on the right, and Saturn is in between, closer to Spica. Enjoy viewing our neighbors in the solar system!

Can you spot the Space Station?

Identifying planets and stars is fun, and gazing upon nebulae and galaxies can be breathtaking, but you may find yourself at times looking for something more...transient. More challenging, perhaps. The planets shift positions almost imperceptibly from night to night, and the nebulae and galaxies don't seem to move at all, and while this makes them reliable targets when you need to find them, they may provide less of a "thrill of the hunt" once you know where they are and have seen them a couple times. Is there anything in the heavens that isn't permanent?

One easy answer to this is: satellites! A mere 55 years ago, mankind launched the first artificial satellite (Russia's Sputnik) into orbit around the Earth and since then we have put thousands more up there.

While only a few hundred or so are currently functioning, there remain many that are still visible from Earth...if you know where to look.

Amateur ham radio operators often use the radio signals emitted by many satellites to track them through the sky. However, some are bright enough to see with the naked eye - and many can produce bright "flares" where their apparent brightness suddenly increases by many factors for several tens of seconds.

Brightest of them all is the International Space Station (ISS).

Adorned with over twenty double-sided solar panels, the space station has so many reflective surfaces that when it is visible it can often be one of the brightest objects in the sky. Furthermore, taking just 90 minutes to orbit the Earth, many people are surprised by how quickly it moves across the sky.

There are several Internet engines that can help you keep track of satellites as they orbit. Visit www.n2yo.com and you will be greeted with a Google Maps-based image that shows real-time locations of a number of prominent satellites, including the ISS. If you are looking for help predicting when they will be visible from your location, check out Satellite Flybys, where rise times, brightnesses, maximum elevations, and directions on where to look are given. For example, using this website I have found that for the Oneonta area the ISS will be visible for the next few nights:

Date	Rise time	Direction to look	Transit time	Max. Elevation	Magnitude
02/16/2012	05:58:44 p.m.	WSW	06:01:51 p.m.	87 deg.	-4.0
02/17/2012	06:38:41 p.m.	W	06:40:57 p.m.	28 deg.	-2.1
02/18/2012	05:45:23 p.m.	NNE	05:46:31 p.m.	37 deg.	-2.7

Finally, the website Heavens-Above gives the same information for satellites while also providing Finder Charts for other celestial objects like planets, comets, asteroids, etc.

While the ISS is quite bright, most other satellites are a bit fainter. They may be easily mistaken for airplanes, but rather than blinking these satellites will be a constant brightness because they are being illuminated by the sun rather than any mounted light bulbs. Look carefully and you will see them moving against the background stars.

Happy hunting!

See Uranus while it's easy to find!

For thousands of years, people have been familiar with planets visible in the night sky. Jupiter and Venus stand out dramatically, Saturn and Mars are also easily seen, and even Mercury can be observed on those (albeit brief) times it emerges from the Sun's glare. However, Uranus and Neptune are a different story. The first planet to be discovered with a telescope, Uranus (pronounced "YOOR-in-us") shines faintly right around the limit for naked-eye detection. What this means is that if you have extraordinary vision, and know precisely where to look, you may be able to detect its faint glow without optical aid if you are in an absolutely dark location - but most likely you will need some sort of assistance. In the case of Uranus, simple binoculars will work.

Being so faint, it can be somewhat challenging to locate the greenish-blue planet among the background stars. Fortunately, nature is giving us a great opportunity to find it using another solar system object: Venus. Venus happens to be extremely easy to find in the sky right now - just look to the west after sunset and this yellow planet is the brightest point of light you'll see.

Now go grab your binoculars, or a telescope if you have one. On February 9th, Uranus will appear right next to our brightest neighbor in the sky (to the South). The image below shows its position on the evening of February 9th as it would appear looking westward (meaning north is to the upper-right and east is to the upper-left). In red are shown the planets' orbits, which you can use to detect Uranus on any of the other upcoming nights as well. Uranus moves very slowly compared to Venus, so even if Venus has moved with respect to the background stars, you can still use the background stars to identify Uranus.

If you're using binoculars, this is how the image should appear. If you're using a telescope, be careful: the optical system of most telescopes will flip the image upside down unless you are using a diagonal mirror to hold your eyepiece. Orient the image above accordingly.

Happy planet hunting!

C/2009 P1 (Garradd), meet M92

As the winter nights press on, it can be frustrating to notice the paucity of good clear skies. Night after night of clouds can make it difficult to keep track of the progression of the Moon, let alone the motion of Jupiter and Venus. This means that when the clouds do part, an observer needs to be ready with binoculars or telescope in one hand and target list in the other. As soon as you see the friendly glow of Venus over the western horizon after sunset, quickly put on your thermal underwear, heavy clothes, two layers of socks, a snowmobile suit, gloves, hat, ski mask, and scarf and hurry outside! Don't forget the hand-warmers either. It's cold out!

This time we will be looking to the north-east late in the night (around 2:30 a.m.). Rising in this direction will be the bright star Vega, and to the upper-right of this the trapezoid-shaped chest of Hercules. To the left of this trapezoid is the head of Draco, the great dragon. The star field is shown below in this image, oriented how you would see it looking north-east at 2:30 a.m. on February 2:

The constellation names are given, and various stars are labeled with their Bayer designation (Greek letters). Near the center of the image is M92, a brilliant ball of hundreds of thousands of stars all bound together gravitationally:

Sliding near M92 from February 1st through the 5th will be the comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd), which put on a nice evening showing last autumn. Making its reappearance in the morning sky, this comet is still a fairly bright target and should appear as a fuzzy spot which moves over the course of a day. The finder chart below, courtesy of Astronomy Magazine, will help you track its motion during the month:

Just be aware that in this finder chart, north is up, while in the first image posted above north is to the left. This is why I have labeled the stars with the Greek letters as they are in the finder chart.

Be sure to let your eyes adjust to the darkness first. This will help the faint details of the comet become more apparent. It may further help to use averted vision - looking off to the side a bit and letting your peripheral vision (which is more sensitive to light) detect its location.

Happy viewing!

That crisp winter air

Hello Oneonta! I'm back at it and, with the spring semester about to begin, just as busy as ever. That two week trip to Michigan was great, followed by a week down in Texas where it was moderately warmer than it is here in Oneonta...very nice. Although nature is bringing on that icy air which, while refreshingly crisp, has an uncanny ability to penetrate to the very depths of one's bones, I'm still going to give you some suggestions on heading outside to look up. Why? Because the coldest nights of winter are often the clearest, and you don't want to miss the night sky for the next few months!

Head out around 7:00 p.m. and you'll be greeted by the mighty Orion hanging in the southeastern sky. This recognizable constellation serves as a navigation tool for locating a handful of easily spotted constellations and stars in the winter sky. While I won't discuss those in this post, since it's easier seen than described, I do recommend you check out a planetarium show at the SUNY Oneonta Planetarium if you're curious. The planetarium shows this semester will be immediately followed by public observing at the College Camp Observatory (weather permitting)!

Grab your binoculars and find something to lean on (or buy yourself a pair of those really cool image-stabilized binoculars!) and turn your sights on the middle star in Orion's belt. Scanning just below the belt you will see three points of light that look like stars which constitute the "sword" or "sheath" hanging from his belt. Focus on the middle of those three and your eyes will be greeted by a wispy cloud of gas: the Orion Nebula. This is a relatively nearby star-forming region called a diffuse nebula which contains a tight cluster of stars in the center referred to as the Trapezium. These hot young stars emit copious amounts of high-energy radiation which causes the gas surrounding them to glow with a reddish color.

The image above was taken at the College Camp Observatory with the 16-inch telescope. Unfortunately, your view through the binoculars won't look this good, but if you find a dark location you may see some color.

A more easily seen spectacle will occur on January 26th when the thin waxing crescent Moon will be positioned right next to Venus in the western sky. Venus has been that blazing bright spot in the western sky after sunset and will be the center of several great conjunctions in the coming months. The view will resemble the view below that occurred in December 2008:

As the days and weeks go by, that other bright point of light high in the southern sky to the right of Orion (Jupiter) will be rapidly approaching Venus until we have a month-long conjunction of the two bright planets from February through March. This will be a sight you won't want to miss, so every clear night take a peek at them to watch their progress. If you have a clear view of the eastern horizon later in the evening (9 or 10 p.m.), look for a reddish point of light - this is Mars and I will make more mention of it as it becomes more easily visible in the coming weeks and months.

This Saturday night keep your eyes peeled for Northern Lights! A coronal mass ejection from the Sun may cause some geomagnetic storms this weekend if we are lucky.
The winter sky is filled with treasures that are easily seen, so check back often for updates and additional recommendations.

Conference time!

This winter break has been a busy one and I have traveled uncountable miles from New York to Michigan, back to New York, and now to Texas. It's time again for the American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference, and this year we're in Austin, TX. The president's address this morning indicated (if memory serves me) that there are some 2500 astronomers in attendance this year. Lots of interesting things on the docket this year, including updates about extrasolar planets, a screening of the "Saving Hubble" film, reports from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey about the current view of the Milky Way from the SDSS-III survey, and more. You can keep up with blog and Twitter posts from the folks at www.astrobetter.com and astrobites.com throughout the week. You should also keep an eye on the news headlines (particularly www.space.com) as some of the top stories will come out in press releases. Here is one example about "sniffing" alien planet atmospheres. If I get a chance to take some pictures, I'll post one or two here.

These conferences are a great opportunity for professional astronomers to network with each other, report on research results, and collaborate on new projects. For postdocs and grad students, this is where you give a talk or present a poster in the hopes of getting hired for a job. Undergrads can get valuable experience presenting
results or simply learning about the research process. I'm looking forward to meeting new colleagues and coming home with new research ideas.

Update: The comet lives on!

Comet Lovejoy managed to survive its pass around the Sun - a mere 140,000 kilometers above the Sun's surface - and has reappeared on the other side! Despite the million-degree temperatures of the solar corona, this comet must have been robust enough to have avoided completely melting, although it now seems to lack a tail for the moment. This lack of a tail may be the result of the rapid orbital speed as it was "slung" around the Sun, being basically ripped away from its tail due to its increased velocity. It may also be the case that the Sun's heat melted away much of the ice that was exposed at its approach and there is now a significantly less amount of debris being streamed out behind it - lost in the glare of the Sun and the glowing comet head. We'll see if a tail reappears in the coming hours. For now, check out the videos and images posted by the SOHO space observatory:

SOHO Pick of the Week