The Moon from early this morning at 1:44 am MDT, lunation 15.2 days.
Images acquired with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera (ISO 200 and 1/400 sec exposure). Forty images each for northern and hemisphere aligned and stacked with Registax4 and then composited with Photoshop Elements2. Location was Louisville, CO; the sky was clear, no wind; temperature was 66 °F, transparency was very good, and turbulence 6/10.
The sky was clear for a while today so I took an image of region 10961 with the Toucam. Region 10961 hasn’t had much activity, but hey is large and has some spots — it doesn’t take much to get us solar fans excited during off season.
Image taken at 1:23 pm MDT with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope and Phillips Toucam 840K webcam. Temperature was 88°F, wind was 2 to 5 mph, sky was clear, turbulence about 5/10, transparency was excellent, and location was Louisville, CO.
The following is a list of some interesting things to see up in the sky this week, June 24 thru June 30, 2007. Some of the events and times given are specific to the Colorado front range (40° N and the MDT timezone).
Highlights
International Space Station
There are no bright passes this week.
Sun
The Sun rises 5:34 to 5:36 am MDT this week. It sets at 8:36 pm all week. There are currently no regions visible on the solar disk. Solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels this week.
Moon
The Moon is full next Saturday at 7:49 am MDT. Since this will be the second full moon this month, it is called a “blue moon”.
Here is some features to look for on Sunday and Monday (lunation 10 and 11):
And some features for lunation 12 and 13 (Tuesday and Wednesday):
Planets
Venus is in constellation Leo and is still very bright at magnitude -4.3. Venus and Saturn will be very close together on Sat. June 30. Look for them low the WNW after sunset.
Saturn is magnitude +1.1 in the constellation Leo.
Jupiter is nearly straight south around 11 pm in constellation Ophiuchus and just to the upper left of Antares. It is quite bright at magnitude -2.5. If you have a telescope watch for the Great Red Spot (GRS) cross the middle of Jupiter at the following times this week:
Tues June 26 2:47 am
Tues June 26 10:38 pm
Thur June 28 4:25 am
Fri June 29 0:16 am
Mon July 1 1:54 am
The GRS can be seen for about an hour before and after the times indicated.
Jupiter’s moon Io transits across the disk on Mon June 25 starting 1:10 am MDT.
Pluto is magnitude +13.9 in constellation Sagittarius
Mars is in constellation Aries and is magnitude +0.7. It rises in the ENE just before 2 am.
Uranus is magnitude +5.8 and is in the constellation Aquarius.
Neptune is magnitude +7.9 and is in the constellation Capricornus.
Mercury is not visible.
Comets
This week and next may be the best time to observe Comet C/2006 VZ13 (Linear), it will disappear from our view in mid-August. It will brighten from magnitude 10.3 today to nearly magnitude 8 next Sunday, July 1st, so its within range of small scopes and giant binoculars. It is currently in constellation Draco. It has a 2.5 arc min wide halo, there is no tail. See http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets/2006_VZ13.gif for a finder chart. Unfortunately, the full moon will make it tough to locate, it may be best to wait until July 3 and try to find it before the moon rises (about 11 pm).
Asteroids
There are 10 asteroids brighter than magnitude 11. Locating asteroids visually is a challenge and a lot tougher than the magnitude might indicate. You’ll need accurate star charts to find them. Sketch the star fields an hour or so apart to show movement of the asteroid. Positions below are for June 30 at 10:30 pm MDT.
Name Constellation RA Dec Mag 21 Lutetia Scorpius 16:03:44 -20 30'49" 10.7 4 Vesta Scorpius 16:07:24 -15 37'14" 6.0 85 Io Ophiuchus 16:55:39 -04 55'15" 11.0 9 Metis Sagittarius 17:57:31 -27 06'32" 9.9
1166 Sakuntala Sagittarius 19:07:58 -19 31'09" 10.7 80 Sappho Aquila 20:19:38 -03 30'32" 10.5 40 Harmonia Capricornus 21:20:13 -18 50'53" 10.2 194 Prokne Pegasus 21:52:06 +04 25'34" 10.8 2 Pallas Pegasus 22:54:45 +10 57'51" 10.0 12 Victoria Pisces 00:21:20 +12 52'28" 10.9
Deep Sky
The Moon interferes with our views of dim galaxies and nebula this week.
The image from last evening, June 22, 2007 at 9:40 pm MDT at lunation 8.02 days. Lots of great stuff near the terminator on day 8, crater Cassini and Archimedes in the north, Ptolemeus and Alphonsus in the south, and the Vallis Alpes — there are many, many great features to see.
Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope with F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera (1/640 sec exposure, ISO 400). Stacked 40 with Registax4 and then cropped and brightness adjusted with Photoshop Elements2. Louisville, CO temperature around 70° F, no wind, no clouds, transparency very good, but only 5/10 turbulence.
Not one of my best days, a small cloud was in exactly the wrong place at the time of the occulation so I missed that part. I did see the re-appearance about a second late. I glanced at my notebook to check the time. I then had problems setting up the webcam. Nonetheless here it is. The daytime shot came out better than I expected.
Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F6.3 focal reducer, and Phillips Toucam 840K webcam. Temperature 86°F, no wind, 14% humidity, turbulence 6/10, and mostly clear skies — other than the one cloud previously mentioned.
