Vern’s Weblog

The following is a list of some things to see in the sky this week, July 29 thru Aug 4, 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 flies over Wed at 9:41 pm, Thurs 10:04 pm, and Fri 10:27 pm.
• Venus and Saturn disappearing into the sunset glare, last chance to see them for a while
• Comet C/2006 VZ13 (Linear) still visible, last chance this week as well

International Space Station
There are several bright passes of the ISS this week:

Tues July 31 at 04:53:534 am the ISS appears in the NW and disappears at 04:59:28 in the ESE (magnitude -1.4)

Wed Aug 1 at 05:16:44 am appears in WNW and disappears at 05:22:14 in the SSE (magnitude -2.1)
Wed Aug 1 at 9:41:29 10 pm appears in SSW and disappears in the Earth’s shadow at 9:44:01 pm in the SSE (magnitude -2.0)

Thurs Aug 2 at 04:04:36 am appears in NW and disappears at 04:10:02 am in the ESE (magnitude -1.4)
Thurs Aug 2 at 10:04:11 pm appears in WSW and disappears in Earth’s shadow at 10:09:10 pm in the NE (magnitude -1.5)

Fri Aug 3 at 04:30:08 46 am appears in SSW and disappears at 04:32:45 in the SE (magnitude -2.2)
Fri Aug 3 at 8:52:02 pm appears in SSW and disappears at 8:57:34 pm in the ENE (magnitude -1.9)
Fri Aug 3 at 10:27:40 pm in W and disappears at 10:32:21 pm in the NNE (magnitude 0.2)

Sat Aug 4 at 9:14:41 pm WSW and disappears at 9:20:24 pm in the NE (magnitude -1.5)

Sun
The sun rises at 5:58 am to 6:03 am and sets 8:20 pm to 8:14 pm this week. There is one small region, 10965, with 3 spots just east (left) of mid disk today (Sunday). The region will be at mid-disk tomorrow and will rotate around the west limb next Sunday. Solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels.

Moon
The moon is full on Sun July 29 at 6:48 pm. It will be in third quarter next Sat. Aug 5 at 3:20 pm. The following are some interesting features to view around 10:30 pm on the days indicated.

Sun Jul 29 Full Moon, look for rays and albedo features

Mon Jul 30 Craters Langrenus at the eastern edge of Mare Fecunditatis. Look for the twin central peaks and terraced walls. (See http://www.raben.com/weblog/2006/08/11/). Also in Mare Fecunditatis in the southeast, is Petavius. Petavius is a spectacular, complex crater with a fractured floor
terraces, and remarkable rilles.

Tues Jul 31 Mare Crisium, Vallis Rheita, Cleomedes, Endymon, Messier

Wed Aug 1 Cauchy, Taruntius, Atlas, Hercules

Planets

Mercury is low in the ENE about an hour before sunrise early in the week. It moves from constellation Gemini to Cancer and is -1 magnitude.

Venus is still visible but very low straight west and sets 45 minutes after sunset. It is -0.8 in magnitude in constellation Leo.

Mars rises 0:59 am to 0:47 am in constellation Taurus. It is getting closer and grows from 7 to 7.2 arc min across and is magnitude +0.5. The best time to view is just before sunrise when Mars is high up. The following lists the Mars center longitude at 5 am MDT on day indicated. The major features visible at that time this week are Mare Tyrrhenum, Syrtis Major, Hellas, and Mare Serpentis.

Mon July 30 323 deg
Tues July 31 313 deg
Wed Aug 1 303 deg
Thur Aug 2 294 deg
Fri Aug 3 284 deg
Sat Aug 4 274 deg

Jupiter sets 1:56 am to 1:30 am and is straight south in constellation Ophiuchus around 9pm. The Great Red Spot crosses the center of the disk at the following times this week:

Mon July 30 at 0:51 am
Mon July 30 at 8:43 pm
Wed Aug 1 at 10:21 pm

Saturn will be difficult to find low in the west. It is 9 degrees to the right (north) and slightly above Venus. It sets about an hour after sunset and is +1.1 in magnitude.

Uranus is in constellation Aquarius and is magnitude +5.8.

Neptune is constellation Capricornus and is magnitude +7.8.

Pluto is in northwestern part of constellation Sagittarius and is magnitude +13.9.
 

Comets
C/2006 VZ13 (Linear) is magnitude +8.8 and passing through the constellation Virgo. Try for it early in the evening after Wed or Thurs before moonrise. It is in good position this week, but it will be very low by the end of next week. See http://aerith.net/comet/catalog/2006VZ13/2006VZ13.html for charts, etc.

Asteroids

Locations for Aug 3, 2007 at 10:30 pm MDT    

       Name       Const           RA    DECL        Mag
     1 Ceres      Cetus       03:11:48 +08 47'13"   8.9    

     2 Pallas     Pegasus     22:47:22 +09 08'41"   9.4    

     4 Vesta      Scorpius    16:11:33 -18 39'49"   6.8    

     8 Flora      Cetus       02:56:12 +09 48'03"  10.1    

     9 Metis      Ophiuchus   17:32:37 -27 26'58"  10.6    

    12 Victoria   Pisces      00:58:22 +18 18'04"  10.4    

    15 Eunomia    Auriga      05:31:01 +30 31'15"  10.1    

    27 Euterpe    Capricornus 21:32:40 -16 23'53"  10.4    

    29 Amphitrite Aries       03:08:15 +20 46'31"  10.7    

    30 Urania     Aquarius    23:08:43 -03 57'22"  10.7    

    40 Harmonia   Capricornus 20:55:05 -22 15'11"   9.4    

    71 Niobe      Sagittarius 20:16:22 -28 04'10"  10.7    

    80 Sappho     Aquila      19:50:54 -03 13'30"  10.1    

   115 Thyra      Pisces      23:05:51 +02 42'36"  10.7    

   194 Prokne     Aquarius    21:49:03 -00 05'48"   9.9    

   196 Philomela  Capricornus 21:43:45 -23 59'55"  10.9    

   230 Athamantis Pegasus     22:36:26 +08 11'36"  10.6    

   354 Eleonora   Capricornus 20:07:50 -12 23'00"  10.8    

   532 Herculina  Cetus       00:06:14 -18 42'11"  10.9    

   980 Anacostia  Sagittarius 19:52:53 -12 06'40"  10.9

Dark Sky
We can get in some early evening dark sky views this weekend as the Moon rises after 11 pm.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Astronomy, Sky this Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.