Vern’s Weblog

The following is a list of some astronomical objects to see in the sky the week of Aug 12 thru Aug 18, 2007. Some of the events and times given are specific to the Colorado front range (40° N and the MDT timezone).

Highlights

• Perseid meteor shower continues this week (peak days Aug 11 to 15)
• Spot the thin crescent moon after sunset on Mon Aug 13
• Watch the International Space Station this week Tues thru Sat. in the early evening
• CU Mountain Research Station star party this Fri Aug 12 thru Sat Aug 13 (See www.boulderastro.org) Canceled, meeting at Sommers-Bausch Observatory on Sat Aug 13 at 7 pm instead.

International Space Station
The ISS passes over each night this week around 8 to 10 pm. The brightest passes are on:

Tues 14 Aug ISS rises in the NNW at 9:53:54pmand disappears in the NNE at 9:56:08 pm (magnitude -0.0)

Wed 15 Aug ISS rises in the NW at 10:16:01 pm and disappears in the NNW at 10:17:32 pm (magnitude -0.0)

Thur 16 Aug ISS rises in the NNW at 9:03:52 pm and disappears in the ENE at 9:07:37 pm (magnitude -0.0)

Fri 17 Aug ISS rises in the NW at 9:25:55 pm and disappears in the NE at 9:29:03 pm (magnitude -1.3)

Sat 18 Aug ISS rises in the NNW at 8:13:45 pm and disappears in the ENE at 8:17:49 pm (magnitude -0.1)
Sat 18 Aug ISS rises in the WNW at 9:48:15 pm and disappears in the WNW at9:50:31 pm (magnitude -1.5

Sun
The Sun rises 6:11 am to 6:14 am MDT and sets 8:04 pm to 7:56 pm MDT. Region 10966 is near the center of the solar disk but is quite small. It will rotate out of view on the west limb Thurs. Solar activity is expected remain at very low levels this week.

Moon
The Moon is new this Sun, Aug 12 at 5:02 pm MDT.
Mon Aug 13 try to spot the thin crescent moon before it sets at 8:30 pm (1.3 days)
Tues Aug 14 Craters Gauss and La Perouse
Wed Aug 15 Craters Endymon, Furnerius, Langrenus, Messala, and Petavius. Check out the Mare Crisium region as well.
Thur Aug 16 Craters Atlas, Cleomed, Macrobius, Messier, Taruntius, and Watt. The Vallis Rheitta alignment of closely overlapped craters.
Fri Aug 17 Craters Fracastorois. Gartner, Hercules, and Piccolomini
Sat Aug 18 Mare Tranquillitatis; and craters Catharina, Cyrillus, Lamont, Theophilus; and

Planets
Mercury is too close to the Sun and not visible.
Venus is too close to the Sun and not visible (inferior conjuction on Sat).
Mars rises 0:33 to 0:22 am MDT in constellation Taurus. It is +0.4 magnitude in brightness, 7.6 arc sec across, and 86% illuminated.
Best time to view Mars is just before sunrise when it is high up (around 5 am). The martian feature Mare Cimmerium is visible early in the week but rotates from our view. Later in the week the prominent features visible are Mare Sirenum, and Solis Lacus. The following is the center longitude of Mars at 5 am:
Sun Aug 12: 197
Mon Aug 13: 187
Tues Aug 14: 177
Wed Aug 15: 168
Thur Aug 16: 158
Fri Aug 17: 148
Sat Aug 18: 206
See the annotated Mars map by Damian Peach.

Jupiter is directly south after dark in constellation Ophiuchus. The Great Red Spot (GRS) crosses center at the following times this week:
Aug 13 at 02:26 am
Aug 13 at 10:17 pm
Aug 15 at 11:56 pm
Aug 18 at 01:35 am
Aug 18 at 09:26 pm
The GRS is visible about an hour before and after the central meridian crossing.

Saturn is too close to the Sun and is not visible.

Uranus is in constellation Aquarius, magnitude 5.7, and 3.6 arc-sec in diameter.

Neptune is in constellation Capricornus, magnitude 7.8, and 2.5 arc-sec in diameter (at opposition on Mon Aug 13).

Pluto is in constellation Sagitarrius, magnitute 13.7, and 0.1 arc-sec in diamter.

Comets
No reasonably bright comets are visible this week.

Asteroids
There are 6 asteroids brighter than magnitude +10 this week. Locations are for Sat. Aug 18 at 10:30 pm MDT.

     Name        Const           RA          Dec      Mag

1 Ceres Cetus 03:23:48 +09 16′38″ 8.8

2 Pallas Pegasus 22:38:03 +07 01′44″ 9.1

4 Vesta Scorpio 16:24:18 -20 10′19″ 7.0

8 Flora Cetus 03:21:06 +10 46′10″ 9.9

40 Harmonia Capricornus 20:40:43 -23 32′36″ 9.8

194 Prokne Aquarius 21:40:46 -04 17′37″ 9.6

Dark Sky
Dark sky week continues you can still view your favorite summer objects.The Moon sets 10:17 pm on Saturday.

Meteor Showers
The annual Perseid meteor shower should peak around 3:00 am on Aug 13 as the Earth passes through debris from comet Swift-Tuttle. The typical peak rate for the Perseid meteor shower is about 60 per hour. In the mid-90s the Earth passed through core areas of the debris and exceeded 400 per hour. The rate varies through the evening starting with around 50% the peak rate (30 per hour) around 9 pm and increasing to around 90% the peak rate by midnight, to 100% the peak rate by 3 am.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 11th, 2007 at 9:14 am 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.