Sky this Week
The following is a list of some astronomical objects to see in the sky the week of Aug 19 thru Aug 25, 2007. Some of the events and times given are specific to the Colorado front range (40° N and the MDT timezone).
Highlights
See both the shuttle Endeavour and ISS Monday evening!
Excellent time to view lunar craters, valleys, rilles, and domes
International Space Station
The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the ISS this morning. We should be able to see both the ISS followed by the shuttle Endeavour Monday evening at 8:59 to 9:03 pm, both will be very bright so it should be spectacular. The landing is on Tuesday.
Mon. Aug 20 at 8:59:20 pm appears in WNW, disappears in Earth’s shadow at 9:03:30 pm in the SE (very bright at magnitude -2.3)
Tues. Aug 21 at 9:22:26 pm appears in W, disappears in Earth’s shadow at 9:25:21 in the SSW (magnitude -0.2)
Wed. Aug 22 at 8:09:28 pm appears in NW, disappears at 8:15:14 pm in the SE (very bright at magnitude -2.2)
Thur. Aug 23 at 8:32:30 pm appears in W, disappears at 8:37:01 pm in the SE (magnitude -0.1)
Sun
This week the Sun rises at 6:17 am to 6:23 am MDT and sets 7:55 pm to 7:46 pm MDT. Currently no regions are visible on the the Sun’s disk. Solar activity is expected remain at very low levels this week.
Moon
The Moon is at first quarter this Sun, Aug 20 at 5:54 pm MDT and will be full next week on Aug 28.
Schedule a day off next week so you can watch the total lunar eclipse early in the morning, Tues Aug 28. It will be total from 03:52 to 05:22 am.
See diagram at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2007Aug28/image/TLE2007Aug28-MDT.GIF
The terminator (region between dark and bright sunlight) passes near different features of the Moon as the lunar cycle progresses. Shadows from various features as mountains, craters, and domes are longer tben and increase the contrast. The following is a list of features visible in large binoculars or telescope that are near the terminator on the days indicated at approximately 10:30 pm.
Sun Aug 19: craters Aristoteles, Eudoxus,
Mon Aug 20: Alpetragius, Alphonsus, Archimedes, Aritillus, Arzachel, Cassini, Hershell, Hipparchus, Huggins, Miller, Piton, Wermer,
Mons Hadley,Vallis Alpenninus, Montes Alpes, and Alpenines.
Tue Aug 21: Beer, Clavius, Maginus, Pitatus, Plato, Rima Birt, Stadius, Tycho, and Fra Mauro Rupes Recta
Wed Aug 22: crater Copernicus, Euler, Lambert, Longomontanus, Reinhold, and Dome Kies Pi
Thur Aug 23: craters Doppelmayer, Encke, Gassendi, Hainzel, J Herschel, Kepler, Schiller. Also Sinus Iridium and Montes Jura,
Fri Aug 24: crater Aristarchus, Oceanus Procellarum, Vallis Schroter
Sat Aug 25: craters Pythagoras, Schickard, Wargentin
Planets
Mercury is not visible.
Venus is not visible.
Mars rises 0:20 to 0:09 am MDT in constellation Taurus. It brightens from +0.4 to +0.3 magnitude, the distance decreases from 1.22 AU (113.4 million miles) to 1.19 AU (110 million miles), and increases in size from 7.7 to 7.9 arc sec across, and is 86% illuminated.
Best time to view Mars is just before sunrise when it is high up (around 5 am). In a large telescope, the martian features Mare Cimmerium, Mare Sirenum, and Olympus Mon are visible early in the week but rotates from our view. Later in the week the prominent features visible are Solis Lacaus (the eye of Mars), and Tharsis. See the annotated Mars map by Damian Peach. The following are the center longitude at 5 am on days indicated:
Mon Aug 20: 119 deg.
Tue Aug 21: 110 deg.
We Aug 22: 100 deg.
Thur Aug 23: 90 deg.
Fri Aug 24: 81 deg.
Sat Aug 25: 71 deg.
Jupiter is visible early in the evening in the SSW in constellation Ophiuchus. It sets 0:33 to 0:10 am this week. The Great Red Spot (GRS) crosses the center of Jupiter at the following times:
Mon. Aug 20 at 11:05 pm
Thur. Aug 23 at 08:35 pm
Sat. Aug 25 at 10:14 pm
Saturn is not visible. It is in conjunction with the Sun on Tues, Aug 21.
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.
Pluto is in constellation Sagitarrius, magnitute 13.7, and 0.1 arc-sec in diameter.
Comets
No reasonably bright comets are visible this week.
Asteroids
There are 7 asteroids brighter than magnitude +10 this week. Locations below are for Sat. Aug 25 at 10:30 pm MDT.
Name Const RA Dec Mag
1 Ceres Cetus 03:28:11 +09 24'23" 8.7
2 Pallas Pegasus 22:32:56 +05 46'54" 8.9
4 Vesta Scorpio 16:32:06 -20 51'38" 7.1
8 Flora Cetus 03:31:36 +11 03'34" 9.8
30 Urania Aquarius 22:54:07 -04 53'06" 10.0
40 Harmonia Capricornus 20:47:08 -23 00'16" 9.6
194 Prokne Aquarius 21:36:51 -06 28'23" 9.6
Dark Sky
We can still get some dark sky views early in the week if we stay up past midnight.
Meteor Showers
The annual Perseid meteor shower reached maximum activity last week but still continues this week. The meteor counts will be far lower, about 5 per hour. Sporadic meteor rates (those not associated with a particular radiant) increase to about 12 per hour this time of year.
Look for meteors early this week after moonset.