Vern’s Weblog

 The following is a list of some astronomical objects  and events to watch this week, Sept. 2 thru Sept. 8, 2007. Some of the events and times given are specific to the Colorado front range (40° N and the MDT timezone).

Highlights

• Dark sky weekend!
• Western Nebraska Star Gaze near Bridgeport, Nebraska Sept 7-9

International Space Station
No good passes this week.

Sun
This week the Sun rises at 6:31 am to 6:36 am MDT and sets 7:34 pm to 7:24 pm MDT. Only the small region 10970 is currently visible slightly west of center. Solar activity is expected remain at very low levels this week.

Moon
The Moon is in 3rd quarter on Monday Sept 3 at 8:32 pm. New moon is Sept 12 at 5:54 pm.

Planets
Mercury appears very low, nearly straight west during early evening twilight later this week.

Venus is visible in the constellation Cancer low in the east about an hour before sunrise, it is quite bright at magnitude -1.1.

Mars rises 11:55 pm to 11:46 pm MDT in constellation Taurus. By the end of the week it will +0.2 magnitude in brightness, 8.4 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 features Sinus Meridiani and Sinus Sabeaus are visible early in the week at 5am. Later in the week the features Sinus Sabeaus and Syrtis Major are in our view.

Jupiter is in the SSW after dark in constellation Ophiuchus. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot crosses the center of the disk at the following times:

Tues Sept. 4 at 8:33 pm
Thurs Sept. 6 at 10:11 pm

Jupiter is setting around 11pm now so our views of it are limited, especially against the unstable air over the mountains to our west (from here in the front range in Colorado). Best time to look is during early twilight, shortly after sunset, when it is still high up.

Saturn rises very low in the ENE around 5:15 am just below and left of star Regulus in constellation Leo, later in the week. It was in conjunction with the Sun on 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 14, and 0.1 arc-sec in diameter.

Comets
No reasonably bright comets are visible this week.

Asteroids
There are 8 asteroids brighter than magnitude +10 this week. Locations are for Sat. Sept. 8 at 10:30 pm MDT.

     Name        Const           RA          Dec      Mag

     1 Ceres     Cetus        03:34:11   +09 28′55″   8.5  

     2 Pallas    Pegasus      22:22:26   +02 56′07″   8.9  

     4 Vesta     Scorpio      16:50:40   -22 08′56″   7.3  

     8 Flora     Cetus        03:49:46   +11 20′04″   9.5  

    12 Victoria  Pisces       01:01:52   +19 30′33″   9.8  

    15 Eunomia   Gemini       06:43:39   +29 50′53″  10.0  

    30 Urania    Aquarius     22:41:11   -05 54′15″   9.8  

   115 Thyra     Pegasus      22:32:58   +04 35′37″   9.9

Dark Sky
Since the next new Moon falls mid week, we get two dark sky weekends in a row. The constellation Cygnus, the swan, is high overhead and the great square of Pegasus is visible in the east. The late summer sky offers many fascinating targets for us to see — M57 the ring in Lyra, M27 the Dumbbel nebula in Aquilla, and M11 the Wild Duck Cluster in Scutum to mention just a few. This weekend we should get some outstanding views of the supernova remnant Veil NGC 6993 and 6995 to the east, and NGC 6960 to the west. The Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888, will be great to revisit as well.

Meteor Showers
The September Perseid meteor shower is Sept. 5 to Sept. 16 with peak on Sept 9. This is a minor shower, a max of 5 per hour are expected at peak times (before dawn on Sept. 9).
Sporadic meteor rates continue to increase this month, around 4 might be seen per hour after dark to about 7 per hour around 4 am. Visit the American Meteor Society for more information.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 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.