Vern’s Weblog

 The following is a list of some astronomical objects  and events to watch this week, Sept. 9 thru Sept. 15, 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 yet again!
• Excellent ISS passes early in the morning, Tues at 5:23 am and Wed at 5:47 am

International Space Station
Tues Sept. 11 ISS appears at 05:25:28 in the SSW and disappears at 05:29:31 in the East (magnitude -2.1)
Wed Sept. 12 ISS appears at 05:47:00  in the West and disappears at 05:51:29 in the NE (magnitude -1.6)

Sun

This week the Sun rises  at 6:36 am to 6:40 am MDT and sets 7:26 pm to 7:17 pm MDT.  No regions are visible today (Sunday). Solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels this week.

Moon

The Moon is in new on Tues Sept 11 at 6:44 am. The Moon sets very early this week so is not in good position for telescope viewing.

Planets

Mercury appears very low, difficult to spot, nearly straight west during bright twilight after sunset.

Venus is visible in the constellation Cancer in the east about two hours before sunrise, it is quite bright at magnitude -1.9.

Mars rises 11:31 pm to 11:21 pm MDT in constellation Taurus. By the end of the week it will +0.1 magnitude in brightness, 9.1 arc sec across (5% larger), and 86% illuminated.
Best time to view Mars is when it is high up (around 4 to 6 am).  The martian features Syrtris Major, Mare Serpentis and Sinus Sabeaus are visible early in the week at that time. Later in the week the features Mare Cimmerium, Mare Tyrrhenum, and Syrtis Major are in our view. SeeSky and Telescope’s Mars profiler for other times and additional information.

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: (sets 10:54 to 10:36 pm)
Sun. Sept. 9 at 7:42 pm
Tues. Sept. 11 at 9:21 pm
Fri. Sept. 14 at 6:52 pm

Jupiter is setting around 10:30 pm 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.

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

Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann is in constellation Auriga and is magnitude 11.7 in brightness with a 2 arc-min coma. See finder chart on the Skyhound comet page.

Asteroids

There are 17 asteroids brighter than magnitude +11 this week. Locations below are for Sat. Sept. 15 at 10:30 pm MDT.

     Name      Const      RA        DEC     Mag
   1 Ceres       TAU   03:35:35 +09 26′00″  8.3
   2 Pallas      AQR   22:17:31 +01 25′04″  8.9
   8 Flora       ARI   03:57:03 +11 19′34″  9.4
  10 Hygiea      PSC   00:40:53 +10 13′02″ 10.4
  12 Victoria    PSC   00:57:42 +18 58′22″  9.7
  13 Egeria      PSC   01:48:36 -02 51′28″ 10.8
  15 Eunomia     AUR   06:55:59 +29 30′15″ 10.0
  27 Euterpe     AQR   20:56:40 -19 12′49″ 11.0
  29 Amphitrite  TAU   03:48:14 +25 23′14″ 10.0
  30 Urania      AQR   22:34:58 -06 25′10″ 10.0
  80 Sappho      AQL   19:41:25 -07 22′36″ 10.9
115 Thyra       AQR   22:25:35 +04 32′14″ 10.0
185 Eunike      AQR   00:03:15 -15 07′00″ 10.8
194 Prokne      AQR   21:29:51 -12 37′04″ 10.2
230 Athamantis  AQR   22:02:20 +05 08′22″ 10.3
349 Dembowska   AUR   04:46:14 +25 32′06″ 10.7
511 Davida      CET   02:27:51 -09 16′18″ 10.8

Dark Sky

Since the Moon sets before twilight ends this weekend we can have some more time out in the dark with dim fuzzies.  This time of year we can view the summer stuff like the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius in the early evening, the Veil Nebula in Cygnus high overhead at 10 pm, M31 in Andromeda around 2 am,  and M42 in Orion around 4am.  A view of Andromeda with just binoculars on a clear, crisp night, in a dark sky should not be missed. It is by itself worth the drive!

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 9th, 2007 at 9:03 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.