Vern’s Weblog

The following is a list of some astronomical objects and events to watch this week, Sept. 16 thru Sept. 22, 2007. Some of the events and times given are specific to the Colorado front range (40° N and the MDT timezone).

Highlights

• Timothy Ferris film “Seeing in the Dark” airs on PBS Wed. Sept 19 at 7:00 PM for us in the Denver area, and at 8:00 PM in most locations. Check your local pbs listings in your area.
• This week is an excellent time to view craters, domes, rilles, and other lunar features

International Space Station
There are 4 visible passes this week but none are very bright. All are low in the NNE, and early in the morning around 4:30 to 6 am.

Sun

This week the Sun rises at 6:44 am to 6:50 am MDT and sets 7:11 pm to 7:01 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 first quarter on Wed. Sept 19 at 10:48 am. The following are some Lunar II Club targets for this week:
Sun Sept 16 the moon sets 9:16 pm, lunation 5.7: Arago, Baco, Cauchy, Censorinus, Dorsa Lister, Posionius, and Dorsa Smirnov, Lacus Mortis, Lamont, Rabbi Levi, Rima Janssen, Ritter and Sabine, Sinus Asperitatis
Mon Sept 17: sets 9:53 pm, lunation 6.7 craters Hercules, Julius Caesar, Linne, Sacrobosco and Rima Ariadaeus
Tues Sept 18: sets 10:38 pm, lunation 7.7 Alpetragius, Cassini, Muller, Regiomontanus, Rima Hadley, Triesnecker, Sinus Lunicus, Thebit, and Vallis Alpes
Wed Sept 19: sets 11:33 pm, lunation 8.7 Beer, Feuillee, Clavius, Hesiodus A, Sinus Amoris, Stadius, Timocharis, and Wolf
Thur Sep 20 sets after midnight 21st at 0:23, lunation 9.7: Buillialus, Hrotensius dome field, Kies, Mare Cognitum, Mare Insularum, and Sinus Aestuum, Montes Recti, Teneriffe, and Spitzenbergen, Rima Hesiodus and Hippalus
Fri Sep 21 sets after midnight 22nd at 1:41 am, lunation 10.7: Hainzel, Dome Milichius PI, Mons Gruituisen, Montes Focault and Jura.
Sat Sep 22 sets after midnight on 23rd at 2:53 am, lunation 11.7: Aristarchus Plateau, Mairan, Marius Hills, Mersenius, Montes Agricola, Schiller, Segner, and Zucchius

Planets

Mercury appears very low in the WSW and sets about an hour after sunset, magnitude -0.1 and 5.7 arc sec in diameter

Venus is visible in the early morning in constellation Cancer. It rises around 4 am and is quite bright at magnitude -2.

Mars rises 11:29 pm to 11:18 pm MDT in constellation Taurus. By the end of the week it will +0.0 magnitude in brightness, 9.2 arc sec across, and 86% illuminated.
Best time to view Mars is when it is high up (around 4 to 6 am). The martian features Mare Cimmerium, Mare Tyrrhenum, and Syrtis Major are visible early in the week at that time. Later in the week the features Olympus Mons, Mare Sirenum, and Mare Cimmerium are in our view. See Sky 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:
Sept. 16 at 08:31 pm
Sept. 18 at 10:10 pm
Sept. 21 at 07:40 pm
Sept. 23 at 09:19 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 4:40 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 16 asteroids brighter than magnitude +11 this week. Locations below are for Sat. Sept. 22 at 10:30 pm MDT.

Name Const RA DEC Mag
1 Ceres CET 03:35:49 +09 20′03″ 8.2
2 Pallas AQR 22:13:09 -00 06′02″ 9.1
6 Hebe CNC 08:22:04 +11 56′27″ 10.6
8 Flora ARI 04:02:55 +11 13′53″ 9.2
10 Hygiea PSC 00:36:00 +09 46′30″ 10.3
12 Victoria AND 00:52:26 +18 10′32″ 9.5
13 Egeria PSC 01:43:34 -03 03′10″ 10.6
15 Eunomia AUR 07:07:34 +29 06′47″ 9.9
29 Amphitrite ARI 03:50:50 +25 58′21″ 9.9
30 Urania AQR 22:29:33 -06 52′44″ 10.2
115 Thyra PEG 22:19:06 +04 23′54″ 10.1
185 Eunike CET 23:58:37 -16 53′24″ 10.8
194 Prokne AQR 21:30:06 -14 16′14″ 10.4
230 Athamantis AQR 21:58:18 +04 11′45″ 10.4
349 Dembowska AUR 04:50:32 +26 02′30″ 10.6
511 Davida CET 02:25:56 -10 04′20″ 10.7

Dark Sky

Still some dark sky early in the week if you can get up early in the morning.

Meteor Showers

No major showers are currently visible, however the sporadic meteor rates are higher this time of year, around 3 might be seen per hour after dark and 14 per hour around 4 am. Visit the American Meteor Society for more information.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 7:24 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.