Vern’s Weblog

Highlights

• Bright ISS pass Monday night 7:24 pm
• Pretty view / photo opportunity Tuesday morning around 6 am, old crescent Moon near horizon and a tight grouping of Venus, Saturn, and Regulus above
• Great time to watch meteors this weekend
• Spot comet C2007 F1 Loneos with binoculars in the northwest after sunset and in northeast before sunrise
• Dark sky weekend!

International Space Station

Monday Oct 8 the ISS rises in the West at 7:24:47 pm and disappears in the NNE at 7:29:32 pm (magnitude -0.2)

Sun

This week the Sun rises at 7:04 am to 7:11 am MDT and sets 6:36 pm to 6:27 pm MDT. One small region 10972 is visble on the Sun’s disk today (Sunday), just west of center disk. See http://raben.com/maps/ for current location. Solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels this week.

Moon

The Moon is new on Fri. Oct. 10 at 11:01 pm MDT.

Planets

Mercury is still around but mostly lost in the sunset glow, setting only about 20 minutes after sunset.

Venus shines brilliantly at magnitude -4.4 before sunrise, high up in constellation Leo; it rises around 3:30 am. It appears in a telescope as a thin crescent.

Mars rises around 10 pm MDT in constellation Gemini. By Saturday it will -0.3 magnitude in brightness, 10.5 arc sec across, and 87% illuminated. The best time to view Mars is when it is high up around 2 am. Early in the week the martian features the features Sinus Sabeus, Sinus Meridiani, and Mare Erythraeum are in our view around that time. Later in the week Syrtus Major will be in the center view with Mare Tyrrhenum and Mare Serpentis visible as well. See Sky and Telescope’s Mars profiler for other times and additional information.

Jupiter is the brightest object in the SW after sunset at magnitude -1.8. For us in the Denver area, its down low in the turbulence over the mountains so its tough to see much detail other than a band or two. It sets before 9:30 pm.

Saturn rises in the ENE just before 4 am and is located just below and left of star Regulus in constellation Leo. It is magnitude 0.7 in brightness.

Uranus is in constellation Aquarius, magnitude 5.8, and 3.6 arc-sec in diameter.

Neptune is in constellation Capricornus, magnitude 7.9, and 2.5 arc-sec in diameter.

Dark Sky

Here is a list of objects to take a look at this weekend.

Galaxies
M31 (mag 3.4), M32 (mag 8.1), M110 in Andromeda
M33 in Triangulum (mag 5.7)
NGC 7331 in Pegasus (mag 9.5)
Near NGC 7331 is Stephan’s quintet in Pegasus. You’ll need at 10 inch or larger scope to see them all. The quintet of galaxies is NGC 7317 (mag 14.7), 7318A (mag 14.3), 7318B (mag 14), 7319 (mag 14.2), & 7320 (mag 13.3).
NGC 7479 (mag 11)

Nebula
The ‘Ring Nebula’ M57 (mag 8.8) in Lyra
The ‘Snow Globe Nebula’, NGC 6781 in Aquila (mag 11.4)
NGC 6804 (mag 12) in Aquila
The ‘Blinking Planetary’, NGC 6826 in Cygnus
The ‘Dumbbel Nebula’, M27 (mag 7.3) in Vulpecula
NGC 6894 (mag 12.3) in Cygnus
The ‘Helix Nebula’, NGC 7293 in Aquarius
The ‘Blue Snowball’, NGC 7354 in Cygnus

Globular Clusters
M2 in Aquarius (class 2)
M15 (mag 7.3) in Pegasus
NGC 6981 (mag 9.2) in Aquarius
M30 (mag 6.9) in Capricornus

Meteor Showers

This weekend will be an excellent time for watching meteors. Activity picks up this month compared to September. Early in the evening expect to see about 4 per hour and about 15 per hour around 5 am. Sporadic rates (meteors not associated with a particular radiant) peak this month. There are several active radiants such as the Taurids, Draconids, Delta Aurigids. The Draconids peak on Oct 9 and the Orionids meteor shower peak on Oct 21.

Asteroids

Here is a list of asteroids brighter than magnitude +11, positions are for Oct 13 at 10:30 pm.

     Name      Const      RA        DEC     Mag
   1 Ceres       TAU   03:29:40 +08 50′20″  7.8
   2 Pallas      AQR   22:05:11 -04 05′17″  9.4
   6 Hebe        HYA   08:52:40 +10 26′49″ 10.5
   8 Flora       TAU   04:10:09 +10 35′23″  8.7
  10 Hygiea      PSC   00:21:28 +08 13′27″ 10.3
  12 Victoria    PEG   00:35:23 +14 49′46″  9.4
  13 Egeria      PSC   01:24:10 -03 25′52″ 10.3
  14 Irene       TAU   04:41:54 +15 39′27″ 11.0
  15 Eunomia     CNC   07:35:48 +27 49′38″  9.8
  29 Amphitrite  TAU   03:49:50 +27 18′04″  9.5
  30 Urania      AQR   22:21:15 -07 37′17″ 10.7
  40 Harmonia    CAP   20:39:46 -23 15′43″ 11.0

Comets

Comet C/2007 F1 (Loneos) is currently magnitude 7.2 and visible in binoculars. It may become as bright as magnitude +4. Unfortunately it very low to the horizon, in the northeast before dawn and in the northwest just after sunset and may be tough to spot. It rises around 5 am and sets around 8 pm. For more information, finder charts etc, see http://www.cometchasing.skyhound.com/ or http://aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html .

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 7:22 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.