Sky This Week
Highlights
- Dark sky weekend coming up!
- Comet 17P Holmes is still spectacular!
International Space Station
If all goes as scheduled the Shuttle will separate from the ISS around 3:30 am tomorrow morning (Monday). That means we should see both the ISS and the shuttle pass overhead during the Monday morning pass around 5:27 am.There are some good passes every day this week if you like getting up early in the morning around 4 or 5 amMon Nov 5 ISS appears in the SSW at 05:22:28 am MST and disappears in the ENE at 5:27:26 (magnitude -0.2).Tues Nov 6 ISS appears in the SW at 5:47:42 am MST and disappears in the NE at 5:50:35 (magnitude -2.5)
Wed Nov 7 ISS appears in the ESE at 4:35:58 am MST and disappears in the ENE at 4:38:04 (magnitude -0.1)
Thurs Nov 8 ISS appears in the NE at 4:58:41 am MST and disappears in the NE at 5:01:10 (magnitude -2.1)
Fri Nov 9 ISS appears in the NNW at 5:21:11 am MST and disappears in the NE at 5:23:44 (magntidue -1.2)
Sat Nov 10 ISS appears in the NW at 5:43:29 am MSTand disappears in the NNE at 5:45:59 (magnitude -0.2)
Sun
The sun rises 6:35 to 6:42 am MDT and sets 4:57 to 4:51 pm MDT. No spots are currently visible on the sun (today, Sunday). According the the Space Weather Prediction Center activity should remain at very low levels this week.
Moon
The Moon is new on Friday, Nov 9 at 4:03 pm MST.
Planets
Mercury rises about an hour before sunrise in constellation Virgo.Venus is in constellation Virgo also, although higher up in the early morning sky and much, much brighter, a dazzeling -4.2 magnitude.Saturn is constellation Leo visible in early morning hours.Mars is good position for telescope views around 1 am high up in the east in constellation Gemini (magnitude -0.79). Opposition is on Christmas eve, so it will be good object to view in the coming weeks if the air is steady. Use lots of power and experiment with filters to help bring out surface features.
Image of Mars from RAC around 1:46 MST, Phillips Toucam, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Nexstar11 scope.
Jupiter is still bright at magnitude -1.9 but too low in the west after sunset for good telescope views.
Uranus is constellation Aquarius
Neptune is in constellation
Pluto is not visible.
Dark Sky
Hopefully, another great weekend in some dark skies coming up. Lots of darkness this weekend (~11 hrs, 40 miniutes) so plenty of time to see late summer favorites , not to mention fall objects, winter objects, and even a few early spring ones in Virgo. (Sorry too tired to put together dark sky object list tonight).Meteor ShowersNo meteor showers this weekend that are associated with a particular radiant. However, sporadic rates are still high, expect to see about 16 per hour during prime meteor viewing time around 3-5 am.Comets
Too bright to be a dark sky object, 17P Holmes is a spectacular to view in binoculars or a scope of any size. It still growing and maintaining brightness, its anybody’s guess as to what will happen in the coming weeks.
Image of 17P Holmes from RAC early this morning around 1:07 am MST, Canon Xti, 15 sec at ISO 1600.
November 9th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
[…] Sky this Week no Vern’s Weblog […]
November 11th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Vern,
I’ve enjoyed your blog and weekly column, and as a Nebraska native I think it would be really nice to move back there someday. There are so many places in Nebraska with truly dark skies that it is a national treasure that needs to be preserved and protected. I’d like you and your readers to know that we have a discussion group on Yahoo! called DarkSkyCommunities and I’d love to start one in Nebraska! For some basic info about my vision, see . Hope you can join the discussion.
Clear, dark, and starry skies,
David Oesper
Dodgeville, Wisconsin