When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Exploring the cosmos
It looks like it may clear. There should be a few dark hours before moonrise. Maybe I can get the new astrophoto rig out and get everything working properly.
<Commence tropical downpour>
Nothing like two tenths of an inch of rain in half an hour to put a damper on astronomical plans.
Maybe it will clear later.
Planning to make a go at photographing asteroid 2008 QE2 as it passes the Earth. Before I can do that a little planning is in order. Minor questions… Is it above the horizon near close approach, in my nighttime sky? It turns out this object will be available for observation.
The table below is a precision ephemeris generated by the NASA HORIZONS web interface for Mauna Kea on the island of Hawai’i. Listed are celestial coordinates, time, local elevation and azimuth, magnitude and distance. The marks after the time column indicate daylight (*), twilight (A) and moonlight (M).
From the data it is clear that the evening of May 30th (May 31st UT) allows observation from Hawai’i, at an elevation of ~46° a few hours after dark. Nicely placed and nicely timed for observation. Close approach is actually the next day, but the difference is minor. The next evening allows a second chance at the observation while the asteroid is still close.
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Date Time(UT) RA Dec Az El Mag Dist(AU) 2013-May-30 00:00 * 13 43 52.20 -28 33 56.2 112.3 -29.8 11.21 0.04085 2013-May-30 02:00 * 13 46 41.34 -28 16 36.7 118.4 -4.7 11.18 0.04069 2013-May-30 04:00 * 13 49 26.76 -27 58 53.8 130.2 18.3 11.16 0.04054 2013-May-30 06:00 A 13 52 09.08 -27 40 36.2 151.4 36.2 11.14 0.04040 2013-May-30 08:00 13 54 49.78 -27 21 36.2 184.3 42.6 11.12 0.04027 2013-May-30 10:00 m 13 57 30.80 -27 01 52.3 215.4 33.2 11.10 0.04016 2013-May-30 12:00 m 14 00 14.01 -26 41 29.3 234.5 13.6 11.08 0.04006 2013-May-30 14:00 m 14 03 00.70 -26 20 37.2 245.4 -10.2 11.06 0.03998 2013-May-30 16:00 *m 14 05 51.26 -25 59 28.2 251.6 -35.9 11.04 0.03989 2013-May-30 18:00 *m 14 08 45.07 -25 38 14.0 252.2 -62.2 11.02 0.03981 2013-May-30 20:00 *m 14 11 40.61 -25 17 03.0 180.9 -84.4 11.00 0.03973 2013-May-30 22:00 * 14 14 35.91 -24 55 57.7 106.2 -62.5 10.98 0.03965 2013-May-31 00:00 * 14 17 28.96 -24 34 55.0 106.6 -35.9 10.96 0.03956 2013-May-31 02:00 * 14 20 18.30 -24 13 47.1 112.4 -9.7 10.94 0.03948 2013-May-31 04:00 * 14 23 03.30 -23 52 23.2 122.8 14.9 10.92 0.03940 2013-May-31 06:00 A 14 25 44.36 -23 30 33.2 141.7 35.8 10.90 0.03933 <strong>2013-May-31 08:00 14 28 22.79 -23 08 10.0 174.9 46.8 10.89 0.03928</strong> <strong>2013-May-31 10:00 14 31 00.46 -22 45 11.5 211.6 40.5 10.87 0.03924</strong> 2013-May-31 12:00 m 14 33 39.26 -22 21 41.4 234.6 21.6 10.86 0.03922 2013-May-31 14:00 m 14 36 20.68 -21 57 48.0 247.4 -2.4 10.84 0.03921 2013-May-31 16:00 *m 14 39 05.32 -21 33 42.1 255.5 -28.6 10.83 0.03921 2013-May-31 18:00 *m 14 41 52.80 -21 09 34.6 261.1 -55.6 10.81 0.03921 2013-May-31 20:00 *m 14 44 41.82 -20 45 33.3 260.5 -83.0 10.80 0.03921 2013-May-31 22:00 *m 14 47 30.51 -20 21 41.7 95.4 -69.3 10.78 0.03921 2013-Jun-01 00:00 * 14 50 16.87 -19 57 58.3 99.5 -41.8 10.77 0.03921 2013-Jun-01 02:00 * 14 52 59.31 -19 34 17.3 105.9 -14.8 10.75 0.03920 2013-Jun-01 04:00 * 14 55 37.04 -19 10 30.4 115.3 11.2 10.74 0.03920 2013-Jun-01 06:00 A 14 58 10.22 -18 46 29.3 131.8 34.7 10.73 0.03921 <strong>2013-Jun-01 08:00 15 00 39.97 -18 22 08.0 163.7 50.2 10.72 0.03924</strong> <strong>2013-Jun-01 10:00 15 03 08.03 -17 57 24.4 206.9 47.9 10.71 0.03928</strong> 2013-Jun-01 12:00 m 15 05 36.32 -17 32 20.9 234.7 29.7 10.70 0.03934 2013-Jun-01 14:00 m 15 08 06.41 -17 07 04.2 249.5 5.3 10.69 0.03941 2013-Jun-01 16:00 *m 15 10 39.11 -16 41 42.7 259.1 -21.1 10.69 0.03949 2013-Jun-01 18:00 *m 15 13 14.27 -16 16 25.3 267.5 -48.5 10.68 0.03957 2013-Jun-01 20:00 *m 15 15 50.83 -15 51 18.8 283.9 -75.9 10.67 0.03966 2013-Jun-01 22:00 *m 15 18 27.08 -15 26 26.5 75.8 -74.8 10.67 0.03974 |
The evening dance of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter continues. This evening will see Jupiter and Venus draw to within 1°09′ of each other. Tomorrow will see the configuration shift a bit, Jupiter and Venus slightly closer at 1°05′ separation. Mercury will be about 3° above the close pair.
With Venus rising a little each day while Jupiter is heading into the sunset and superior conjunction, the pair will quickly separate after this close approach. After the end of the month Jupiter will depart the stage.
We actually had mostly clear skies and could see the planetary conjunction tonight, the three were almost in a perfect equilateral triangle.
While Jupiter will leave the stage, exiting into the sunset after the end of the month, Mercury and Venus will continue the dance well into June.
A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur, but it is so minor there is little point in trying to observe it. As the NASA eclipse site notes… “With a penumbral eclipse magnitude [6] of 0.0158, just 0.5 arc-minutes of the Moon’s southern limb will pass into Earth’s pale penumbral shadow; such a shallow eclipse is only of academic interest since it will be all but impossible to detect.”
W. M. Keck Observatory press release…
Two hungry young galaxies that collided 11 billion years ago are rapidly forming a massive galaxy about 10 times the size of the Milky Way, according to UC Irvine-led research conducted on the W. M. Keck Observatory and other research facilities around the world. The results will be published today in the journal Nature.
HXMM01 is fading away as fast as it forms, a victim of its own cataclysmic birth. As the two parent galaxies smashed together, they gobbled up huge amounts of hydrogen, emptying that corner of the universe of the star-making gas.
“These galaxies entered a feeding frenzy that would quickly exhaust the food supply in the following hundreds of million years and lead to the new galaxy’s slow starvation for the rest of its life,” said lead author Hai Fu, a UC Irvine postdoctoral scholar.
The discovery solves a riddle in understanding how giant elliptical galaxies developed quickly in the early universe and why they stopped producing stars soon after. Other astronomers have theorized that giant black holes in the heart of the galaxies blew strong winds that expelled the gas. But cosmologist Asantha Cooray, the UC Irvine team’s leader, said that they and colleagues across the globe found definitive proof that cosmic mergers and the resulting highly efficient consumption of gas for stars are causing the quick burnout.
Continue reading “Mega-galaxy is Missing Link in History of Cosmos”
This evening, and the next few evenings, will find Mercury, Venus and Jupiter in a tight triangle just above the sunset. The trio will be separated by less than 3° and will be well above the setting Sun, 14° at sunset, thus will remain in the sky for almost an hour after the Sun slides below the horizon.
Tonight will see Mercury and Venus even closer, separated by only 1°48′, tomorrow that will shrink to 1°26′ and 1°22′ on the 24th. The trio will all be quite bright, with Mercury shining around -1 magnitude, Jupiter at -2, and Venus around -4 magnitude. Keep watching as this trio will continue to be quite close through the end of the month.
Tonight will see a bright Moon just a few degrees from Saturn in the constellation Virgo. The Moon will be nearing full, about 94% illuminated and 4° south of Saturn.
Tonight the Moon will rendezvous with the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo. The Moon is approaching full, just under 90% illuminated. Evening will see the two quite close, about 2° apart. As the night progresses this separation will diminish as the Moon slides just south of the star. For viewers in Hawai’i the minimum separation will be about 40′ around 2:00 in the morning with the star just 25′ from the Moon’s pole.