Current Events (Aug '08 - Dec '08, with some major events for winter 2009)
International Year of Astronomy
In case you haven't heard, 2009 in the UN declared International Year of Astronomy. To celebrate, the University and the College of LS&A have made the Winter '09 theme semester the same as the IYA theme: "The Universe - Yours to Discover". Visit http://www.lsa.umich.edu/universe/ for more information on the UofM programs, or http://astronomy2009.org/ for international events. If you use google calendar, you might be interested in the following calendars: IYA2009 Sky Events, IYA2009 Historical Dates,
IYA2009 Space Exploration, and IYA2009 Events.
Planets
Mercury is at greatest eastern elongation on Sept 10, which means it should be visible in the evening skies for a few days before and after that, but twilight lasts so long it's hard to catch. Try for it on Sept 2 when the Moon will help guide you. You're better off trying to catch it the next time, the first week in January, or better yet, the last week of April. If you prefer observing in the morning, greatest western elongation occurs on Oct 22, Feb 13 and June 13, with June being the best chance to observe, though you'll have to get up pretty early! NASA's Messenger spacecraft has made a couple flybys with some startling results. Check it out at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/.
Venus is getting farther from the Sun in fall '08, becoming visible in the evening skies in Sept, and getting easier until greatest eastern elongation on Jan 16. Watch it catch up to and pass Jupiter between Oct - Dec. It will remain an evening planet until mid March. Conjunction occurs on Mach 27, and it should emerge as a morning planet in early April. The ESA Venus express continues sending back images and making news. Find out more at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/index.html
Mars is not a very good planet this year. It's a tough evening planet in Aug, setting before twilight really ends. It only gets worse until conjunction on Dec 5. You should be able to catch it in morning twilight beginning in April, but it's be fall '09 before it really gets easy to see.
The rovers **still** continue to operate, at more than 1500 days past "warranty". Mars Odyssey also continues to operate at well past its expected lifetime, and acts as the link between the newest Mars mission, the Phoenix lander, and Earth. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is sending back some amazingly detailed images. Catch up with all the NASA Mars activity at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/. ESA's Mars Express also continues to send back some amazing images. Be sure to check out the animations at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html.
Jupiter is a great evening planet this fall, visible during full dark through Nov. It starts getting into twilight in Dec, and isn't really visible in January. COnjunction occurs on Jan 24. It emerges in the morning skies is late Feb, with the best viewing after mid March.
The four major moons are also easy to spot with a small telescope, and if your skies are dark enough and you've got about a 6" 'scope, you can even see them pass in front or behind the planet. There's a neat javascript program to tell you which moon is which at http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_830_1.asp#.
Saturn is a tough object this fall. Conjunction is Sept 3, so it's pretty much in the twilight in Aug. It starts to re-appear in the morning sky in late Sept, with the best viewing before dawn after mid-october. It'll return to the evening skies in Feb, with best views around opposition on Mar 8. Its rings are slowly disappearing. Keep an eye on the rings leading up to Sept. 4, 2009, when they'll be pretty much edge on. To see the rings, head to one of the local open houses, or check out the Saturn observation campaign.
Cassini continues its history-making exploration of the planet, rings and moons. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm.
Uranus is only visible in the darkest skies, and only if you know exactly where to look. However, this is one of the best times to look for it. It's at opposition on Sept 12 so it will be in the evening skies most of the fall. It fades into twilight around Feb, and is in conjunction on Mar 12. It should emerge as a morning planet in April.
Neptune is invisible without a telescope, but it's just west of its neighbor Uranus, and about half-way between Uranus and Jupiter this fall. It spends the year in Capricorn, setting almost with the Sun in December. Look for it in the pre-dawn skies in April, but it won't really be easy until June.
Pluto is hard to find even with a telescope, and it is in Sagittarius this year, making summer the best time to try and observe it. Look for it in the early morning in March, and all night in August.
In late Aug. 2006, the IAU officially demoted Pluto, decreasing the number of planets in the solar system to 8. However, this does make Pluto the first of a new class of objects. All the new big icy objects outside of Neptune's orbit will be called Plods after Pluto, the same way the rocky planets are called terrestrial after Earth (terra in latin). The official resolution is at http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0602/index.html. The first mission to this planet is on its way. New Horizons flew by Jupiter in Feb 2007 on its way to its rendezvous with Pluto in July of 2015. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/.
Moon
Full: Aug 16, Sept 16, Oct 14, Nov 13, Dec 12
New: Aug 1, Aug 30, Sept 29, Oct 28, Nov 27, Dec 27
Dates are for local time. A total solar eclipse will be visible from parts of Asia, Canada and Greenland on Aug 1. The SUn-Earth Day group will be webcasting the eclipse at http://sunearthday.gsfc.nasa.gov/2008/index.php. A partial lunar eclipse will be visible from most of Europe and Africa and the Atlantic on Aug 16.
Solar Observing and Comets
We should be coming out of a solar minimum, so after a couple months of almost no activity, things should be picking up again (but I've been saying that for months now...). Please be sure to use proper filters for solar observing. A WELDING MASK IS NOT ENOUGH! As a general rule, if you look though the filter at anything other than the sun (e.g. a white wall, a spot light, etc) and you can see something, the filter isn't good enough. You want a filter with LESS THAN 0.5% transmission.
Solar activity can change on an almost hourly basis, and the best comets are usually the ones that were just discovered. So if you're interested in these things, you should check out spaceweather.com for the latest information.
Meteor Showers
On a good, dark, clear, moonless night you might catch around 7 meteors per hour. A meteor shower is when you can expect more than that and all in the same area. Meteor showers are named for the constellation the meteors appear to come from. For example, meteors in the well known Perseids appear to come out of the constellation Perseus. The best time to watch the shower is the best combination of: 1) after local midnight (that's about 1:30 AM EDT in Ann Arbor) and before morning twilight (check your favorite weather site), 2) when the constellation is highest, and 3) when Earth hits the densest part of the debris stream. Number 3 is best checked with a website like the American Meteor Society or a magazine like Sky & Telescope or Astronomy. Matching 1 and 2 on the date of the peak is usually the easiest thing to do.
Approximate dates for the best showers are: Perseids (Aug 12), Orionids (Oct 21), Leonids (Nov 19), Geminids (Dec 13), quadrantids (Jan 2), Lyrids (Apr 23), and Eta Aquarids (May 5).
Don't have a dark site? Don't want to get up at 3 in the morning for 2 or 3 shooting stars? How about listening to the meteors? Tune an FM radio to a station you don't quite get in, so you mostly hear static with the occasional distinguishable bit of programming. You'll hear an occasional pop, crackle or whistle lasting a second or more in the static - that's the meteors ionizing an envelope of air as it streaks through the atmosphere! For more information on this, check out http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast28jun99_1.htm or http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/nasameteorradar.html.