Home Page
Moonwatching
Members Page
Messier marathon
Constellation Project
Q and A
Astronomy Links
Heads Up
Christiane's ISS Watch
Previous Articles

British Summer Time

British Summer Time (BST) ended at 1am, Sunday 25 October. Clocks went back 1 hour reverting to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Otherwise known as Universal Time (UT). Everything now happens at a time that would have been an artificial hour later. More to the point it's all happening an hour darker.

International Year of Astronomy: MoonWatching Week

The International Year of Astronomy designated two weeks during 2009 as 'MoonWatch Weeks'. These weeks were chosen as the Moon would be at its during the early evening and the best views from new to full moon possible. The second, most recent week began on the 24 October and lasted through to 1 November. Weatherwise, it was possibly one of the best weeks for MoonWatching experienced in my neck of the woods, this year. All except one day gave great visibility allowing the progression of the terminator across the Moon's face to be seen with outstanding clarity.

LCROSS: For One Day Only

On the 9 October the Centaur booster rocket, from the lunar mapping satellite LCROSS, impacted with the Moon. Directed at one of the permanently shaded craters at the Moon’s south pole it was expected to throw up a plume of debris that can be sampled by the following LCROSS satellite on the same trajectory, and analysed just before it too, impacts. Its purpose was to determine, once and for all, if there is water lurking in the shadowed craters.

It was not well placed for observation from the UK, but it was hoped that the plume might have been seen from the UK with a ‘large‘ telescope of 8 inches or over. It was timed to occur with best viewing for the observatories on Hawaii. In practice the resulting debris plume was something less than spectacular. In fact even the heat flash was only seen with the aid of computerised technology.

Even though the visual effects were unspectacular, the physical data retrieved is still being analysed and the jury is still out on the result.

Lunar Phases for October

The following table lists the major lunar phases for the coming month. (November 2009)

The Planets

Fast moving Mercury has had its pre-dawn meet-up with Saturn and Venus and has moved into conjunction with the Sun. It is too close to the Sun's glare throughout the month to be seen.

Venus however is better placed, still well above the horizon, rising before the Sun and still easy to spot for the next month. It can still be seen for up to an hour before sunrise, within about ten degrees of the horizon just west of where the Sun will rise. But is moving back towards the Sun and will soon be lost in its glare.

Mars is still dim and not easily seen. Through November it will become more prominent, rising in the late evening and reaching first magnitude.

Jupiter is easily observable in the south through the early evening. It is low, only about 15 - 20 deg above the horizon from the UK. Its four major moons can be tracked quite easily with binoculars or small telescope.

Saturn is still in Virgo during November and is just viewable in the early dawn light, although it is moving away from the Sun. Its rings are now almost edge on to us and later this year will all but disappear as they turn fully edge on as viewed from Earth. It can be found up to 30 degrees above the horizon. Using Venus as a signpost, look above it and to the west.

Uranus trails about 30.0 degrees east of Neptune and Jupiter along the ecliptic.

Neptune is in the same binocular field as Jupiter, about five degrees east of Jupiter along the ecliptic. Being the dimmest of the planets it's not easy to spot without at least binoculars but Jupiter makes a good signpost for it.

Meteor Showers

November has two major showers, the Taurids and later the Leonids. Both take their names from the constellation where lies their apparent points of origin. The Taurids peak on the night of the 12th and the Leonids peak on the 17th.