Tag Archives: Crab Nebula

In the Sky This Week – July 9, 2019

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This entry is part 104 of 104 in the series In the Sky This Week

This is “Conjunction Week” with the Moon appearing near the star Spica, Jupiter and Saturn over the next several days. I thought I’d give the southern hemisphere a bit of love this week, so I included several images of the skies from the Paranal Observatory in Chile – Stellarium made it easy to find them when I was looking for a location. I’m also featuring the the Large Magellanic Cloud as this week’s observing target, and I’m glad I did because I learned a lot about it I was unaware of… so yea!   Saturn and Jupiter remain high in the southern sky all week around midnight, making great observing targets for night owls. Seen from the Paranal Observatory in Chile, Saturn and Jupiter are directly overhead around midnight. Before sunrise at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, the constellations Orion and Taurus appear low in the eastern sky. From the northern hemisphere, Orion rises with the Sun, so it is … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 18, 2018

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This entry is part 74 of 104 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus shines so brightly in the southeastern predawn sky, you can practically read by it! Jupiter makes its reappearance this week, joining Mercury, Venus and the star Spica. Mars is high in southern sky after sunset all week; the waxing gibbous Moon appears to the east of Mars on Dec. 18th. The star Altair is now the “evening star” to the west at dusk; Saturn has almost vanished into the glare of the Sun. The Moon appears very near the star Aldebaran high in the western sky around 3:30 AM on Dec. 21st. On Christmas Eve, the waning gibbous Moon will appear in the eastern sky after sunset. Observing Target: M1 – The Crab Nebula M1, the Crab Nebula, is a supernova remnant located in the constellation of Taurus. The supernova was so bright in 1054 that it could be seen during the day for nearly a month; the supernova was documented by astronomers in several countries. X-Ray: Chandra Ultraviolet: ASTRO-1 Visible: DSS … Continue reading →

Constellation Taurus, the Crab Nebula, and the Seven Sisters

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The constellation Taurus lies between the constellation Orion, and the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades, also known as the “Seven Sisters,”is an open cluster of hot B-type stars, 444 light years away, yet easily visible to the naked eye. Time-exposure photography reveals the cluster to be surrounded by a faint nebulosity; once thought to be the remnent from the cluster’s formation, it was later determined that the cluster is drifting through an unrelated cloud in the interstellar medium. In 1054, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arab astronomers noted a bright “guest star” in Taurus – a supernova so bright, it was visible during the day! In 1734, English astronomer John Bevis first observed the wispy remnants from that supernova. The Crab Nebula has been expanding rapidly outward from its progenitor star ever since that titanic explosion in 1054 – currently at a rate of 1,500 km/s. The nebula is about 6500 light-years distant, and is about 11 light-years across. The nebula’s filaments are remnants … Continue reading →