Tag Archives: Saturn

In the Sky This Week – November 24 2020

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This entry is part 174 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

Jupiter and Saturn appear in the southwestern sky at dusk, getting closer together with each passing evening. Mercury and Venus appear in the east-southeastern predawn sky all week – Mercury may be difficult to spot this week being so near the horizon. Mars appears high in the southeastern sky after sunset – the waxing gibbous Moon appears near Mars on Nov. 25th The constellations Orion and Taurus appear in the eastern sky a few hours after sunset, and move across the southern sky to appear in the western sky before sunrise. The Moon is a waxing gibbous – visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night. The full Moon occurs on Nov. 30th – it rises at sunset, is visible high in the sky around midnight, and is visible all night. If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 page … Continue reading →

Science Week remote workshops

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This week was Science Week 2020 here in Ireland. My workshops have been a feature of the event for many years. Driving all over the country, presenting drawing workshops would be the usual format for me. However, this year the new normal was remote drawing workshops. |My Science Week remote workshops were born. A lot of hours goes into creating videos with drawing involved. Getting myself organised with a desk that had an overhead camera. Sorting out the filming, editing and sound by myself was a bit of a task. A learning curve for me that was well worth the journey and the effort. My videos were in use for Science Foundation Ireland’s Science Week in various schools around Ireland. They were also in use for Mayo Science Festival. I have to say that I missed the interaction with the children. However, I was very impressed with the drawings produced and was delighted that some teachers sent a selection to … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 17, 2020

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This entry is part 173 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mercury appears with Venus in the eastern predawn sky all week; both planets appear a bit closer to the horizon each morning – by next week, Mercury will be much closer to the horizon. Mars and Uranus continue to appear high in the eastern sky after sunset. If you have a large enough ‘scope, you can see Uranus: This is my shot before scaling it up to the closeup. Uranus is only 15 pixels wide. I took a lot of creative interpretations of the data to get the details you see in the final image, so I would consider it more an artistic rendering than a photo. pic.twitter.com/HbbjhxULFH — Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) November 16, 2020 Jupiter and Saturn continue to appear in the south-southwestern sky at dusk, and setting in the southwest a few hours after sunset; from Nov 17-20, the waxing crescent Moon joins the pair of planets. My wife told me that she had her astronomy students look … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 10, 2020

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This entry is part 172 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mars appears high in the eastern sky after sunset, and it appears high in the southern sky at midnight. Mercury appears with Venus in the eastern predawn sky all week – the planets are joined by the waning crescent Moon on the mornings of Nov. 12th and 13th. The conjunction of the two planets, the Moon and the star Spica on the morning of Nov. 13th is likely to be distracting to drivers travelling eastward – drive safe! Jupiter and Saturn appear in the south-southwestern sky at dusk – still great observing targets, but look quick – you only have a couple hours before they set in the southwest. I was wondering what those 2 stars were I was seeing through the skylight as I was making my coffee at 3:00 AM… “I’ll bet they are Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini.” Called it! 🙂 I really miss having people look through my telescope and say “Oh WOW!” or … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 3, 2020

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This entry is part 171 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

The sample head overflowing with bits of asteroid Bennu has been safely stowed in the return capsule of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft – I can stop waving my hands frantically and breathe a bit easier! Now, I have to hurry-up-and-wait for launch windows and the time-consuming interplanetary Hohmann orbital mechanics before that sample is returned to Earth in 2023.Like Douglas Adams said: “Space is Big!” I REALLY want a piece of Bennu; I asked Dolores Hill several questions about a possible privately-funded sample return mission with a larger sample head. Dolores said “A huge sampling head may or may not be helpful. If ours had been too big, it would have made it harder to locate a large enough, safe site. A larger head would be heavier – require more gas to flow through it, etc. But, who knows, the engineers know how to scale up. Almost anything is possible given enough resources. Regarding paying for itself…”In my opinion, it would … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 27, 2020

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This entry is part 170 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

I’m a volunteer ambassador for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission – I can not tell you how excited I am about the recent successful, maybe overly successful, sample acquisition from the surface of asteroid Bennu! The sample head is full of rocks an dust, and apparently a large rock has prevented a mylar flap from sealing the sample head, and some smaller rocks are escaping! The sample head should be safely stowed away today  – that can’t happen soon enough for me! The pandemic has prevented me from doing in-person lectures about the mission, but I’ve been covering the mission in these weekly posts, and I was able to book Dolores Hill from the OSIRIS-REx mission to speak at the Astronomy at the Beach event – so I don’t feel too awful about my lack of lecturing… The red giant star Arcturus competes with Venus for the title of “morning star” in the eastern predawn sky … Venus wins! … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 20, 2020

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This entry is part 169 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus appears in the eastern predawn sky all week; from my location, the ISS appears with Venus at 5:30 AM on Oct. 23rd. If you’d like to see if the ISS will be over your position, you can use the tracker on the Heavens-Above website, or any number of smartphone apps. The Moon dances with Saturn and Jupiter from Oct. 20-23 in the southern sky after sunset. Here’s a close-up of the conjunction on Oct. 22nd: Mars is at opposition and very bright in the eastern sky after sunset; Mars is visible all night long, and I’ve seen some spectacular images taken of it! Uranus is almost in the center between Mars and the Pleiades star cluster. I watched #Mars for over 4 hours last night, and put together hundreds of thousands of images to create this animation of it’s rotation Credit 🔭 by James McCarthy pic.twitter.com/4zbfpccYeS — Domenico (@AvatarDomy) October 13, 2020 The Moon is a waxing crescent – … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 13, 2020

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This entry is part 168 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus appears in the eastern predawn sky all week; the waning crescent Moon appears near Venus on the mornings of Oct. 13th and 14th. Saturn and Jupiter appear in the southern sky after sunset. Mars is at opposition – when it and the Earth are in-line with the Sun; this is also when Mars is closest to the Earth in their orbits, so now is a great time to go observe Mars! Here’s a close-up of the Mars opposition: The Moon is a waning crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise. The new Moon occurs on Oct. 16th – the Moon will not be visible at this time… unless it get’s smacked by an asteroid… The Moon returns to the southwestern sky at dusk as a waxing crescent by early next week. If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 page – it will … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 6, 2020

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This entry is part 167 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

World Space Week runs from Oct. 4-10 – this year’s theme is “Satellites Improve Life.” World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition. The United Nations General Assembly declared in 1999 that World Space Week will be held each year from October 4-10. These dates commemorate two events: October 4, 1957: Launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, and the dawn of the space age. October 10, 1967: The signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. World Space Week consists of space education and outreach events held by space agencies, aerospace companies, schools, planetaria, museums, and astronomy clubs around the world in a common timeframe. These synchronized space events attract greater public and media attention. Register new events, and search for events near you here: https://www.worldspaceweek.org/events/ … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – September 29, 2020

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This entry is part 166 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

The Astronomy at the Beach event has come and gone, and although we did not have the amount of attendees we’ve had at in-person events, we did have some sessions with a lot of viewers. The speakers were fantastic, and many of the sessions were recorded, so you can access the event website and watch replays! I spent the last several months helping the board of the Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs (GLAAC) with their website for the event, and was monitoring several events simultaneously as they were happening during the event. Now that the event is over, I’m thinking about how GLAAC can help promote Michigan’s astronomy clubs, and their presenters who have expressed an interest in doing remote presentations for in-school and at-home classrooms. Venus appears low in the eastern predawn sky all week near the star Regulus in Leo – look for the inverted question mark asterism. At the same time over in the northeastern sky, … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – September 22, 2020

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This entry is part 165 of 174 in the series In the Sky This Week

Astronomy at the Beach – This Weekend! The Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs hosts the annual Astronomy at the Beach event every September – this year it will be held online the 25th & 26th! The lineup of speakers and presentations for the event is simply amazing; four of the presenters just happen to write for the Sacred Space Astronomy site! If you are interested at all in astronomy, these are must-see presentations – and many will take questions from the viewing audience! Website and Schedule: https://www.glaac.org/astronomy-at-the-beach-2020/ Having meetings with Michigan astronomers and working on the website for the Astronomy at the Beach event has been a great way to get to know the astronomers of GLAAC member clubs I’ve only had a little contact with in the past. I was thinking this morning how incredibly fortunate I am to be in the company of so many astronomers – both amateur and professional. I only wish I would have known … Continue reading →

Skyward by David Levy: September 2020

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This entry is part 2 of 27 in the series Skyward by David Levy

How to see more than half the solar system at once Have you ever wondered if you could see more than half the solar system at once? An opportunity to do so does not come about often, but it does happen  from time to time. A couple of summers ago, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were all in the evening sky and could be spotted at once. Now, during this summer of 2020 a couple of hours before dawn, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all in the sky and can be seen at the same time. The procession begins in the evening, with Jupiter and Saturn easily visible at about the same time in the east. Jupiter is brighter than all the stars on a summer night, and through a telescope, the rings of Saturn are exquisite. Jupiter and Saturn appear to get close in the sky every twelve years, or about once every Jupiter orbit of the Sun. They … Continue reading →