Current Events (March - April 2010)
Planets
Mercury is best seen in the evening during the days before an after Greatest Eastern Elongation, which occurs on April 8. Look for it in the west starting about a week before and after that. NASA's Messenger spacecraft has made a couple flybys with some startling results. Check it out at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/.
Venus is a good evening target this spring. It should still be visible from mid March through April. Watch especially at teh end of March first few days of April as Venus and Mercury undergo a quasi-conjunction. 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 was at opposition in Januray, so this is a great time to observe.
The rovers **still** continue to operate, 6 years after landing, Although SPirit has stopped moving. Mars Odyssey also continues to operate at well past its expected lifetime. The Phoenix lander however succumbed to the Martian winter, and doesn't look like it's going to wake up again. With a name like Phoenix, I really think it ought to wake up next spring!. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is sending back some amazingly detailed images. The next Mars mission is Mars Science Laboratory, which will once again carry a UM designed instrument. 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 in Conjunction in March, emerging as a morning planet in April. You can catch it and Saturn in the morning skies in April, though Saturn will be in the west.
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 well up by 10 PM at the end of March and becomes a better evening planet as the semester progresses. Its rings are slowly re-appearing. The shadow of the planet on the rings should become visible to good backyard telescopes (if you know what you’re looking for. This is almost the same view of Saturn that Galileo had 400 years ago. 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 and Neptune will both be in conjunction this semester, and they move pretty slow, so it won’t be easy to observe either of those planets.
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
Dates are for local time.
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.
Feel the heat on Jan 4? That was the day we were closest to the Sun in 2009.
If you happen to be in the vicinity of the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia on Jan 26, look for an Annular Solar Eclipse. An Annular eclipse happens when the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than the apparent size of the Sun. This can happen when the Moon is farther away from the Earth and the Earth is closer to the Sun than average.
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: Eta Aquarids 4/19, Lyrids 4/16, Quadrantids 1/1
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.