Archive for October, 2008
Friday, October 31st, 2008
December 1st … At Sunset…. Be there!
Ok, it’s a ways off, but you will have to watch for this interesting celestial arrangement on December 1st. At sunset, or shortly thereafter, look to the South west and see the crescent Moon, Jupiter, and Venus keeping close company. Of course, there nowhere near each other but the brightness of the planets will make them appear next to each other. The proximity effect will not be obvious one day before or one day after so let’s hope the sky is clear in the Southwest at sunset on December 1st.
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
What’s Where Tonight – September 8, 2008
Planets:
8:00 PM…The Moon can be seen in the South Southwest at about 10°.
8:00 PM …Jupiter will be in the South at about 25° above the horizon. Look just to the right of the Moon and it will be obviously bright. Jupiter will setting at about 10:30 PM as will the Moon.
Stars and Constellations:
8:00 PM …The Big Dipper will be North Northwest (NNW) at about 20°.
8:00 PM…If you follow the arc of the handle of Big Dipper, you will come to a bright star. It is Arcturus and it will be at about 15° above the horizon in the West Northwest.
9:00 PM …Vega, a very bright star, will be visible, most of the night, high in the sky. Look straight up and to the West.
9:00 PM…Cassiopeia (makes a big “W”) will be in the Northeast at about 50° above the horizon. The “W” will be on it’s side.
Current Events:
9:00 PM….. Find the Summer Triangle. Vega, Deneb and Altair. Look Straight
overhead and to the south. Deneb will be almost at the Zenith. Vega will be to the West and Altair will be to the left of Vega at about 60°. They will form a triangle.
11:00 PM …The Pleiades will be rising in the East at about 30°.
2:00 AM …..Below the Pleiades, you will find Aldebaran at about 50°
just rising over the horizon, Orion will be in the East Southeast at about 30°. Just to the left of the Orion will be Castor & Pollux (the twins) in Gemini. Look to the East Northeast.
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
Spacecraft finds strange object in space
PARIS (UPI) — The European Space Agency says the COROT spacecraft has discovered a massive planet-sized object that’s unlike anything previously spotted.
The object, named COROT-exo-3b, is so exotic, agency scientists said they are unsure whether the oddity is a planet or a failed star. The object is about the size of Jupiter but has more than 20 times the mass. It takes 4 days, 6 hours to orbit its parent star, which is slightly larger than the sun.
COROT, an unmanned mission led by the French space agency, was launched in 2006. It has the dual objectives of searching for extrasolar planets and performing astroseismology.
“COROT-exo-3b might turn out to be a rare object found by sheer luck”, said Francois Bouchy of the French Institute of Astrophysics. “But it might just be a member of a new-found family of very massive planets that encircle stars more massive than our sun. We’re now beginning to think that the more massive the star, the more massive the planet,” he said.
The discovery by COROT — COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits — is to be reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.