Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!

Happy Equinox Everyone!

Well the Show #29 seems to have been corrupted. Some folks are getting the gerbil talk, some folks are getting puddles of static and a few are getting the file just fine.

I guess we are all in mourning over Slacker Astronomy. Sigh.

So! Since I am in transit to the N.W.R.A.L. Youth Starparty I am sending you all a quick note just to let you know that I will fix the podcast when I get home!

But this is a great dark weekend and I don't want you waiting for me!! So I have a gift for you. Here is the Scavenger Hunt I put together for the kids at the starparty!

Yes, most of them are Messier objects!
Yes, there is a lot of silliness!
Yes, we have to force pre-teens to get to know each other! (sigh)
Yes there is some staying up late involved! (because that is when the sugar kicks in!)
But since when do we all have to be so serious!!

If you haven't visited the Celestial Wonders site you should. That is where AAGG goes for our lunar images!. Here is a 4 day old moon.

Planets

• Mars - Mag +1.8 is at the western end of Virgo. Into the glare!
• Mercury - Mag -1.7 and only visible by the truly persistant near the equator and in the Southern Hemisphere. Mark your calendars for inferior conjunction and visible transit on Nov. 8th
• Jupiter - Mag -1.7 in Libra. Clearly visible high in the sky just after sunset. Any telescope can reveal its two widest cloud bands and four Galilean satellites. Listener Kevin recommended a piece of free software that I now have on all my computers Jupiter 2 (Thanks Kevin!).
• Uranus - Mag +5.7 in Aquarius Uranus is best seen in a dark moonless sky away from artificial lighting. It may be seen looking like a very faint star to the dark-adapted naked eye that shimmers in and out of visibility just over 1/2 degree east of Lambda Aquarii. Find the tipped over letter Y of Aquarius, go 4 thumbwidths southeast to find Lambda, and then look pinky nail east.
• Neptune - Mag +7.8 in Capricorn 1.5 degree north of the +4.3 magnitude star Iota Capricorni

• Venus - Mag -3.8 from the high northern latitudes she is lost in the glare of the sun. We will see her again in late Nov (SH) or Dec (NH).
• Saturn - Mag +0.5 on the western edge of Leo! Naked eye in the morning before sunrise and climbing higher all the time.

• Pluto Mag +13.9 in Serpens Cauda
• 1 Ceres +7.9 mag in Piscis Austeralis 18.5 degrees West of Formalhaut
• UB313 mag +19 in central Cetus

Comets

Comets for the Month.

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin"
-- Shakespeare

Email us at astronomyagogo@gmail.com or leave a note in our show notes at www.astronomy.libsyn.com
Help us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hat

Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants.

Great site for sunrise and sunset times and a downloadable toolbar application by Steve Edwards

Download this month's sky map!

Northern hemisphere sky map
Southern hemisphere sky map

Also visit James Barclay's site for a great tour of the Southern Hemisphere September sky.

Key Dates for September

Days and Times in UT (help with time)

September
7	-Full Moon (largest of 2006)
	-Partial Lunar Eclipse(viewing area and times)
8	-Moon at 2nd closest perigee (the closest point in its orbit around Earth 357175 km) expect larger than normal tides
10	-Jupiter in conjunction with Zubenelgenubi (Libra) w/in 0 degrees 20' and someone's birthday!
13	-Before sunrise find the Moon between Pleiades and Aldebaran
15	-Moon at greatest northern declination +29 degrees
	-Last Quarter Moon 11:15 UT
18	-Saturn 2 degrees South of Moon, Beehive cluster
21	-Zodiacal Light visible in N latitudes in the E before sunrise, S latitudes in the W after sunset for the next month. Those living closer to the equator and the tropics get these year round (images)
22	-Moon at appogee (the furtherest point from Earth 406,500 km)
	-New Moon
	-Annular solar eclipse 11:45 UT (viewing area and time)
	-NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!
23	-Equinox 4:03 UT
26	-Moon near Jupiter in the evening sky
29	-Moon at greatest southern declination -29 degrees
30	-First Quarter Moon 11:04 UT

...Did you know?
Sept 1 Pioneer 11 flew past the outer edge of Saturn's A ring at a range of 3,500 kilometers (1979)
Sept 8 Star Trek premiered (1966)
Setp 9 John Herschel makes first glass plate photograph (1839)
Sept 12 40th Anniversary (1966), Gemini 11 Launch (Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon)
Sept 14 Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to impact the surface of the moon (1959)
Sept 17 William Herschel discovered Saturn's moon Mimas (1789)
Sept 19 John Baur and Mark Summers declared this day International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Sept 20 A monkey named Yorick was the first monkey to live through a space flight...along with 11 mice (1951)
Sept 21 Herbert G. Wells' 140th Birthday (1866)
Sept 23 160th Anniversary (1846), Johann Galle's Discovery of Neptune
Sept 24 Luna 16 returns the 3 oz of Lunar soil. First unmanned automated return of material from another celestial body (1970)
Sept 28 55th Anniversary (1951), Seth Nicholson's Discovery of Jupiter Moon Ananke and 35th Anniversary (1971), Luna 19 Launch (USSR Moon Orbiter)

Planet Positions for 2006

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Venus

Sgr

Sgr

Cap

Aqr

Psc

Ari

Tau

Cnc

Leo

Vir

Lib

Sgr

Mars

Ari

Tau

Tau

Gem

Gem

Cnc

Leo

Leo

Vir

Vir

Lib

Sco

Jupiter

Lib

Lib

Lib

Lib

Lib

Lib

Lib

Lib

Lib

Lib

Lib

Sco

Saturn

Cnc

Cnc

Cnc

Cnc

Cnc

Cnc

Cnc

Leo

Leo

Leo

Leo

Leo

Help us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hat or write us a favorable review in iTunes of Podcast Pickle or iPodder!

Music Brunswick Duo -"Partita by J.S. Bach"
Fumitaka "Forest in the Morning"
AAGG Listener Heath Patrie - "A Wood Revisited" check out the rest of his wonderful music at his podcast.

Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!

Stars: Act I Les Miserables

You know your place in the sky
You hold your course and your aim
And each in your season
Returns and returns
And is always the same
And if you fall as Lucifer fell
You fall in flame!

By Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg
Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer

Listener Feedback

Listener Question

News

SMART-1 to hit the Moon Read more from NASA...or more from the ESA protal... One of its most important discoveries was a "Peak of Eternal Light," peaks around Crater Peary near the Moon's north pole in constant, year-round sunlight. Peaks of Eternal Light are prime real estate for solar-powered Moon bases.
Ironically I planned this week's lunar Lacus tour before I knew that SMART-1 was crashing into Lacus Excellentiae so the Lacus Tour is appropriate.

Uranian eclipse Read more from Space.com...
Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus on March 13, 1781, noting that it was moving slowly through the constellation Gemini. Initially, however, Herschel thought he had discovered a new comet.

Constellations

Sculptor - introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille as a sculptor's studio, but the name was later shortened to just Sculptor. It sits North of the Phoenix and Grus (the Crane) and to the east of Fomalhaut. Scuptor's 4-5th mag stars outline what could be a large block of unshaped stone.
Visible from 50 deg N Scuptor contains the South Galactic Pole and is home to the Scuptor Dwarf

Pisces Australis - Visible from 53 deg N the Southern Fish is one of the original 48 constellations that appeared in Ptolemy works. If you can find Aquarius and follow the water being poured from the jug you will find the Southern Fish drinking at the base of that cascade. The Arabs call the brightest star Fum al Hut (Fish Mouth)now Fomalhaut.

Around 3000BC Persian astrologers used Fomalhaut (Haftorang) as one of their 4 Guardian Stars (Royal or Watcher Stars).

They are:
Aldebaran (Tascheter) - vernal equinox (Watcher of the East)
Regulus (Venant) - summer solstice (Watcher of the North)
Antares (Satevis) - autumnal equinox (Watcher of the West)
Fomalhaut (Haftorang) - winter solstice (Watcher of the South)

Microscopium - another one of de Lacaille's mechanical wonders. Visible from 45 deg N but the stars are very faint. If you draw a line from Fomalhaut to Kaus Australis (the bottom corner star of the spout in the Saggitarius teapot) the half way point will be right in the middle of Microscopium.

Constellation image on its way!

Viewing

Something for the Northern Hemisphere is Algol. The Arabs called it Al ghul 'the ghoul' and the Greeks refered to it as the evil eye of the Gorgon Medusa. In the sky it is the second brightest star in the constellation Perseus and is indeed in Medusa's head in Perseus' outstreatched arms.

"...the Gorgon's head, a ghastly sight, deformed and dreadful, and a sight of woe". - Homer, writing of Algol in the Iliad.

Algol was actually an eclipsing binary 93 light-years away with a freakishly regular period of 2 days 20 hours 48 minutes 56 seconds to go from magnitude +2.1 to +3.4 and back. Use the charts from the AAVSO to find Algol and compare her in brightness to stars in the same area. Algol will be come easier to see (earlier!) and the season wears on. For more information visit the Sky and Telescope website.

Other objects around Algol.

Binocular - Turn those binoculars towards Algol for a treat. Telescope won't really give you the same nice wide field of view and the binoculars make it easier to compare magnitudes with stars around Algol. Binocular observers with really dark skies can view NGC 288 in Sculptor together with the bright galaxy NGC 253 in one field; NGC 288 appears as a round nebulous object.

Telescope - Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 55 in Sculptor
Swinging up high and dark try NGC 6207 mag +11.6 in Hercules just .25 deg NE of M13 the Hercules cluster.

Viewing image on its way!

The Moon

Images created with Lunar Phase Pro

Our beautiful lunar photos are courtesy of Frank Barrett at celestialwonders.com I recommend visiting his site and checking out his lunar phase photos. You can zoom in for more detail.

Show #26 took us to the Ptolemaeus group of craters and we are going to start at the end of that group for a little hop to hell! ;-)

I loved this excerpt from "What's up 2006: 365 Days of Skywatching" by Tammy Plotner

"Just west of Thebit and its prominent A crater to the northwest, you see the Straight Wall - Rupes Recta - appearing as a thin, white line. Continue south until you see large, eroded crater Deslandres. On its western shore, is a bright ring that marks the boundary of Hell. While this might seem like an unusual name for a crater, it was named for an astronomer - and clergyman!"

Object	Latitude	Longitude	Comments
Crater Manilius	14.5	9.1	Marcus; Roman poet and astrologer (unkn-c. 50 B.C.).
Crater Menelaus	16.3	16	Of Alexandria; Greek geometer, astronomer (c. A.D. 98) also of the Iliad Menelaus was brother to Agamemnon and husband to Helen soon to be Helen of Troy

The 'Lake District'. The same way the Lake District in Northern England has a pletheora of 'tarn' the lunar surface also has its share of lacus (lakes), 17 in all, there is one region that has a nice concentraion. Between Mare Vaporum and Mare Serenitatis.

1. Lacus Felicitatis
2. Lacus Odii
3. Lacus Doloris
4. Lacus Gaudii
5. Lacus Hiemalis
6. Lacus Lenitatis

Remember latitudes that are negative (-) are South and longitudes that are negative (-) are West!

Planets

• Mars - Mag +1.8 is at the western end of Virgo. You will have to look hard in the haze of the horizon and it will help to be closer to the equator.
• Jupiter - Mag -1.7 in Libra. Clearly visible high in the sky just after sunset. Any telescope can reveal its two widest cloud bands and four Galilean satellites. Listener Kevin recommended a piece of free software that I now have on all my computers Jupiter 2 (Thanks Kevin!).
• Uranus - Mag +5.7 in Aquarius Uranus is best seen in a dark moonless sky away from artificial lighting. It may be seen looking like a very faint star to the dark-adapted naked eye that shimmers in and out of visibility just over 1 degree east of Lambda Aquarii. Find the tipped over letter Y of Aquarius, go 4 thumbwidths southeast to find Lambda, and then look pinky nail east.
• Neptune - Mag +7.8 in Capricorn 1 degree north of the +4.3 magnitude star Iota Capricorni

• Mercury - Mag -1.7 at Superior conjunction Aug 31. Mark your calendars for inferior conjunction and visible transit on Nov. 8th

• Venus - Mag -3.8 The brightest morning planet visible. To the ESE the bright star Sirius is rising with Venus in the morning.
• Saturn - Mag +0.5 on the western edge of Leo! You still need binoculars in the early morning glare. Starting the first weekend in September look for Saturn ~7 degrees West of Venus but by the second weekend they will be 15 degrees apart as Venus creeps closer to the Sun and Saturn and the Sun move apart..optically that is!

• Pluto Mag +13.9 in Serpens Cauda
• 1 Ceres +7.9 mag in Piscis Austeralis 18.5 degrees West of Formalhaut
• UB313 mag +19 in central Cetus

Comets

Comets for the Month.

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin"
-- Shakespeare

Email us at astronomyagogo at gmail dot com or leave a note in our show notes at www.astronomy.libsyn.com
Help us out by leaving a donation in the ol' PayPal hat

Music

Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering FREE web hosting on our servers for you or your organization's website. In order to promote the hobbies of Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Birding or generally any topic that is of interest to our customer base, Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope is offering Hosting Grants.