CONJUNCTION

GREAT CONJUNCTION:
      A great conjunction in the east south east sky tonight. Perfect visibility here in Winnipeg with Jupiter slightly to the left and above the waxing Moon. Gotta get out there with binoculars, 41 below windchill or not.
Frozen but happy in Winnipeg.

AMATEUR ASTRONOMY:
JOVIAN SHADOWS:

Coming up in our night sky this weekend which, miraculously enough, is predicted to have clear nights skies.... With only a small low power telescope you'll be able to witness a rather unique event as all four of the Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter casts shadows that will be visible on the planet's surface. Jupiter can be easily spotted in the next few nights as it rises in the southeast and gradually makes its transit across the sky to the southwest as dawn approaches. It is quite bright ( -2.7 magnitude), and is in the constellation of Aquarius near to Pisces.

Tonight is also the peak night of the Taurid meteor shower, in Taurus of course. While not as spectacular as the Leonid meteor shower due to arrive later this month it has the advantage at least in Winnipeg of having good viewing conditions and relatively clement weather conditions.

Here's more on the upcoming "shadow transits" from the Space.com site.
JMJMJMJMJMJM
Jupiter's Moons to Perform Weekend Show for Skywatchers
By Geoff Gaherty

This weekend, a remarkable series of events will take place on Jupiter: The planet's four big moons will cast shadows on the gas giant planet that can be seen from Earth using a small telescope.

The planetary shadow play, which begins Saturday night (Nov. 6) and runs through early Sunday, will be primarily visible from the western coast of the United States. [Illustration: Moon shadows on Jupiter]

The four bright moons of Jupiter are known as the Galilean moons after their discoverer Galileo Galilei. As they revolve around Jupiter, they sometimes pass across the face of the planet as seen from Earth, as well as behind the planet and in its shadow.

How to see Jupiter's moon shadows

First, a word of caution: The overnight between Saturday and Sunday is when we switch back from daylight saving time to standard time, so be careful you get the correct time for your location.

Because the complete sequence of events is only observable from the U.S. West Coast, we will use Pacific Time here to discuss the best viewing times. Observers further east will miss the later events, and should add the appropriate number of hours to the times depending on their location and time zone.

The show begins at 8:53 p.m. PDT (11:53 p.m. EDT) on Saturday (Nov. 6), when Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede begins to cross the planet's face.

Because Ganymede has a relatively dark surface, it appears bright against the limb of Jupiter — but quickly appears to change to a dark gray against the bright central parts of Jupiter's disk. This can be seen with telescopes that have as small as a 5-inch aperture.

At 9:47 p.m. PDT, a second moon — Europa — follows Ganymede across Jupiter's face.

Because Europa's surface is icy, it reflects a much more light than Ganymede, and closely matches Jupiter's cloud belts behind it. As a result, it vanishes in all but the largest telescopes, perfectly camouflaged.

At 10:24 p.m. PDT, yet another moon — the volcanic Io — begins to disappear behind the opposite side of Jupiter.

At 11:52 p.m. PDT, Europa's shadow starts to take a notch out of the western limb of Jupiter. This can be seen with telescopes that have as small as a 3-inch aperture. Two minutes later, Ganymede moves off the disk of Jupiter and is once again a bright spot in the sky.

But wait, there's more — the Jupiter moon show isn't over just yet. Here's a rundown of the movements of Jupiter's moons to watch for on Sunday:

At 12:31 a.m. PDT, Europa leaves the disk of Jupiter.
At 1:12 a.m. PDT, a second shadow, that of Europa, puts the bite on the west limb of Jupiter. We now have two shadows creeping across the face of Jupiter, while the moons casting them are off to the right, a wonderfully three-dimensional effect.
At 1:41 a.m. PDT, Io emerges from Jupiter's shadow, ending its eclipse.
At 2:00 a.m. PDT, Daylight saving time officially comes to an end, and you should move your clock back to 1 a.m.
Now, at 1:34 a.m., Pacific Standard Time, Europa's shadow moves off Jupiter's disk. Finally, at 3:08 a.m. PST, Ganymede's shadow also moves off the disk.
You may be puzzled by the fact that Ganymede leads Europa across Jupiter's disk, but Europa's shadow precedes Ganymede's all the way across.

That's because Europa orbits much closer to Jupiter than Ganymede, so that the angular distance between Ganymede and its shadow is much greater than the angular distance between Europa and its shadow.

Gallery: Photos of Jupiter and its Moons

AMATEUR ASTRONOMY:

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT:

Well Molly has been back from vacation for a few days and is hard at it again. I'm almost over the agitating experience of coming back and having to make close to 70 phone calls. Let alone the usual set of mechanical disasters. It also means I'm back to my usual late nights. Good thing this evening as I was doing this, that and the other thing in the yard and at the car, and I had a chance to catch the pairing of the almost full Moon and the planet Jupiter when they were by my own crude estimate only 2 1/2 to 3 degrees apart. Quite striking.

As the diagram shows they will gradually separate over the next few days, but they still make a great sight. Jupiter is almost at the closest approach to Earth (it happened on September 20 last month) that it will have until 2022. The pairing with an almost full Moon (Hunters' Moon this Friday, October 22) makes for particularly good viewing. The best time today was in the early evening. By midnight clouds were already starting to obscure these strangers passing in the night.

The annual Orionid meteor shower is also due this week. The projected peak will be just before dawn on Thursday 21, but the almost full Moon will obscure all but the brightest meteors. The Orionids result when the Earth crosses through the debris of Halley's Comet.

This will probably be a disappointment, but do catch the couple now in the sky.

AMATEUR ASTRONOMY:

A GREAT CONJUNCTION-NOV 30 TO DECEMBER 1:

Here's a little break from the usual political subject matter on this blog. Tonight and tomorrow there will be a "grand conjunction" of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter in the southwest sky. If you have been watching in that direction for the past few evenings, as Molly has, you will have seen Venus (lower and brighter) and Jupiter (higher and dimmer) gradually getting closer and closer together. The last time I was able to spot the pair, at about 5:00 on Friday the two planets were about 6 to seven degrees apart. Tonight Venus will overtake Jupiter and appear slightly below and to the east of Jupiter. A very thin crescent Moon will be seen closer to the horizon in the west. Tonight the two planets will be about 2 degrees away from each other, but you will be unable to see them from here in Winnipeg. It seems we almost always have overcast conditions for the best celestial events. The Environment Canada weather site predicts further cloud cover through tomorrow and the day after. A better site for those interested is the Clear Dark Sky site. they predict a period of relatively clearness tomorrow from 3 to 7 pm. This may be a chance to catch the events as the Moon climbs to the west of the planetary pair and Venus likewise moves further from Jupiter. This will actually be the best time to view the event as the three objects will be within a four degree triangle. After December 1 the Moon will be quite obviously to the east of the planets, and Venus will also be further from Jupiter in the same direction. Catch it if you can. The Clear Dark Sky site will give you viewing conditions for your locality if you live in North America.

The photo above, by the way, is from a prairie amateur astronomy site that I recently discovered, the Black Holes and Astro Stuff blog. I recommend it highly. The photo shows the Venus/Jupiter pair, along with the track of the International Space Station that was prominent in the southwest sky the last few days. I'm sure that, weather conditions permitting, that the BHAAS blog will be in the running for the Sky News photo contest this year. Would that I had such photo talent. By the way, here's another item from that blog, a picture of the area where the recent 'Prairie Meteor' was sighted. Pieces of the meteor have apparently been found near Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, but more on that later. See the BHAAS blog on our "Scientific Links' section, with many kudos to a great blogger.

A FIVE PLANET PARADE:

Through this early part of June the five visible planets will be observable.

VENUS:

Even though Venus reaches its greatest elongation (distance from the sun) this Saturday the planet is already rising less and less in the evening sky each night. The planet is presently located at the crossover from Gemini to Cancer and shines with a bright magnitude 0f -4.4. Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. The planet is presently at a waning half phase and as it enters its waning crescent phase in early July the apparent size of the disc will double from is apparent size as of May 1st. As the crescent of Venus gets thinner and thinner by late July, early August, it will have grown from an apparent size of 16 arc seconds on May 1st to 50 arc seconds.

The end of this month will see a brilliant conjunction on the evening of June 30th when Venus and Saturn pass within 2/3rds of a degree of each other. This will be the closest planetary conjunction of the year and will be best viewed due west between 10pm and 11pm that evening. The two planets will be close enough to be both visible in the eyepiece of a moderate power telescope.

MERCURY:

Though it is presently sinking towards the horizon Mercury is still visible in the western twilight until mid-June. it passed its greatest elongation on June 1st when it shone with a magnitude of +0.4. It now is about +1.2 in magnitude. From 10pm to 11pm for the next few days Mercury can be seen very low in the northwestern sky, to the right and below Venus.

SATURN

As said above Saturn will pass in conjunction with Venus on the evening of June 30th. Saturn is in the constellations Leo , to the east of the position of Venus. Saturn is presently setting before midnight, and it will set earlier and earlier as the month goes on. even though the rings present a good view because of a 17 degree tilt the features of the planet will be less and less visible as the month goes on because the closeness of the horizon will blur the detail. Presently Saturn shines at magnitude +0.5.

JUPITER:

The planet Jupiter is now much brighter than Saturn at magnitude -2.6. This planet reached opposition on June 5th when it began to rise just as the sun set. You will find it in the southeastern to southern sky throughout the nights in the constellation Ophiuchus. This constellation lays on and just above the ecliptic between the constellations of Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east. Jupiter is usually the second brightest planet after Venus. Its distance from Earth is compensated by the fact that its surface area is 130 times that of Venus. Jupiter will never rise too high in the sky this month(20 degrees elevation at max, and that makes telescopic viewing difficult. Early next Saturday morning here in western North America two of Jupiter's Galilean moons will cast their shadows on the planet's face at the same time. Depending on location this will occur anywhere from 2:17 to 3:03 am this Saturday. This will be a good time for telescopic observation of this planet.

MARS:

This month the planet Mars can be observed at +0.8 magnitude in the constellation Pisces. This means that it lays low in the east in the hours just before sunrise. Mars is presently just to the east of the waning crescent Moon in the hours before dawn, but by June 11th it will have passed to the west, rising earlier and higher throughout the summer.

Interesting Conjunction Upcoming:
I've already mentioned the upcoming Leonid Meteor Shower due for Dec. 13th and 14th. Another interesting astronomical events will be happening at about the same time, Dec. 7th to 14th actually. This is a triple conjunction of the planets Mercury, Mars and Jupiter in the constellation of Scorpio. The magnitudes of the three planets will be Jupiter: -1.7, Mercury: -0.6 and Mars: +1.5. As you can gather from this Mars will be quite faint, and you will need a good pair of binoculars to spot it. This is compounded by the fact that the best time for viewing will be at about 6:30 AM, and the trio will be quite low in the southeast.
There will be 40 triple conjunctions in the period 1980 to 2050 ie about one every 21 months. Some of these, however, are impossible to observe. The unique aspect of the upcoming one this Dec. is that it will be the "tightest" of any of the events ie the planets will be the closest to each other as compared to other conjunctions. The relative positions of the planets will change over the course of the week of the event.