Photo of the Week. A chilly sunrise to cool your
summer day.
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, July 9, 2010.
We start the week off with a very thin
waning crescent Moon, though one that will still be visible in twilight
the mornings of Friday, July 9, and Saturday the 10th. It will be
gone by the morning of Sunday the 11th, however, as it prepares to
pass new later in the afternoon and
completely out of sight. And too bad, because this will be one of
the few times when new Moon is actually "visible," as it will cross
the face of the Sun for a
total solar eclipse: sadly, one that is not visible in North
America, the eclipse track tracing a long looping path across the
south Pacific.
Even Hawaii misses the large area where the eclipse will be seen as
partial.
However, take heart, as the following waxing crescent will make a
nice showing for us as it passes the evening's line-up of planets.
While the ultra-thin crescent will be
visible the early evening of Monday the 12th, the first fairly easy
sighting takes place the following night, when the Moon will show
up to the left of Mercury, which
is beginning to make an evening appearance. The following evening,
the Moon will then make a nice pairing with
Venus, the classic crescent down and to the left of the
brilliant planet. The NEXT night (Thursday the 15th), it's Mars's turn,
the Moon now down and to the left of it. At the same time, look
for
Saturn UP and to the left of the Moon.
Rather obviously, most of the ancient planets are on a memorable
string, and moreover in order of distance from the Sun, beginning
with Mercury close to the twilight horizon, then running through
Venus (which sets shortly after the end of evening twilight), then
Mars up and to the
left of it (setting less than an hour after Venus), and concluding
with
Saturn, which is holding its place between Regulus (which appears in close
conjunction with Venus the night of Friday the 9th)
and Spica in Virgo.
The only one left out is Jupiter. Still
opposite Saturn (the giant planets not moving very quickly against
the stellar background), Jupiter rises in western Pisces almost exactly as Saturn sets, now just
before midnight Daylight Time. But Jupiter has its own
"companion," more distant Uranus, which
lies a bit to the west of it, and at sixth magnitude is barely
visible to the naked eye. As has been the case for some time now,
Saturn and Jupiter still closely mark the equinoxes, Jupiter the Vernal, Saturn the Autumnal.
The Summer Triangle is rising
now in full glory in the northeastern sky. In mid-evening, look
for its three bright stars, Vega in
Lyra at the northwestern apex,
followed by Cygnus's Deneb, with Altair in Aquila to the south. To the west of Altair and Aquila
lie the northern portions of the sprawling figures of Ophiuchus and Serpens.
